The Definite Article
English has two articles: the definite article the
and the indefinite article a, an.
Greek also has these articles, and they also have gender!
Yes, that means there’s one form of the for use with
masculine nouns, one for use with feminine, and one for use
with neuter. Let’s look at the definite article.
| the |
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|
| ο | η | το |
Let's take the words from a few pages ago, and put them
with the proper definite article:
| Masculine: |
ο άντρας,
the man, |
ο ράφτης,
the tailor, |
ο κύκλος
the circle |
|
| Feminine: |
η μητέρα,
the mother, |
η βασίλισσα,
the queen, |
η στέγη
the roof |
|
| Neuter: |
το μολύβι,
the pencil, |
το λεφτό,
the minute, |
το κορίτσι
the girl |
|
The definite article thus tells you, unambiguously, what the
gender of a noun is. So does the indefinite article...