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# The noun: gender, number, case and the three declensions

**On this page**

1. [1. Gender, number, case](#1-gender-number-case)
2. [2. The first declension](#2-the-first-declension)
3. [3. The second declension](#3-the-second-declension)
4. [4. The third declension: how the cases are made](#4-the-third-declension-how-the-cases-are-made)
5. [5. The third declension by stem class](#5-the-third-declension-by-stem-class)
6. [6. Irregular and mixed nouns](#6-irregular-and-mixed-nouns)
7. [7. Proper names and loanwords](#7-proper-names-and-loanwords)
8. [8. Word formation in nouns](#8-word-formation-in-nouns)
9. [9. Examples from the corpora](#9-examples-from-the-corpora)
10. [10. How Mova handles it](#10-how-mova-handles-it)
11. [11. Sources](#11-sources)

Greek nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), three numbers (singular, dual, plural) and five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative). The case endings are combined with a stem, and the stems fall in three declensions: the first (stems in ᾱ/η), the second (stems in ο), and the third (stems in a consonant, in ι or υ, or in a diphthong). The meaning of the cases is in chapter 11; this chapter is the forms.

## Contents

1. Gender, number, case
2. The first declension
3. The second declension
4. The third declension: how the cases are made
5. The third declension by stem class
6. Irregular and mixed nouns
7. Proper names and loanwords
8. Word formation in nouns
9. Examples from the corpora
10. How Mova handles it
11. Sources

---

## 1. Gender, number, case

**Case.** The Indo-European ablative, locative and instrumental fell together with the genitive and dative in Greek, so that the five cases cover eight functions (chapter 11). The vocative is the form of address; it is the nominative or the bare stem (λόγε, πάτερ, πόλι).

**Number.** The **dual** names a pair (τὼ ὀφθαλμώ "the two eyes"). It has two forms only, one for nominative, accusative and vocative, and one for genitive and dative. It is regular in the Attic inscriptions and in Xenophon and Plato (τὼ παῖδε ἀμφοτέρω "both sons", *An.* 1.1.1), but the plural is frequently used in its place and the dual disappears in the Koine (smyth-1920 §195). In Homer it is found in pairs: Αἴαντε "the two Ajaxes".

**Gender** is partly semantic (males masculine, females feminine) and partly formal: nouns in -α/-η/-ᾱ are mostly feminine, nouns in -ος mostly masculine but also feminine (ὁδός, νῆσος, νόσος are feminine), nouns in -ον neuter; the third declension is mixed, with strong correspondences (see below). Three rules hold throughout: the **neuter** has the same form in nominative, accusative and vocative; its plural in these cases ends in **-α**; and **a neuter plural subject takes a singular verb** (chapter 14).

|  | singular | plural | dual |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| N V | – / -ς | -ες (m f), -α (n) | -ε |
| G | -ος | -ων | -οιν |
| D | -ι | -σι(ν) | -οιν |
| A | -α, -ν | -ας (m f), -α (n) | -ε |

This is the frame of the third declension, the most complete one; the first and second are variations of it.

## 2. The first declension

Stems in α (long or short) are feminine, with a few masculines. In Attic the long α of the stem is kept after ε, ι, ρ and becomes η elsewhere (chapter 1, section 7).

**Feminine.**

|  | χώρα "country" (ᾱ after ρ) | μοῦσα "muse" (short α) | γνώμη "opinion" (η) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| N | χώρα | μοῦσα | γνώμη |
| G | χώρας | μούσης | γνώμης |
| D | χώρᾳ | μούσῃ | γνώμῃ |
| A | χώραν | μοῦσαν | γνώμην |
| V | χώρα | μοῦσα | γνώμη |
| N V pl | χῶραι | μοῦσαι | γνῶμαι |
| G pl | χωρῶν | μουσῶν | γνωμῶν |
| D pl | χώραις | μούσαις | γνώμαις |
| A pl | χώρας | μούσας | γνώμας |
| N A V du | χώρα | μούσα | γνώμα |
| G D du | χώραιν | μούσαιν | γνώμαιν |

The short-α feminines (μοῦσα, θάλαττα, δόξα, τράπεζα) have the genitive and dative singular in η (like γνώμη) and the accusative in -αν. The long -ᾱ stems keep ᾱ throughout the singular. The genitive plural is always -ῶν with the circumflex (chapter 2).

**Masculine.** The masculines of the first declension add σ to the stem in the nominative singular and take -ου in the genitive (from the second declension):

|  | πολίτης "citizen" | νεανίας "young man" |
| --- | --- | --- |
| N | πολίτης | νεανίας |
| G | πολίτου | νεανίου |
| D | πολίτῃ | νεανίᾳ |
| A | πολίτην | νεανίαν |
| V | πολῖτα | νεανία |
| N V pl | πολῖται | νεανίαι |
| G pl | πολιτῶν | νεανιῶν |
| D pl | πολίταις | νεανίαις |
| A pl | πολίτας | νεανίας |

Masculines in -της (πολίτης, ποιητής, κριτής, στρατιώτης) and in -ας (νεανίας, ταμίας) include the agent nouns and many proper names (Ἀλκιβιάδης, Θουκυδίδης, Κριτίας). The vocative is -α in the nouns in -της, in the names of peoples and in compounds in -της (ὦ πολῖτα, ὦ δέσποτα, ὦ Πέρσα), and -η in other names in -ης (ὦ Ἀλκιβιάδη, ὦ Θουκυδίδη). The names that look alike but are σ-stems of the third declension (Σωκράτης, Δημοσθένης, Περικλῆς) have genitives in -ους (Σωκράτους; section 5).

**Contract (Attic) first declension.** A few nouns in -εα, -οα contract: μνᾶ "mina" (μνάα), συκῆ (συκέα), Ἑρμῆς (Ἑρμέας): μνᾶ, μνᾶς, μνᾷ, μνᾶν; Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμοῦ, Ἑρμῇ, Ἑρμῆν.

## 3. The second declension

Stems in ο: masculine and feminine in **-ος**, neuter in **-ον**.

|  | λόγος m. "word" | ὁδός f. "road" | ἔργον n. "work" |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| N | λόγος | ὁδός | ἔργον |
| G | λόγου | ὁδοῦ | ἔργου |
| D | λόγῳ | ὁδῷ | ἔργῳ |
| A | λόγον | ὁδόν | ἔργον |
| V | λόγε | ὁδέ | ἔργον |
| N V pl | λόγοι | ὁδοί | ἔργα |
| G pl | λόγων | ὁδῶν | ἔργων |
| D pl | λόγοις | ὁδοῖς | ἔργοις |
| A pl | λόγους | ὁδούς | ἔργα |
| N A V du | λόγω | ὁδώ | ἔργω |
| G D du | λόγοιν | ὁδοῖν | ἔργοιν |

The vocative with a title is usually the nominative (ὦ θεός, rarely in Attic ὦ θεέ). The accusative plural -ους is the result of compensatory lengthening of -ονς (chapter 1, section 7).

**The "Attic" second declension.** Nouns whose stem had a long vowel before the ending and underwent quantitative metathesis (chapter 1, section 7) are declined with ω throughout: ὁ λεώς "people", ὁ νεώς "temple", ὁ Μενέλεως, τὸ ἀνώγεων "upper room", ἡ ἕως "dawn". The ω is the final vowel in every case and the dative has iota subscript; the accent stays where it was in the nominative: λεώς, λεώ, λεῴ, λεών; pl. λεῴ, λεών, λεῴς, λεώς. The same nouns are regular in Ionic and Homer (λαός, ναός; chapter 16).

**Contract second declension.** Stems in -εο, -οο contract: νοῦς (νόος) "mind", ῥοῦς "stream", ὀστοῦν (ὀστέον) "bone", ἀδελφιδοῦς: νοῦς, νοῦ, νῷ, νοῦν; pl. νοῖ, νῶν, νοῖς, νοῦς; ὀστοῦν, ὀστοῦ, ὀστῷ; pl. ὀστᾶ, ὀστῶν, ὀστοῖς. The circumflex of the contracted form stays in every case (νοῦς, νοῦ, νῷ, νοῦν) and does not follow the rules of chapter 2.

**Adjectival stems.** The great majority of adjectives in -ος, -η/-ᾱ, -ον (ἀγαθός, καλός, δίκαιος) follow the second declension in the masculine and neuter and the first in the feminine (chapter 4).

## 4. The third declension: how the cases are made

The third declension has no single stem vowel. The stem ends in a consonant (stop, liquid, nasal, σ), in ι or υ, or in a diphthong (ευ, αυ, ου), and the case endings of the table above are added to it.

**Nominative singular.** Three formations (smyth-1920 §241):

1. The stem of masculines and feminines in a stop adds **-ς**: φύλαξ (φυλακ-ς), κόραξ, ἐλπίς (ἐλπιδ-ς with loss of the dental), ὄρνις, παῖς (παιδ-ς), νύξ (νυκτ-ς), λαμπάς. Before the ς, stops fuse or drop: κ γ χ + ς → ξ, π β φ + ς → ψ, τ δ θ + ς → ς.
2. Stems in a liquid or nasal usually have the **bare stem** with a lengthened vowel: ῥήτωρ (ῥητορ-), ἡγεμών, δαίμων, ἀγών, πατήρ, εἰκών, ποιμήν. Stems in -ν also give -ς with ν lost: μέλας (μελαν-ς), τάλας; and -ντ-: λέων (λεοντ-, from *λεοντ-ς), γέρων, δράκων.
3. Stems in σ (σ-stems) are neuter in -ος (γένος, τεῖχος), masculine names in -ης (Σωκράτης), and feminine in -ης (τριήρης); the final σ-stem is not in the ending but in the lost σ before the vowels of the endings (γένεος → γένους).
4. Neuters with a stem in τ drop the τ in the nominative: σῶμα (σωματ-), πρᾶγμα, ὄνομα, ἧπαρ, ὕδωρ.

**Accusative singular.** -α after a consonant stem and after the ευ-stems (φύλακα, ῥήτορα, σῶμα, βασιλέα); -ν after ι-, υ- and αυ-, ου-stems (πόλιν, ἰχθύν, ναῦν, βοῦν). Barytone nouns in -ις and -υς with a dental stem take -ν (ἔρις, ἔριν; χάρις, χάριν; ὄρνις, ὄρνιν beside ὄρνιθα); oxytones keep -α (ἐλπίς, ἐλπίδα) (smyth-1920 §246).

**Vocative.** Often the nominative (φύλαξ, ἄναξ) or the bare stem (ἐλπί, πόλι, λέον, βασιλεῦ, ναῦ), with the accent drawn back in several words: ῥῆτορ, πάτερ, ἄνερ, θύγατερ, Σώκρατες, γύναι (from γυναικ-), Ζεῦ, παῖ.

**Dative plural -σι(ν).** Added to the stem with the euphony rules of chapter 1: φύλαξι (φυλακ-σι), ἐλπίσι, πᾶσι (πάντ-σι), λέουσι (λεοντ-σι), δαίμοσι, ῥήτορσι (stays after a liquid), γένεσι (γενεσ-σι → γένεσι).

**Accent.** The monosyllables accent the ending in the genitive and dative (πούς, ποδός, ποδῶν); the others keep the nominative accent (chapter 2, section 3).

## 5. The third declension by stem class

| stem | nominative | genitive | gloss | gender |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| labial/velar | φύλαξ | φύλακος | guard | m |
|  | κόραξ | κόρακος | crow | m |
|  | γυνή | γυναικός | woman | f |
| dental | ἐλπίς | ἐλπίδος | hope | f |
|  | ὄρνις | ὄρνιθος | bird | m f |
|  | σῶμα | σώματος | body | n |
|  | χάρις | χάριτος | favour | f |
|  | νύξ | νυκτός | night | f |
|  | κόρυς | κόρυθος | helmet | f |
| liquid | ῥήτωρ | ῥήτορος | speaker | m |
|  | ἀήρ | ἀέρος | air | m |
|  | πατήρ | πατρός | father | m |
|  | ἀνήρ | ἀνδρός | man | m |
| nasal | ἀγών | ἀγῶνος | contest | m |
|  | δαίμων | δαίμονος | divinity | m f |
|  | ποιμήν | ποιμένος | shepherd | m |
|  | ἡγεμών | ἡγεμόνος | leader | m |
| nasal + τ | γίγας | γίγαντος | giant | m |
|  | γέρων | γέροντος | old man | m |
|  | λέων | λέοντος | lion | m |
| σ-stem | γένος | γένους | race, kind | n |
|  | τεῖχος | τείχους | wall | n |
|  | τριήρης | τριήρους | trireme | f |
|  | Σωκράτης | Σωκράτους | Socrates | m |
|  | αἰδώς | αἰδοῦς | shame | f |
| ι-stem | πόλις | πόλεως | city | f |
|  | δύναμις | δυνάμεως | power | f |
| υ-stem | ἄστυ | ἄστεως | city | n |
|  | πῆχυς | πήχεως | forearm | m |
|  | πέλεκυς | πελέκεως | axe | m |
|  | ἰχθύς | ἰχθύος | fish | m |
| ευ-stem | βασιλεύς | βασιλέως | king | m |
|  | ἱερεύς | ἱερέως | priest | m |
| αυ-, ου-stem | ναῦς | νεώς | ship | f |
|  | βοῦς | βοός | ox | m f |
|  | γραῦς | γραός | old woman | f |

**Paradigms.**

|  | φύλαξ | ἐλπίς | σῶμα n. | ῥήτωρ | λέων | γένος n. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| N | φύλαξ | ἐλπίς | σῶμα | ῥήτωρ | λέων | γένος |
| G | φύλακος | ἐλπίδος | σώματος | ῥήτορος | λέοντος | γένους |
| D | φύλακι | ἐλπίδι | σώματι | ῥήτορι | λέοντι | γένει |
| A | φύλακα | ἐλπίδα | σῶμα | ῥήτορα | λέοντα | γένος |
| V | φύλαξ | ἐλπί | σῶμα | ῥῆτορ | λέον | γένος |
| N pl | φύλακες | ἐλπίδες | σώματα | ῥήτορες | λέοντες | γένη |
| G pl | φυλάκων | ἐλπίδων | σωμάτων | ῥητόρων | λεόντων | γενῶν |
| D pl | φύλαξι | ἐλπίσι | σώμασι | ῥήτορσι | λέουσι | γένεσι |
| A pl | φύλακας | ἐλπίδας | σώματα | ῥήτορας | λέοντας | γένη |

|  | πόλις | ἄστυ n. | βασιλεύς | ναῦς | βοῦς |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| N | πόλις | ἄστυ | βασιλεύς | ναῦς | βοῦς |
| G | πόλεως | ἄστεως | βασιλέως | νεώς | βοός |
| D | πόλει | ἄστει | βασιλεῖ | νηΐ | βοΐ |
| A | πόλιν | ἄστυ | βασιλέα | ναῦν | βοῦν |
| V | πόλι | ἄστυ | βασιλεῦ | ναῦ | βοῦ |
| N pl | πόλεις | ἄστη | βασιλεῖς (-ῆς) | νῆες | βόες |
| G pl | πόλεων | ἄστεων | βασιλέων | νεῶν | βοῶν |
| D pl | πόλεσι | ἄστεσι | βασιλεῦσι | ναυσί | βουσί |
| A pl | πόλεις | ἄστη | βασιλέας | ναῦς | βοῦς |

The i-, u- and ευ-stems show the Attic peculiarity of the genitive singular in **-εως** (πόλεως, βασιλέως), in which the old -ος has been replaced by a long vowel by quantitative metathesis (ηος → εως), and of the accent which stays on the penult in the genitive singular and plural (πόλεως, πόλεων, even though the ultima is long: smyth-1920 §268). Nominative plural of the ευ-stems is -εις in Attic prose and -ης in earlier inscriptions and Ionic (βασιλῆς).

**Vowel changes in the stem.** Many liquid- and nasal-stems have two stems in the same paradigm: a strong stem (long vowel or ε-grade) and a weak stem (short vowel, or no vowel at all). The ablaut of chapter 1 is behind: πατήρ / πατρός / πατέρα / πατράσι. The pattern for ἀνήρ is ἀνδρός with an epenthetic δ (ἀνρός → ἀνδρός). Nouns in -ων, -ον with the nasal stem alternate: ἡγεμών, ἡγεμόνος; Ἀπόλλων, Ἀπόλλωνος; εἰκών, εἰκόνος.

## 6. Irregular and mixed nouns

| nominative | gen. | dat. | acc. | voc. | pl. nom. | gloss |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ἡ γυνή | γυναικός | γυναικί | γυναῖκα | γύναι | γυναῖκες | woman (gen. pl. γυναικῶν, dat. pl. γυναιξί) |
| ὁ ἀνήρ | ἀνδρός | ἀνδρί | ἄνδρα | ἄνερ | ἄνδρες | man (gen. pl. ἀνδρῶν, dat. pl. ἀνδράσι) |
| ὁ πατήρ | πατρός | πατρί | πατέρα | πάτερ | πατέρες | father |
| ἡ μήτηρ | μητρός | μητρί | μητέρα | μῆτερ | μητέρες | mother |
| ἡ θυγάτηρ | θυγατρός | θυγατρί | θυγατέρα | θύγατερ | θυγατέρες | daughter |
| ὁ παῖς | παιδός | παιδί | παῖδα | παῖ | παῖδες | child (gen. pl. παίδων) |
| ὁ Ζεύς | Διός | Διΐ | Δία | Ζεῦ | – | Zeus |
| τὸ ὕδωρ | ὕδατος | ὕδατι | ὕδωρ | ὕδωρ | ὕδατα | water |
| τὸ πῦρ | πυρός | πυρί | πῦρ | πῦρ | πυρά | fire |
| ἡ χείρ | χειρός | χειρί | χεῖρα | χείρ | χεῖρες | hand (dat. pl. χερσί) |
| ὁ κύων | κυνός | κυνί | κύνα | κύον | κύνες | dog |
| ὁ/ἡ οὖς | ὠτός | ὠτί | οὖς |  | ὦτα | ear |
| τὸ γόνυ | γόνατος | γόνατι | γόνυ | γόνυ | γόνατα | knee |
| ὁ/ἡ μάρτυς | μάρτυρος | μάρτυρι | μάρτυρα | μάρτυς | μάρτυρες | witness |
| ἡ γραῦς | γραός | γραΐ | γραῦν |  | γρᾶες | old woman |
| ὁ Ἡρακλῆς | Ἡρακλέους | Ἡρακλεῖ | Ἡρακλέα | Ἡράκλεις |  | Heracles |
| ὁ Σωκράτης | Σωκράτους | Σωκράτει | Σωκράτη | Σώκρατες |  | Socrates |

The **indeclinable** nouns are mostly loanwords and the names of the letters (ἄλφα, βῆτα), which are neuter and indeclinable: τὸ ἄλφα, τοῦ ἄλφα. The numerals εἷς, δύο, τρεῖς, τέτταρες are declined (chapter 4).

## 7. Proper names and loanwords

Proper names are declined like common nouns: Θουκυδίδης (first declension, genitive Θουκυδίδου), Σωκράτης and Περικλῆς (third declension σ-stems), Ἀθῆναι (plural only), Μαραθών, Πειραιεύς, Ἀθηναῖος (an adjective used as a noun). Semitic names and loanwords of the Septuagint are mostly indeclinable (Ἰσραήλ, Ἰακώβ, Ἀβραάμ) and are treated in the manual for Koine.

## 8. Word formation in nouns

New nouns are made by suffixes (smyth-1920 §§838–868):

| suffix | makes | examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| -της, -τηρ, -τωρ | agent | πολίτης, ποιητής, σωτήρ, ῥήτωρ |
| -σις, -μα, -μος | action, result | ποίησις, ποίημα, ὁρμός |
| -ια, -εια, -σύνη, -της (f.) | quality, abstract | σοφία, βασιλεία, δικαιοσύνη, ἀρετή |
| -ιον, -ισκος, -ιδιον | diminutive | παιδίον, νεανίσκος |
| -εύς | doer, native | βασιλεύς, ἱερεύς, γραφεύς |
| -τρον, -τήριον | instrument, place | ἄροτρον, δικαστήριον |
| -ων | place | ἀνδρών, Ἀμπελών |
| -ινος, -εος, -ικός | adjective from a noun | ξύλινος, χρυσοῦς, πολιτικός |

Compounds are written as one word and their first member is a stem (usually with a thematic vowel): ἱππο-δρόμος, στρατ-ηγός, φιλό-σοφος. The accent of compounds is chapter 2, section 3; the meaning classes are in chapter 18.

## 9. Examples from the corpora

> **Xen. An. 1.1.1–2** · `tlg0032.tlg006` Δαρείου καὶ Παρυσάτιδος γίγνονται παῖδες δύο, πρεσβύτερος μὲν Ἀρταξέρξης, νεώτερος δὲ Κῦρος … καὶ στρατηγὸν δὲ αὐτὸν ἀπέδειξε πάντων ὅσοι ἐς Καστωλοῦ πεδίον ἁθροίζονται "Darius and Parysatis had two sons, the elder Artaxerxes and the younger Cyrus … and he named him commander of all who gather in the plain of Castolus"

The genitives Δαρείου (second declension), Παρυσάτιδος (dental stem, from Παρυσατίδ-); παῖδες (παιδ- with the nominative plural of the dental stems); Ἀρταξέρξης (first declension masculine in -ης, the name taking the Greek ending); Κῦρος (second declension); πεδίον (neuter, second declension). The plain of Καστωλοῦ is a genitive singular of a second-declension name.

> **Thuc. 1.1.1** · `tlg0003.tlg001` Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος ξυνέγραψε τὸν πόλεμον τῶν Πελοποννησίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων "Thucydides the Athenian wrote the history of the war of the Peloponnesians and Athenians"

Θουκυδίδης is a first-declension masculine (genitive Θουκυδίδου); τὸν πόλεμον is second declension; Ἀθηναῖος, Πελοποννησίων and Ἀθηναίων are adjectives used as nouns, the last two in the genitive plural with the article τῶν.

> **Septuagint Gen. 1:1–2** · UD PTNK `Septuagint-Genesis-1:1-grc`; eBible grcbrent Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν … πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος "in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth … the spirit of God was borne above the water"

ἀρχῇ is the dative of a first-declension η-noun, with iota subscript (and the preposition ἐν); θεός and οὐρανός are second-declension masculines; γῆν is a contracted first-declension feminine (γῆ from γέα, γῆς, γῇ, γῆν); πνεῦμα and ὕδατος are neuter third-declension τ-stems; θεοῦ is the genitive of θεός with circumflex.

## 10. How Mova handles it

**The UD features.** All three UD Ancient Greek treebanks (PTNK, PROIEL, Perseus) mark nouns by `Case`, `Gender` and `Number`. Counts differ with the corpus: PTNK (the Septuagint, a Koine text) has no `Number=Dual` at all and has `Case=Voc` only 63 times in its three files; PROIEL (train) has 743 vocatives and no dual; Perseus (train) has 1,104 vocatives and 713 dual tokens (UD 2.18, counts of 2026-10-22). The Septuagint has nearly lost the dual and tags the vocative often as `Case=Nom,Voc` (83 tokens), which is the set convention of the next paragraph (`grc-x-koine`, chapter 3).

**Ambiguous cases.** The PTNK files give the surface ambiguity of the paradigm in the FEATS column: `Case=Acc,Nom` (724 tokens, the neuter nominative and accusative that are identical), `Case=Acc,Nom,Voc` (15), `Gender=Masc,Neut` (1,639), `Gender=Fem,Masc,Neut` (455) and `Mood=Ind,Sub` (61). Those values are not an error: they are the unresolved analyses of a lexicon-based tagger, kept as sets. A system that treats `Case` as a single-valued class has to either drop or split these sets, and Mova's tagger sees them as extra values. Sets of values are allowed by the UD format for a genuinely ambiguous form. Perseus uses none (0 of its tokens in train); PROIEL uses them for gender (4,370 tokens, for example `Gender=Masc,Neut` 2,389 and `Gender=Fem,Masc` 1,955) but not for case. Between the three treebanks a model must therefore be taught which of the two conventions it is predicting: one value (Perseus) or a set (PTNK, PROIEL).

**Lemmas** in all three are the nominative singular for nouns and the masculine nominative singular for adjectives.

**Morphology.** The third declension is a lexicon problem as much as a rule problem: the genitive, not the nominative, shows the stem (ἐλπίς / ἐλπίδος), and the stem determines the dative plural and the gender. A Greek lexicon with the genitive (or the stem class) beside every noun would be what lets a tagger assign case from the ending. Mova has no such lexicon; Abbott-Smith's *Manual Greek Lexicon* (1922, public domain) and the Dodson and STEPBible resources (CC0, CC BY) give genitive endings for the Koine words, and LSJ (CC BY-SA) for the Classical ones (chapter 18). They are the first candidates to build it from. **Not built.**

## 11. Sources

- Smyth, H. W. 1920 (smyth-1920): §§194–281 (declension), §838 ff. (formation), paraphrased from the Perseus text (CC BY-SA).
- Goodwin, W. W. 1892 (goodwin-1892): the declensions, public domain.
- Kühner–Blass–Gerth (kuhner-1890): the formation of the cases, public domain.
- Xenophon, Thucydides: Perseus canonical-greekLit (CC BY-SA 4.0). Septuagint: eBible grcbrent (public domain); UD PTNK (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- [← previous Accent](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/grc/02-accent/)
- [next → Adjectives, adverbs, comparison and numerals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/grc/04-adjectives/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Greek (grc) — a reference manual for Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/grc/)