Words and Explanations
Prepositions are little words positioned in front of nouns to tell when, where, how, why etc.:
in the garden (where?)
at night (when?)
with great difficulty (how?)
because of the rain (why?)
So far we've had
ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς
ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις
ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ |
Where? position in (dative) |
ὑπὸ τῷ δένδρῷ |
Where? position under (dative) |
εἰς τὸν ἀγρόν |
Where to? movement into (accusative) |
πρὸς τὸν οἶκον |
Where to? movement towards (accusative) |
ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ
ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου |
Where from? movement out of (genitive) |
In Short:
position (no movement) |
dative |
-ῳ |
movement towards, into, onto... |
accusative |
-ον |
movement away from, out of |
genitive |
-ου |
You'll remember best
if you fix one example firmly in your mind, for instance:
ὑπὸ τῷ δένδρῳ |
that's where the slave is asleep |
ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ |
those stones must be carried out of the field |
πρὸς τὸν οἶκον |
that's where D walks to after the day's work is done |
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