Greek · Lesson 8

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Pronounssix families; agreement; αὐτός in three uses; parsing

Foundations of Greek pronouns: what a pronoun is and why Greek needs many kinds, the six functional families (personal, third-person/identical/intensive αὐτός, demonstrative, relative, reflexive + reciprocal, interrogative + indefinite + πᾶς), the agreement rules (gender + number from the antecedent, case from the pronoun's own clause), Step 1/2/3 derivation of the αὐτός paradigm, a side-by-side comparison of personal vs demonstrative vs relative pronouns, a dedicated parsing workflow with worked examples, and translation practice on 12 NT-style phrases. Pronouns are everywhere in the NT — master these and a huge amount of prose snaps into focus.

Common error

✗ Reading the relative pronoun ὅν as accusative because its antecedent is accusative

✓ Read the case of ὅν from its role inside its OWN clause

A relative pronoun takes gender + number from its antecedent, but its case comes from its function in its own clause. ὁ λόγος ὃν ἤκουσας: λόγος is nom, but ὅν is acc — because it is the object of ἤκουσας. This is the single most-mistaken pronoun fact for beginners.

Watch · 22-Slide Overview

Pronouns — The Visual Tour

A complete tour of Greek pronouns: the personal εγω / συ / αυτος, the emphatic-vs-enclitic distinction, why explicit subject pronouns are always emphatic, the ημεις-vs-υμεις one-letter trap, the three functions of αυτος (personal, intensive, identical), the demonstratives ουτος and εκεινος (always predicate position), the relative ος with the antecedent rule, reflexives, reciprocals, the τις/τις accent gotcha, οστις, and πας with its position rules. Watch first for the framework; the detailed written exposition below works through every point at depth.

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LESSON 8 · Unit II — The Noun System · ~50 minutes + drilling

By the End of This Lesson

Articulate what a pronoun is and why Greek needs many kinds (a noun-replacer in an inflected language must itself decline)
Name the six functional families: personal, αὐτός (3rd-person/intensive/identical), demonstrative, relative, reflexive + reciprocal, interrogative + indefinite (with πᾶς as honorary member)
State and apply the agreement rule: gender + number from the antecedent; case from the pronoun's own clause
Decline the personal pronouns ἐγώ, σύ, ἡμεῖς, ὑμεῖς
Derive the full αὐτός paradigm via Step 1/2/3 (bare endings → apply to stem αὐτ- → all 24 forms)
Use αὐτός in its three distinct functions (third-person, intensive, identical) and distinguish them by position
Recognize and decline the demonstratives οὗτος and ἐκεῖνος
Translate clauses with the relative pronoun ὅς, ἥ, ὅ — and correctly identify its case from its own clause
Parse a pronoun from real NT context using the four-step workflow
Distinguish the interrogative τίς ("who?") from the indefinite τις ("someone") by accent alone
Apply πᾶς in its three positions (anarthrous = "every"; predicate = "all"; attributive = "the whole")
Translate 12 short NT-style phrases featuring every pronoun family
Memorize the 14 pronoun headwords for this lesson

New to Greek? Use the 3-pass path

Pass 1 — UnderstandWatch the overview and read the main explanation. Do not try to master every detail today.

Pass 2 — RecognizeMemorize the main chart or paradigm and do the first trainer sets.

Pass 3 — MasterWork through the 20 worked examples, translation exercises, and mastery test slowly.

Today's minimum

If you are new, this is enough for today.

A pronoun's gender + number come from its antecedent; its case from its own clause.
αὐτός has three jobs: "he/she/it," "the same," and "-self."
Don't confuse αὕτη ("this") with αὐτή ("she").
Do only the first 2–3 trainer sets today.

CorePart 1: Pronouns — Foundations

Lessons 4–7 walked you through every noun and adjective declension in Greek. Pronouns reuse those same patterns, almost without exception. What makes Lesson 8 feel like a step-change isn’t a new declensional shape; it’s the sheer variety of pronouns Greek deploys. Before tackling any paradigm, lay down five foundational ideas so the new content lands clean.

1.1 What a pronoun is and why Greek needs many kinds

A pronoun stands in for a noun. English has the basics: I, you, he/she/it, this, that, who, myself, each other, who?, someone, all. Greek has exactly these same categories — but because Greek is a fully inflected language, every pronoun must decline. A pronoun must show case (its role in its own clause), number (singular or plural), and (where applicable) gender. The English “him” covers acc and dat and gen all at once; Greek wants αὐτόν (acc), αὐτῷ (dat), αὐτοῦ (gen). Same English meaning, three different Greek forms.

This is why pronouns in Greek live in families, each declined according to one of the noun or adjective patterns the student already knows. Most pronouns are 2-1-2 adjectives in shape (Lesson 6); some are 3rd-declension (Lesson 7); the relative pronoun mimics the article. There is essentially no new morphology to learn in Lesson 8 — only new functions and new diagnostics for telling families apart.

Memory hook

A pronoun is a noun-replacer. Greek pronouns must therefore decline through case + number + (often) gender. The shape of every pronoun is already familiar from earlier lessons; what’s new is the variety of functions the pronouns perform.

1.2 The six pronoun families — a preview

Pronouns in NT Greek divide into six functional families. The lesson takes them one at a time; here is the map.

(1) Personal pronouns — 1st and 2nd person (ἐγώ “I,” σύ “you,” ἡμεῖς “we,” ὑμεῖς “you-pl”). These have no gender (a speaker is always a person of definite identity) and follow their own irregular paradigms. Singular forms have an emphatic/enclitic split.
(2) Third-person / intensive / identical αὐτός — one word, three jobs decided by position. As a standalone personal pronoun it means “he/she/it.” In predicate position with a noun it means “-self.” In attributive position it means “the same.” Declines as a 2-1-2 adjective (Lesson 6).
(3) Demonstratives — οὗτος (“this,” near) and ἐκεῖνος (“that,” far). Decline as 2-1-2 adjectives but always sit in predicate position when modifying a noun.
(4) Relative pronoun — ὅς, ἥ, ὅ (“who/which/that”). Introduces subordinate clauses. Its agreement rule is the trickiest piece of Lesson 8 and the focus of Part 5.
(5) Reflexive + reciprocal — ἑαυτοῦ (“himself”) and ἀλλήλων (“one another”). Both lack a nominative by definition: there can be no nominative subject of an action one does to oneself or reciprocally.
(6) Interrogative + indefinite + πᾶς — τίς (“who? what?,” with acute accent) vs τις (“someone,” enclitic, no accent of its own); the indefinite relative ὅστις (“whoever”); and πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν (“all/every/whole”), an honorary pronoun because of its frequency and position rules.

That’s the whole map. Once you can name which family a pronoun belongs to, the rest of parsing is mechanical: identify its gender, number, and case from the form, and look back to its antecedent if it has one.

1.3 Agreement rules — a pronoun’s relationship to its antecedent

An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun stands in for. When a pronoun has an antecedent (most do), Greek agreement obeys one fundamental rule with two halves.

⚠ The pronoun agreement rule — two halves, two sources A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender and number, but it takes its case from its own role in its own clause. Gender + number look backward; case looks at the local clause.

For most pronouns the rule is straightforward. ὁ ἄνθρωπος is masc sg, so any pronoun referring back to him is masc sg too — but if the new clause needs the man as a direct object, the pronoun is accusative; if it needs him as a recipient, dative; and so on.

Worked example. In ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶδεν τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἔγειρε (“Jesus saw the man and said to him, ‘Rise’”), the pronoun αὐτῷ refers back to τὸν ἄνθρωπον. The antecedent is masc sg (so αὐτῷ is masc sg). But the antecedent is accusative (it was the direct object of εἶδεν), while the pronoun is dative (it is the indirect object of εἶπεν, the recipient of the speaking). Case from own clause; gender + number from antecedent. Two sources, one form.

This rule becomes especially load-bearing for the relative pronoun in Part 5. A relative often refers back to an antecedent in one case and then plays a different role inside its own clause: the case mismatch is the norm, not the exception.

1.4 Sample paradigm preview — pronouns decline like the article

Most Greek pronouns reuse the same case endings as the article (Lesson 3): -ος/-η/-ον for nom sg across the three genders, -ου/-ης/-ου for gen sg, -ῷ/-ῇ/-ῷ for dat sg, -ον/-ην/-ον for acc sg, and so on. Visually, most pronouns either replicate the article’s τ-/no-τ pattern or look essentially identical to it. The relative pronoun ὅς, ἥ, ὅ is the closest case: same endings as the article, distinguished only by rough breathing on every form plus an accent.

The shared backbone — article-like endings most pronouns use

Once you can recite the article, you essentially already know the relative, the demonstrative ἐκεῖνος, and most of αὐτός.

	Masc 2nd-decl shape	Fem 1st-decl shape	Neut 2nd-decl shape
Nom sg	-ος	-η	-ον / -ο
Gen sg	-ου	-ης	-ου
Dat sg	-ῳ	-ῃ	-ῳ
Acc sg	-ον	-ην	-ον / -ο
Nom pl	-οι	-αι	-α
Gen pl	-ων	-ων	-ων
Dat pl	-οις	-αις	-οις
Acc pl	-ους	-ας	-α

The relative pronoun adds rough breathing on every form (ὅς, ἥ, ὅ); the demonstrative οὗτος adds an ου/αυ alternation in front of the same endings; αὐτός just attaches them to the stem αὐτ-. The relationships are deep and consistent.

1.5 Why pronouns are everywhere in the NT

Pronouns are not a niche topic. Four words alone — the article, αὐτός, οὗτος, and ἐγώ — account for roughly one out of every six word-occurrences in the entire NT. Add the rest of the pronoun families and the figure climbs higher. The most frequent substantive in the NT after the article is αὐτός at about 5,600 occurrences. The 2nd-person pronouns (σύ + ὑμεῖς together) clock in around 1,070. ἐγώ appears about 350 times. οὗτος appears about 1,400 times.

Drilling pronouns is therefore high-leverage. Every minute spent on αὐτός’s three uses is a minute that pays off on every page of the NT. By contrast, a minute spent on a 3rd-decl noun pattern that only covers a handful of words will pay off less often. Lesson 8 is among the most ROI-positive lessons in the course.

Summary — Lesson 8 in one sentence A pronoun stands in for a noun. There are six functional families (personal, αὐτός in three uses, demonstrative, relative, reflexive + reciprocal, interrogative + indefinite + πᾶς). The fundamental agreement rule: gender + number from the antecedent, case from the pronoun’s own clause. Most pronouns decline using article-like endings; once you can recite the article, you essentially already know the morphology — only the functions are new.

Memory hook

1st and 2nd person personal pronouns sound like English. ἐγώ = "ego" / I. ἡμεῖς = (h)emeis / we. σύ = "su" — like "you" without the y. ὑμεῖς = (h)umeis / you-all. The cognate ladder makes these the easiest pronouns to memorize.

CorePart 2: Personal Pronouns — 1st and 2nd Person

'I,' 'we,' 'you (singular),' 'you (plural).' These are irregular — they don't fit any noun declension — but they're so common you'll memorize them quickly.

ἐγώ — 'I, we'

	Singular ('I')	Plural ('we')
Nom	ἐγώ	ἡμεῖς
Gen	ἐμοῦ / μου	ἡμῶν
Dat	ἐμοί / μοι	ἡμῖν
Acc	ἐμέ / με	ἡμᾶς

σύ — 'you (sg), you (pl)'

	Singular	Plural
Nom	σύ	ὑμεῖς
Gen	σοῦ / σου	ὑμῶν
Dat	σοί / σοι	ὑμῖν
Acc	σέ / σε	ὑμᾶς

Two forms — emphatic and enclitic The singular forms of ἐγώ and σύ have two versions separated by a slash. The first (ἐμοῦ, ἐμοί, ἐμέ; σοῦ, σοί, σέ) is emphatic — used when stressed, after prepositions, or at the start of a clause. The second (μου, μοι, με; σου, σοι, σε) is enclitic — unaccented, leaning on the preceding word. Often translation barely changes; emphasis is a writerly nuance, not a grammatical requirement.

The plurals don't have this distinction. ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς differ by a single letter — η vs υ at the start. Lots of NT confusion lives in that one-letter swap. Train your eye on it.

Common error

✗ Always translating ἐγώ as "I" when present

✓ Translate emphatically when explicitly written: "I myself" or "as for me"

Greek doesn't normally need a subject pronoun — the verb ending already tells you who's acting. So when ἐγώ or ὑμεῖς is written, it's emphatic. ἐγὼ ἐλήλυθα isn't "I have come" — it's "I have come" or "I myself have come."

⚠ Greek doesn't normally need pronouns as subjects The verb ending already tells you the subject: λέγω = "I say" — no ἐγώ needed. So when a writer does include the nominative pronoun, it's emphatic: ἐγὼ λέγω = "I say (I, in particular)." Famous case: ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν in the Sermon on the Mount — "But I say to you..." The bare ἐγώ is doing real work.

CorePart 3: αὐτός — Step 1/2/3 Derivation and Three Functions

No word is more frequent in the NT (after the article and καί) than αὐτός — about 5,600 occurrences. It does three jobs depending on context. Learn the paradigm once; the three functions are a matter of position and case, exactly like adjectives. We’ll derive the 24-form paradigm in three steps so that the surface forms make sense rather than feel like brute memorisation.

Step 1 — Bare case endings (recap)

The bare 2-1-2 endings from Lesson 6 (and the article from Lesson 3): masc and neut use 2nd-decl o-stem shapes; fem uses 1st-decl α/η shapes. These are the building blocks — what you attach to a stem to make a paradigm.

Step 1 — bare 2-1-2 endings (already familiar)

Identical to the article’s endings (with τ- removed). What you start from for any 2-1-2 adjective or pronoun.

	Masc	Fem	Neut
Nom sg	-ος	-η	-ο
Gen sg	-οῦ	-ῆς	-οῦ
Dat sg	-ῷ	-ῇ	-ῷ
Acc sg	-όν	-ήν	-ό
Nom pl	-οί	-αί	-ά
Gen pl	-ῶν	-ῶν	-ῶν
Dat pl	-οῖς	-αῖς	-οῖς
Acc pl	-ούς	-άς	-ά

Step 2 — Attach the bare endings to stem αὐτ-

The stem of αὐτός is just αὐτ-. Attach each bare ending. The mechanics are entirely predictable except for one cell to flag: the neuter nom/acc singular is αὐτό (no final -ν), exactly as the article neuter is τό rather than *τόν. This is the single “quirk” of the paradigm — and it’s not really a quirk; it’s the same rule the article already follows.

Step 2 — stem αὐτ- + bare ending → surface form

Every cell is just stem + ending. Highlighted cell shows the one “special” spot: neut nom/acc sg has no final -ν (like the article τό).

Slot	stem + ending	What happens	Surface form
Nom sg masc	αὐτ + -ός	straightforward attachment	αὐτός
Nom sg fem	αὐτ + -ή	1st-decl η stem-vowel	αὐτή
Nom/Acc sg neut ★ SPECIAL	αὐτ + -ό	No final -ν. Like the article τό, and unlike every other 2-1-2 adjective neuter (which would be -ον). Just αὐτό.	αὐτό
Acc sg masc	αὐτ + -όν	straightforward attachment	αὐτόν
Gen sg masc/neut	αὐτ + -οῦ	straightforward attachment	αὐτοῦ
Dat sg fem	αὐτ + -ῇ	iota subscript on the η, as in the article τῇ	αὐτῇ
Gen pl (all genders)	αὐτ + -ῶν	universal gen pl; one form for all three genders	αὐτῶν
Acc pl masc	αὐτ + -ούς	straightforward attachment	αὐτούς

Why the derivation matters All 24 forms of αὐτός are nothing more than stem αὐτ- + the article-like bare endings you already know. The only “exception” is the neuter nom/acc sg αὐτό (no final -ν), and that follows the article τό exactly. So if you can already recite the article, you essentially already know αὐτός — you just substitute the τ- with αὐτ-.

Step 3 — The full 24-form paradigm of αὐτός

All 24 forms laid out, as derived above. This is the paradigm to drill until it is reflex.

⚠ Gotcha — αὐτός changes meaning by position This one word does three completely different jobs depending on where it sits: (1) personal pronoun without the article = "him/her/it/them"; (2) emphatic adjective in predicate position with the article = "himself/herself"; (3) identical adjective in attributive position = "the same." Position is everything. αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ≠ ὁ αὐτὸς κύριος — one is emphatic, one means "the same Lord."

αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό — Step 3 full paradigm

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	αὐτός	αὐτοί	αὐτή	αὐταί	αὐτό	αὐτά
Gen	αὐτοῦ	αὐτῶν	αὐτῆς	αὐτῶν	αὐτοῦ	αὐτῶν
Dat	αὐτῷ	αὐτοῖς	αὐτῇ	αὐταῖς	αὐτῷ	αὐτοῖς
Acc	αὐτόν	αὐτούς	αὐτήν	αὐτάς	αὐτό	αὐτά

Three functions of αὐτός 1. Third-person personal pronoun (most common). When αὐτός stands alone, not modifying any noun, it means "he/she/it/they": βλέπω αὐτόν = "I see him." The case tells you what role it plays in its clause; the gender comes from whatever it refers to.

2. Intensive ("-self") — when in predicate position with a noun (article + noun + αὐτός, no second article): ὁ ἀπόστολος αὐτός = "the apostle himself." Compare English "I myself saw it." The pronoun emphasizes identity.

3. Identical ("the same") — when in attributive position (article + αὐτός + noun): ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος = "the same apostle." This is the article-position rule from Lesson 6 applied to a pronoun.

The position rule is the same as for adjectives: inside the article-noun unit = attributive; outside = predicate. The function changes with the position.

★ αὐτός and its three jobs — the position rule in one image

(1) Standalone — no article-noun unit: αὐτός is the third-person personal pronoun. βλέπω αὐτόν = “I see him.” The most common use in the NT.

(2) Predicate position — outside the article-noun bracket: αὐτός is intensive. ὁ ἀπόστολος αὐτός or αὐτὸς ὁ ἀπόστολος = “the apostle himself.”

(3) Attributive position — inside the article-noun bracket (article + αὐτός + noun): αὐτός is identical. ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος = “the same apostle.”

Three jobs, one paradigm. Position decides which job is in play. Same letters in αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος vs ὁ αὐτὸς κύριος — flip the position, flip the meaning.

ReferencePart 4: Side by Side — Personal vs Demonstrative vs Relative

Before walking through demonstratives and the relative pronoun in detail, set their nominative forms next to the personal pronoun and αὐτός so the patterns are visible at a glance. The grid below shows the nom sg + nom pl across the three genders (where applicable) for each pronoun family. Notice three things: (i) the 1st/2nd-person personals have NO gender (a speaker is always a person of definite identity), (ii) αὐτός, οὗτος, and ὅς all have three genders, and (iii) the relative ὅς, ἥ, ὅ looks almost exactly like the article — with rough breathing and an accent in every cell.

Four pronoun families — nominative singular and plural across the genders

Personal (no gender) · αὐτός (3rd-person) · οὗτος (demonstrative) · ὅς (relative). All decline article-like.

	Personal 1st & 2nd person · no gender	αὐτός 3rd-person / intensive / identical	οὗτος demonstrative “this”	ὅς relative “who/which”
Nom sg masc	ἐγώ / σύ	αὐτός	οὗτος	ὅς
Nom sg fem	no gender	αὐτή	αὕτη	ἥ
Nom sg neut	no gender	αὐτό	τοῦτο	ὅ
Nom pl masc	ἡμεῖς / ὑμεῖς	αὐτοί	οὗτοι	οἵ
Nom pl fem	no gender	αὐταί	αὗται	αἵ
Nom pl neut	no gender	αὐτά	ταῦτα	ἅ

Five observations from the grid.

Personals have no gender. “I” is “I” regardless of who you are. ἐγώ covers male, female, and (in theory) neuter speakers. Same with σύ and the plurals.
αὐτός, οὗτος, and ὅς all carry three genders — because they may refer back to any kind of antecedent. Gender agrees with the antecedent.
The relative ὅς, ἥ, ὅ looks like the article on rough breathing. Article ὁ, ἡ, τό → relative ὅς, ἥ, ὅ. Both have rough breathing in masc + fem; the relative adds an accent on every form. In the oblique cases the two diverge entirely (article τόν, relative ὅν) — so the masc/fem nom sg is the only spot where confusion is even possible, and even then the accent on the relative disambiguates.
οὗτος has an ου/αυ alternation that tracks the article’s vowel. Masc ὁ → οὗ-; fem ἡ → αὕ-; neut τό → τοῦ-. Once you see that, the otherwise-arbitrary stem alternation becomes systematic.
Two famous traps live in this grid. (a) Fem nom sg αὕτη (this, with rough breathing on αυ-) looks almost identical to fem nom sg αὐτή (she, with smooth breathing on αυ-). One diacritic decides the meaning. (b) The pair ἡμεῖς (we) vs ὑμεῖς (you-pl) differs in one letter at the start — η vs υ. Both are constant sources of NT-reading confusion.

CorePart 5: Demonstratives — οὗτος and ἐκεῖνος

οὗτος ("this") and ἐκεῖνος ("that"). They behave like 2-1-2 adjectives but always sit in predicate position when modifying a noun (there's an article on the noun, but never on the demonstrative).

οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο — 'this'

Note the alternation between ου and αυ in the stem (it tracks the article: ὁ→ου, ἡ→αυ, τό→τοῦτο)

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	οὗτος	οὗτοι	αὕτη	αὗται	τοῦτο	ταῦτα
Gen	τούτου	τούτων	ταύτης	τούτων	τούτου	τούτων
Dat	τούτῳ	τούτοις	ταύτῃ	ταύταις	τούτῳ	τούτοις
Acc	τοῦτον	τούτους	ταύτην	ταύτας	τοῦτο	ταῦτα

ἐκεῖνος, ἐκείνη, ἐκεῖνο — 'that'

Pure 2-1-2 adjective endings, like καλός — no irregularity

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	ἐκεῖνος	ἐκεῖνοι	ἐκείνη	ἐκεῖναι	ἐκεῖνο	ἐκεῖνα
Gen	ἐκείνου	ἐκείνων	ἐκείνης	ἐκείνων	ἐκείνου	ἐκείνων
Dat	ἐκείνῳ	ἐκείνοις	ἐκείνῃ	ἐκείναις	ἐκείνῳ	ἐκείνοις
Acc	ἐκεῖνον	ἐκείνους	ἐκείνην	ἐκείνας	ἐκεῖνο	ἐκεῖνα

⚠ Always predicate position With a noun: οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος or ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος — both mean "this man." There is no second article in front of the demonstrative. If you tried to write "ὁ οὗτος ἄνθρωπος" you'd be wrong — that pattern (article + οὗτος + article + noun) doesn't exist.

Without a noun, the demonstrative stands alone: οὗτος λέγει = "this [man] says" / "this one says."

CorePart 6: The Relative Pronoun ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

"Who," "which," "that" — used to introduce subordinate clauses. Crucial for reading Greek prose at all complexity. Almost identical in form to the article — but with rough breathing and an accent.

⚠ Gotcha — relative pronoun gender agrees with antecedent, case with its own clause The relative pronoun ὅς, ἥ, ὅ gets its gender and number from the noun it refers back to (its antecedent). But it gets its case from its own function inside the relative clause. These can pull in different directions. ὁ λόγος ὃν ἤκουσας — λόγος is masculine nominative, but ὅν (the relative) is masculine accusative because it's the object inside the relative clause. Sorting this out is one of the first places readers get tangled.

ὅς, ἥ, ὅ — 'who, which, that'

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	ὅς	οἵ	ἥ	αἵ	ὅ	ἅ
Gen	οὗ	ὧν	ἧς	ὧν	οὗ	ὧν
Dat	ᾧ	οἷς	ᾗ	αἷς	ᾧ	οἷς
Acc	ὅν	οὕς	ἥν	ἅς	ὅ	ἅ

The agreement rule A relative pronoun gets its gender and number from its antecedent (the noun it refers back to), but its case from its function in its own clause.

Example: ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃν βλέπω = "the man whom I see." The antecedent ἄνθρωπος is masculine singular, so the relative is masculine singular. But it's the direct object of βλέπω in the relative clause, so it's accusative: ὅν. Antecedent ≠ relative case.

Compare: ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃς βλέπει = "the man who sees." Same antecedent (masc sg), but here the relative is the subject of βλέπει, so it's nominative: ὅς.

⚠ Article vs. relative — distinguish them Compare: article ὁ, relative ὅς. Article ἡ, relative ἥ. Article οἱ, relative οἵ.

The relative always has an accent; the article (in some forms) does not. Both have rough breathing on the masculine and feminine forms. The relative's genitive, dative, and accusative forms are completely different from the article's forms — that's where you can tell most easily.

CorePart 7: Parsing a Pronoun — The Workflow

When you meet a pronoun in a real NT sentence, you don’t need to guess. Four steps take you from a surface form to a full parse (family + gender + number + case + lexical form). The relative pronoun is the hardest case because its case comes from inside its own clause; the steps below are calibrated for that hardest case.

The four-step parsing routine

Step	What you do	Why it works
1	Identify the pronoun’s family. Personal? Third-person αὐτός? Demonstrative οὗτος / ἐκεῖνος? Relative ὅς? Reflexive ἑαυτοῦ? Reciprocal ἀλλήλων? Interrogative τίς or indefinite τις?	The family tells you which paradigm and which agreement rule to use.
2	Read off gender, number, and case from the form. Most pronouns use article-like endings (Part 1.4). For αὐτός: 2-1-2 endings on stem αὐτ-. For οὗτος: τ-/no-τ stem alternation, but article-like endings. For ὅς: article-like endings with rough breathing + accent on every form.	The endings carry case + number + gender directly; you just have to know which family’s endings you’re reading.
3	For relative pronouns: find the antecedent. Look back into the previous clause for the most recent noun that matches in gender + number. Confirm that match. Note: case may not match; the relative’s case comes from its own clause.	The antecedent rule from Part 1.3 in action. For relatives, gender + number from outside; case from inside.
4	State the parse. Pronoun-family + gender-number-case + lexical form. e.g., “relative pronoun, masc acc sg, from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ.”	Now you can translate idiomatically and check your work against the article (if any) and the antecedent (if a relative).

Worked examples — one per major family

βλέπω αὐτόν

Parse: third-person personal pronoun, masc acc sg, from αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό. Steps: (1) Family: αὐτός, standalone (no noun being modified) ⇒ third-person personal pronoun “him.” (2) Form αὐτόν: stem αὐτ- + masc acc sg ending -όν ⇒ masc acc sg. (3) No relative-clause antecedent to chase; antecedent is implicit from prior context. (4) Parse: personal pronoun (3rd-pers), masc acc sg. Translation: “I see him.”

αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολή μου

Parse of αὕτη: demonstrative pronoun, fem nom sg, from οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο. Steps: (1) Family: αὕτη — rough breathing on αυ- and the τ-less stem mark this as the fem nom sg of the demonstrative οὗτος. (Don’t confuse with αὐτή = “she.”) (2) The stem alternation αυ- corresponds to fem (article ἡ → fem stem αὕ-); the ending -η confirms nom sg fem. (3) No antecedent in the previous clause; the demonstrative points forward to the rest of the sentence. (4) Parse: demonstrative, fem nom sg. Translation: “This is my commandment” (John 15:12). The fem agreement comes from ἐντολή (fem) — the cataphoric (forward-pointing) antecedent.

ὁ λόγος ὃν ἤκουσας

Parse of ὅν: relative pronoun, masc acc sg, from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ. Steps: (1) Family: ὅν — rough breathing + accent on the ο ⇒ relative pronoun. (Article would be τόν; this is ὅν — entirely different form.) (2) Form: ending -όν marks masc sg acc. (3) Find the antecedent. Look back: the previous clause has ὁ λόγος (masc nom sg). Gender + number match (masc sg). Case does NOT match — antecedent is nom, relative is acc. That’s normal: the relative’s case comes from its function in its own clause. Inside the relative clause ὃν ἤκουσας, the relative is the direct object of ἤκουσας (“you heard”), so it’s accusative. (4) Parse: relative, masc acc sg. Translation: “the word which you heard” (or “the word that you heard”). This is the textbook case of mismatched cases. The case comes from inside, not from the antecedent.

τίς ἐστιν ὁ πατήρ σου;

Parse of τίς: interrogative pronoun, masc/fem nom sg, from τίς, τί. Steps: (1) Family: τίς with an acute accent at the start of a clause + Greek question mark ; at the end ⇒ interrogative. (The enclitic indefinite τις wouldn’t open a question.) (2) The 3rd-decl ending -ς marks nom sg; no gender distinction in masc/fem for this paradigm. (3) No antecedent — interrogatives don’t need one; they ask who something is. (4) Parse: interrogative, masc/fem nom sg. Translation: “Who is your father?”

ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους

Parse of ἀλλήλους: reciprocal pronoun, masc acc pl, from ἀλλήλων. Steps: (1) Family: ἀλλήλ- stem ⇒ reciprocal pronoun “one another.” (2) Ending -ους ⇒ masc acc pl (2-1-2 endings). (3) Reciprocals have no antecedent in the relative-pronoun sense; they refer to mutual action by the subject. (4) Parse: reciprocal, masc acc pl. Translation: “Love one another” (Johannine ethics — John 13:34, 1 John 4:7, etc.). Note: no nominative form exists by definition — the reciprocal cannot itself be the subject.

💡 Tip — for relative pronouns, always check case TWICE Beginners’ relative-pronoun errors all share one shape: copying the antecedent’s case onto the relative. To break that habit, parse the case twice: once by looking at the antecedent (just to confirm the gender + number match), and a second time by looking inside the relative clause to determine what role the relative is playing there (subject → nom; object → acc; recipient → dat; possessive → gen). The case you settle on is the second one, from inside the clause. Within a month this becomes automatic.

CorePart 8: Other Pronouns — Brief Tour

Reflexive: ἑαυτοῦ — 'himself, herself, itself; themselves'

No nominative (you can't be the subject of an action you're doing to yourself in Greek thinking — use intensive αὐτός instead). Treat as oblique-case-only.

	Masc sg	Fem sg	Neut sg	Pl (all genders)
Gen	ἑαυτοῦ	ἑαυτῆς	ἑαυτοῦ	ἑαυτῶν
Dat	ἑαυτῷ	ἑαυτῇ	ἑαυτῷ	ἑαυτοῖς, ἑαυταῖς
Acc	ἑαυτόν	ἑαυτήν	ἑαυτό	ἑαυτούς, ἑαυτάς, ἑαυτά

Reciprocal: ἀλλήλων — 'one another, each other'

Plural by definition. No nominative form — the reciprocal cannot itself be the subject of mutual action, so the NT uses only the oblique cases (gen/dat/acc).

	Masc	Fem	Neut
Gen	ἀλλήλων	ἀλλήλων	ἀλλήλων
Dat	ἀλλήλοις	ἀλλήλαις	ἀλλήλοις
Acc	ἀλλήλους	ἀλλήλας	ἄλληλα

Interrogative τίς, τί — 'who? what?'

3rd-declension endings. Always accented (acute on iota), always direct question.

	Masc / Fem		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	τίς	τίνες	τί	τίνα
Gen	τίνος	τίνων	τίνος	τίνων
Dat	τίνι	τίσι(ν)	τίνι	τίσι(ν)
Acc	τίνα	τίνας	τί	τίνα

⚠ Interrogative vs. indefinite — accent only τίς, τί with acute accent = interrogative ("who? what?"). Direct question.
τις, τι enclitic, no accent (or accent borrowed from preceding word) = indefinite ("someone, something, a certain").

Same letters, same paradigm, different meanings — distinguished only by the accent. τί λέγει; = "What is he saying?" but τι λέγει = "He is saying something." That tiny mark carries the meaning.

CorePart 9: The Indefinite Relative Pronoun — ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι

One more compound pronoun worth knowing: ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι — "whoever, whichever, whatever." It appears in the vocabulary list and frequently in the NT, so you need to recognise it when you meet it.

ὅστις is a compound of the relative pronoun ὅς + the indefinite pronoun τις. Both halves decline simultaneously — you get two declensional suffixes at once. For example, the genitive masculine singular is οὗτινος (genitive οὗ + genitive τινος).

The good news: in the NT, ὅστις is used almost exclusively in the nominative case. You will rarely if ever need to produce an oblique form. The forms you'll actually encounter:

ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι — whoever, whichever (nominative forms only)

NT usage is almost entirely nominative — learn these four forms

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nom sg	ὅστις	ἥτις	ὅ τι
Nom pl	οἵτινες	αἵτινες	ἅτινα

Difference from the simple relative ὅς The simple relative ὅς refers to a specific, identified individual: "the man who came." The indefinite relative ὅστις points to a category or class: "the man who is the kind of person who comes" — or more freely, "whoever comes." In practice the distinction blurs in Koine and the two are sometimes interchangeable, but ὅστις often carries a generalising or qualitative nuance. Matthew 5 uses it repeatedly in the Beatitudes-style constructions: ὅστις σε ῥαπίζει = "whoever strikes you."

💡 Recognition tip When you see a form starting with ὅσ-, ἥτ-, or οἵτ-, you're looking at ὅστις. The neuter ὅ τι is written as two words to avoid confusion with ὅτι ("that / because") — pay attention to the space.

CorePart 10: Two Reading Habits for Pronouns

Two small skills that pay off constantly when reading: knowing when an explicit subject pronoun is emphatic, and knowing how to render Greek's grammatical gender into natural English.

💡 Tip — pronoun reference: track backward, not forward When you encounter a pronoun (αὐτόν, αὐτῆς, etc.), always track backward to its antecedent — the most recent noun that agrees in gender and number. In fast-moving narrative, this is how Greek avoids repeating nouns. If two recent nouns could be the antecedent, context and the pronoun's case (what role it plays) help disambiguate.

Habit 1 — When an explicit subject pronoun is emphatic

Greek verbs already encode the subject in their endings. λέγω alone means "I say." So when a Greek writer adds an explicit pronoun — ἐγὼ λέγω — the pronoun is doing extra work. It's emphatic.

λέγω ὑμῖν vs ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν

First: "I tell you." Second: "I tell you" — with stress on "I." The second adds ἐγώ for emphasis. In English you might render this as "I myself tell you" or render "I" in italics, depending on how heavy the emphasis feels in context.

Three common reasons NT writers add an explicit subject pronoun:

Contrast. "Others say X, but I say Y." The explicit ἐγώ marks the contrast. The Sermon on the Mount's "you have heard it said... but I say to you" formula uses ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν — the explicit pronoun + δέ underlining the contrast.
Identity claim. Jesus's "I am" sayings (ἐγώ εἰμι) double up on the pronoun explicitly because the formula echoes God's self-revelation in Exodus 3:14 LXX. Without ἐγώ, the verb alone would just mean "I am" without the divine-name resonance.
Switching speakers or topics. When the focus moves from one person to another, the explicit pronoun signals the shift.

Reading habit: when you see an explicit subject pronoun (ἐγώ, σύ, ἡμεῖς, ὑμεῖς, αὐτός as subject), pause. Ask: is this contrastive? An identity claim? A topic shift? The pronoun is rarely just filler.

Habit 2 — Translating Greek pronoun gender into English

Greek pronouns inherit grammatical gender from their antecedent — including for things English would call "it." When the Greek antecedent is a feminine noun like ἐκκλησία ("church") or καρδία ("heart"), Greek pronouns referring back to it are feminine: αὐτή, αὐτῆς, etc.

This causes translation problems. ἐκκλησία is feminine grammatically but doesn't correspond to a feminine person in English. So when Greek says αὐτήν referring to the church, you don't translate "her" — you translate "it."

The translation rule

Translate Greek pronouns by what they actually refer to, not by their grammatical gender.

Greek feminine pronoun referring to a person who is female → "she/her"
Greek feminine pronoun referring to a thing (καρδία, ἐκκλησία, χείρ) → "it/its"
Greek neuter pronoun referring to a child (τέκνον is neuter!) or other person → "he/she" depending on the actual person
Greek masculine pronoun referring to a generic human → "he" or "they" depending on translation philosophy

The trickiest case: πνεῦμα ("spirit") is neuter. So Greek pronouns referring to the Holy Spirit are grammatically neuter (αὐτό, αὐτοῦ, etc.). English translation traditions render these as "he/his" because the Spirit is a personal agent — not a translation error, but a theological choice that overrides the Greek gender.

When you read a Greek pronoun, identify its antecedent first, then decide on the English rendering based on what that antecedent actually is (person? thing? abstract concept?), not just on the grammatical gender.

CorePart 11: πᾶς — 'all, every, whole'

Technically an adjective, traditionally taught with pronouns because it's so frequent and irregular. Uses 3rd-declension endings for masculine and neuter, 1st-declension for feminine. Behavior depends on position.

πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν — 'all, every, whole'

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	sg	pl	sg	pl	sg	pl
Nom	πᾶς	πάντες	πᾶσα	πᾶσαι	πᾶν	πάντα
Gen	παντός	πάντων	πάσης	πασῶν	παντός	πάντων
Dat	παντί	πᾶσι(ν)	πάσῃ	πάσαις	παντί	πᾶσι(ν)
Acc	πάντα	πάντας	πᾶσαν	πάσας	πᾶν	πάντα

Position determines meaning Predicate position (πᾶς + article + noun, or article + noun + πᾶς): means "all" or "all of."
→ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος or ὁ κόσμος πᾶς = "all the world / the whole world"

Attributive position (article + πᾶς + noun): means "the whole."
→ ὁ πᾶς νόμος = "the whole law" (Galatians 5:14)

No article (πᾶς + noun): means "every" (singular) or "all" (plural).
→ πᾶς ἄνθρωπος = "every person"; πάντες ἄνθρωποι = "all people"

CorePart 12: Reading Passage — John 14:6, 9 (The Way and the Father)

A scene where Jesus and Philip exchange pronouns rapid-fire. Track who "I," "you," "he," and "him" refer to in each clause.

⁶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι' ἐμοῦ.

"Jesus says to him, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

αὐτῷ = "to him" (3rd-pers personal pronoun, dat sg masc — referring to Thomas, who asked the question in v.5). Ἐγώ = "I" (1st-pers, emphatic — Jesus distinguishing himself). δι' ἐμοῦ = "through me" (preposition διά + gen sg of ἐγώ; the apostrophe shows elision — α dropped before ἐ).

⁹ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ... ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ ἑώρακεν τὸν πατέρα·

"Jesus says to him: ... 'The one who has seen me has seen the Father.'" αὐτῷ here refers to Philip (3rd-pers dat). ἐμέ = "me" (1st-pers acc emphatic — usually Greek writes με unaccented when unemphatic, ἐμέ accented for emphasis). The participle ὁ ἑωρακώς ("the one having seen") is perfect-tense — Lesson 19.

ReferenceVocabulary Notes

Five vocabulary notes on personal pronouns and their NT usage.

ἐγώ — "I" About 350 NT occurrences. Cognate with English "I," German "ich," Latin "ego" — all from Indo-European *eĝ-. Greek doesn't need to write the subject pronoun (the verb ending already shows person), so when ἐγώ is written, it's emphatic — "I myself," "as for me," "it is I who..." John's Gospel uses it heavily because Jesus's "I am" sayings (ἐγώ εἰμι) require the explicit pronoun for theological force.

σύ / ὑμεῖς — "you (sg) / you (pl)" About 1,070 NT occurrences combined. Greek distinguishes singular and plural "you" — a distinction English lost in the 17th century when "thou" disappeared. This is genuinely useful in NT reading: when Jesus says "I tell you" (λέγω ὑμῖν) to a group, it's plural and addresses everyone present; when he says "you" to a single person (σοί dat or σε acc), the address is individual. English translators have to decide whether to render with "you" (ambiguous) or "y'all" (regional). KJV's "thee/thou" preserved the singular; most modern versions don't.

αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό — "he, she, it / same / -self" About 5,600 NT occurrences (the most common substantive in the NT after the article). Three uses to keep distinct: (1) personal pronoun "he/she/it" — most common, used in oblique cases (αὐτόν, αὐτοῦ, αὐτῷ); (2) attributive "the same" (ὁ αὐτὸς θεός, "the same God"); (3) predicate intensifier "-self" (ὁ θεὸς αὐτός, "God himself"). Position relative to the article disambiguates — the article test from Lesson 6 carries over.

Enclitics — words that "lean on" the preceding word Some Greek words are unaccented in their normal form and "throw" their accent backward onto the preceding word. The pronouns με, μου, μοι, σε, σου, σοι are enclitics in their unaccented forms. When unaccented, they're neutral; when accented (ἐμέ, ἐμοῦ, ἐμοί), they're emphatic — "me!" or "my!" with weight. Forms of εἰμί (ἐστι, ἐστιν, εἰσι etc.) are also enclitics. Don't worry about producing enclitic accents yet; just know that an unaccented pronoun isn't a typo.

ἡμεῖς / ὑμεῖς — "we / you-pl" About 800 NT occurrences combined. Easy to confuse — they look almost identical. Mnemonic: ἡμεῖς ("we") starts with smooth breathing + eta; ὑμεῖς ("you-pl") starts with rough breathing + upsilon. The breathing marks are your friend here. In cases other than nominative, the difference is even smaller (ἡμῶν vs ὑμῶν, ἡμῖν vs ὑμῖν). In manuscript transmission, scribes occasionally confused them, which is why textual critics flag certain "we" / "you" variant readings as significant in NT exegesis.

PracticeChallenge Verses — Try It on the Greek NT

Four NT phrases focused on pronoun identification. Try to identify each pronoun's person, number, case, and antecedent.

Challenge 1 — Three pronouns, one verse

ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί

Reveal answer

"I in them and you in me." (John 17:23 — Jesus's high-priestly prayer.) ἐγώ = 1sg nom. αὐτοῖς = 3pl dat masc ("them" — referring to the disciples). σύ = 2sg nom (referring to the Father, whom Jesus is addressing). ἐμοί = 1sg dat ("me," after preposition ἐν). Four pronouns; four different references.

Challenge 2 — Same or himself?

Distinguish ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος from ὁ λόγος αὐτός

Reveal answer

ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος = "the same word" (attributive — αὐτός sandwiched between article and noun). ὁ λόγος αὐτός = "the word itself" (predicate position — αὐτός outside the article-noun bracket, intensifier function). Same three words, different word order, different meaning. The article test from Lesson 6 disambiguates.

Challenge 3 — Emphatic vs. unemphatic subject

What is the difference between λέγω ὑμῖν and ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν?

Reveal answer

Both mean "I say to you." But they communicate differently. The first (λέγω ὑμῖν) is standard Greek — the verb ending -ω already encodes the "I" subject; no pronoun is needed. The second (ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν) adds the explicit subject pronoun ἐγώ, making it highly emphatic: "I myself say to you" or "But I say to you." Jesus uses this construction repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:22, 28, 32, etc.) — "You have heard it said… but ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν" — where the explicit pronoun is the rhetorical point. The verb carries the grammar; the pronoun carries the emphasis.

Challenge 4 — Whom does "him" refer to?

ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶδεν τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἔγειρε.

Reveal answer

"Jesus saw the man and said to him, 'Rise.'" (Cf. John 5:6, simplified.) αὐτῷ = 3sg dat masc. Antecedent: τὸν ἄνθρωπον ("the man"). The pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender (masc) and number (sg) but takes its own case (dat) from the new clause's syntax (indirect object of "said"). This is the antecedent rule from Lesson 3.

Deep DiveOptional Deep Dive — A Cultural Note — When the Pronoun Is the Point

In English, "I" is just a way of being grammatical. In Greek, writing the pronoun is a deliberate choice. Sometimes the choice is the message.

The seven "I am" sayings of John are the most famous examples. Jesus says ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς ("I am the bread of life," John 6:35), where the verb εἰμί already conveys "I am." Adding the explicit ἐγώ doubles down: "I myself am." The implication is unmistakable to a Jewish ear: the formula echoes God's self-revelation to Moses (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν — "I am the one being," Exodus 3:14 LXX). John's Jesus is making divine identity claims with grammar.

Paul uses the same emphatic-pronoun device for argumentation. Romans 7:14-25 contains some of the most concentrated ἐγώ usage in the NT — Paul wrestling with his own divided self. The repeated explicit pronoun gives the passage its tortured quality: not "I do what I don't want" but "I myself, the very one speaking, do what I don't want." The pronoun is doing the rhetorical work.

The reverse phenomenon also matters. When someone in the Gospels speaks without an explicit pronoun — just the verb ending — the absence is sometimes pointed. Demons asked, "Why have you come?" use the verb ἦλθες alone — no σύ — because the focus is the action, not the actor. Jesus's questions to the disciples often drop the pronoun for the same reason. Reading Greek attentively means noticing what isn't there as well as what is.

Going further Murray Harris's Jesus as God (Baker, 1992) examines the Greek pronoun usage in passages where Jesus is identified as God — including detailed exegesis of John's "I am" sayings. For broader pronoun and discourse analysis, see Steven Levinsohn's Discourse Features of New Testament Greek (SIL, 2nd ed.).

PracticeSentences

οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός.

— houtos estin ho huios mou ho agapētos.

"This is my beloved Son." (Matt 3:17, paraphrased.) Demonstrative οὗτος as subject. μου = enclitic genitive of ἐγώ ("of me" → "my"). ἐστιν ("is") is from εἰμί — formally introduced in Lesson 13 but already useful here.

ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν, καὶ ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ θεῷ μένει.

— ho theos agapē estin, kai ho menōn en tē agapē en tō theō menei.

"God is love, and the one remaining in love remains in God" (1 John 4:16). Notice ὁ μένων = "the [one] remaining" — a substantival participle (Lesson 21).

οἱ μαθηταί, οὓς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκάλεσεν, ἀκολουθοῦσιν αὐτῷ.

— hoi mathētai, hous ho Iēsous ekalesen, akolouthousin autō.

"The disciples whom Jesus called are following him." οὕς is the masculine accusative plural relative pronoun — accusative because it's the object of "called" in its own clause. αὐτῷ is the dative of αὐτός — "to him" / "him" (verbs like ἀκολουθέω take dative objects).

πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἁμαρτάνουσιν, ἀλλὰ ὁ Χριστὸς σώζει αὐτούς.

— pantes hoi anthrōpoi hamartanousin, alla ho Christos sōzei autous.

"All people sin, but Christ saves them." πάντες in predicate position = "all (the people)." αὐτούς = masc acc pl of αὐτός, "them," referring back to ἄνθρωποι.

τίς ἐστιν ὁ πατήρ μου;

— tis estin ho patēr mou?

"Who is my father?" Interrogative τίς (acute accent) introducing a direct question. Greek question mark ; at the end (looks like English semicolon).

PracticeNow You Try It

Three sets of guided exercises — αὐτός in its three functions, antecedent-matching for relative pronouns, and reading explicit pronouns for emphasis.

Set 1 — Which function of αὐτός?

For each phrase, identify whether αὐτός is functioning as (a) personal pronoun, (b) intensive ("-self"), or (c) identical ("the same"). The position relative to the article is your guide.

βλέπω αὐτόν.

Is αὐτόν inside an article-noun bracket?
Function?
Translation?

ὁ ἀπόστολος αὐτός γράφει.

Position of αὐτός relative to ὁ ἀπόστολος?
Function?
Translation?

ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος γράφει.

Position of αὐτός?
Function?
Translation?

Reveal answers

βλέπω αὐτόν: No article-noun bracket; αὐτόν stands alone as the direct object. Function: personal pronoun. Translation: "I see him."

ὁ ἀπόστολος αὐτός γράφει: αὐτός sits outside the article-noun bracket (article + noun + αὐτός, no second article). Function: intensive. Translation: "The apostle himself writes."

ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος γράφει: αὐτός sits inside the article-noun bracket (article + αὐτός + noun, attributive position). Function: identical. Translation: "The same apostle writes." Note how the position alone — even with all the same words — flips the meaning.

Set 2 — Find the antecedent

For each relative clause, find the antecedent of the relative pronoun and explain how the relative pronoun agrees and differs.

ὁ θεός, ὃς ἀγαπᾷ τὸν κόσμον.

Antecedent of ὅς?
Gender, number of ὅς (matches antecedent)?
Case of ὅς (from its role in the relative clause)?

τὸν λόγον, ὃν ἤκουσα.

Antecedent of ὅν?
Gender, number?
Case of ὅν, and why?

τὰ ἔργα ἃ ποιεῖ ὁ Ἰησοῦς.

Antecedent of ἅ?
Gender, number?
Case of ἅ, and why?

Reveal answers

ὁ θεός, ὃς ἀγαπᾷ τὸν κόσμον: Antecedent = ὁ θεός (masc sg). ὅς is masc sg (agreeing in gender and number). Case: nominative, because ὅς is the subject of ἀγαπᾷ in the relative clause. Translation: "God, who loves the world."

τὸν λόγον, ὃν ἤκουσα: Antecedent = τὸν λόγον (masc sg). ὅν is masc sg. Case: accusative, because it's the direct object of ἤκουσα ("I heard") in the relative clause. Translation: "the word, which I heard." Note: the relative pronoun took its case from its function in its own clause, not from the antecedent's case in the main clause.

τὰ ἔργα ἃ ποιεῖ ὁ Ἰησοῦς: Antecedent = τὰ ἔργα (neut pl). ἅ is neut pl. Case: accusative, because it's the direct object of ποιεῖ ("does") — even though the antecedent is the subject of the main clause. Translation: "the works that Jesus does."

Set 3 — Why is the pronoun there?

Each phrase contains an explicit subject pronoun that the verb ending alone doesn't require. Identify the rhetorical reason.

ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς.

Could the verb alone (ἐστε) have communicated this?
Why add ὑμεῖς?

ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν...

Why is ἐγώ explicit?
What's the role of δέ?

ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή.

Why ἐγώ + εἰμι rather than just εἰμι?
What does the doubling do theologically?

Reveal answers

ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς: The verb ἐστε alone would have said "you (pl) are." Adding ὑμεῖς emphasizes "you, specifically" — meaning the disciples Jesus is addressing, not someone else. Translation: "You are the salt of the earth." (Matt 5:13.) Contrastive emphasis: not the Pharisees, not the crowds — you.

ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν: The Sermon on the Mount's contrast formula. ἐγώ is explicit because it's contrasting with what was said before ("you have heard it said... but I say"). δέ ("but, and") signals the contrast. Translation: "But I say to you..."

ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδός καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή: The verb εἰμι alone means "I am." Adding ἐγώ doubles the assertion. The formula ἐγώ εἰμι deliberately echoes God's self-revelation to Moses (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν, Exodus 3:14 LXX). The redundant explicit pronoun is the divine-name signature. Translation: "I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6.)

PracticeBDAG-Style Parsing Drill — 20 Worked Examples

Guided Practice Do not rush this section. These examples are not a test. Understanding the first five today is success.

Twenty NT pronoun forms (vocabulary attested in the NT; example phrases either match the NT or are NT-style) parsed step by step using the four-step routine from Part 7. Every example follows the same pattern: (1) identify the pronoun's family, (2) read off gender + number + case (and person, for personals), (3) for relatives find the antecedent and re-derive the case from inside the relative clause — for αὐτός, decide which of its three functions is in play (3rd-person pronoun, identical, or intensive), (4) state the parse. The twenty cover all six families plus πᾶς, and they drill the specific traps the lesson flagged: αὕτη vs αὐτή, relative-pronoun case mismatch, αὐτός in its three uses, and τίς-vs-τις.

The four-step routine — quick reference

Family. Personal (ἐγώ, σύ)? αὐτός? Demonstrative (οὗτος, ἐκεῖνος)? Relative (ὅς)? Reflexive (ἑαυτοῦ)? Reciprocal (ἀλλήλων)? Interrogative τίς or indefinite τις? πᾶς?
Gender + number + case from the form's ending.
For relatives: antecedent in previous clause (gender + number match); case from inside the relative clause. For αὐτός: identify the function (alone = 3rd-person pronoun; ὁ αὐτός = identical; agreeing with an articular noun without its own article = intensive).
State the parse. Family + gender-number-case + lexical form.

1ἐγὼ λέγωPersonal · 1st sg

BDAG-style entry: ἐγώ — I (1st-person singular personal pronoun)

Family. ἐγώ — the dedicated 1st-person singular pronoun. Distinctive: it has its own paradigm (ἐγώ, ἐμοῦ/μου, ἐμοί/μοι, ἐμέ/με).
Gender + number + case. ἐγώ is the only nom sg form; person is 1st; number sg; case nom. Greek verb endings already mark 1st sg (λέγω = "I say"), so the explicit pronoun is emphatic.
Antecedent / function. The "I" is the speaker; no antecedent. The emphasis is contrastive ("I, not someone else").
State the parse. 1st-person personal pronoun, nom sg.

Parse: personal pronoun (1st pers), nom sg, from ἐγώ

Translation: "I say." The Sermon on the Mount's ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν (Matt 5:22, etc.) uses ἐγώ contrastively against the earlier "you have heard it said."

Exact NT form: Mt 21:27

2λέγει ὑμῖνPersonal · 2nd pl

BDAG-style entry: σύ, σοῦ, σοί, σέ — you (sg); plural is ὑμεῖς, ὑμῶν, ὑμῖν, ὑμᾶς

Family. ὑμῖν — 2nd-person plural personal pronoun. (The ὑ- with rough breathing is the 2nd-pl. signature; the singular σοί has σ.)
Gender + number + case. -ιν ending on the 2nd-pl pronoun → dat pl. Number pl, person 2nd, case dat.
Antecedent / function. Pronoun's reference is the addressee(s) of the discourse; no antecedent in prior text.
State the parse. 2nd-person personal pronoun, dat pl.

Parse: personal pronoun (2nd pers), dat pl, from σύ (pl. ὑμεῖς)

Translation: "(he/she) says to you (pl)." Indirect object of λέγει. ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν (passim) — "truly I say to you (pl)."

Exact NT form: Mt 4:6

3ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλαςPersonal · 2nd pl (emphatic)

BDAG-style entry: ὑμεῖς — "you" (plural, nominative)

Family. ὑμεῖς — nom pl of the 2nd-person personal pronoun.
Gender + number + case. Nom pl by paradigm form (only one nom pl form). Person 2nd, number pl, case nom.
Function. The verb ἐστε ("you are") already encodes "you (pl)." Adding the explicit ὑμεῖς is emphatic: "you, specifically, are..." It's a contrastive flag (not the Pharisees, not the crowd — you).
State the parse. 2nd-person personal pronoun, nom pl. Emphatic by virtue of being expressed at all.

Parse: personal pronoun (2nd pers), nom pl, from σύ (pl. ὑμεῖς) — emphatic

Translation: "You are the salt..." (Matt 5:13). The pronoun's being expressed at all is the entire point: emphasis, not information.

Exact NT form: Mt 5:48

4βλέπω αὐτόναὐτός · 3rd-person pronoun

BDAG-style entry: αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό — (1) he/she/it (3rd-pers personal); (2) self (intensive); (3) the same (identical)

Family. αὐτόν: stem αὐτ- + masc acc sg ending -όν.
Gender + number + case. -ον ending + masculine context (no article overriding) → masc acc sg. (αὐτός uses 2-1-2 endings on stem αὐτ-.)
Which of three functions? αὐτόν stands alone (no article, no agreeing noun). ⇒ 3rd-person personal pronoun: "him." The most common use of αὐτός in the NT.
State the parse. Third-person personal pronoun, masc acc sg.

Parse: αὐτός (3rd-pers pronoun), masc acc sg

Translation: "I see him." Direct object of βλέπω. Antecedent comes from prior context (whoever was named earlier).

Exact NT form: Jn 9:15

5ὁ αὐτὸς θεόςαὐτός · identical

BDAG-style entry: αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό — "the same" when in attributive position with an article

Family. αὐτός family.
Gender + number + case. ὁ αὐτὸς θεός — article + αὐτός + noun pattern; αὐτός ending -ος matches the article ὁ (masc nom sg) and the noun θεός (masc nom sg). So masc nom sg.
Which of three functions? αὐτός is in attributive position (article + αὐτός + noun, or article + noun + article + αὐτός). ⇒ identical use: "the same."
State the parse. αὐτός in identical use, masc nom sg, agreeing with θεός.

Parse: αὐτός (identical use, attributive), masc nom sg

Translation: "the same God." ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς ἐνεργῶν τὰ πάντα (1 Cor 12:6), "the same God working all things."

Exact NT form: Mt 1:21

6αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰησοῦςαὐτός · intensive

BDAG-style entry: αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό — "himself/herself/itself" when in predicate position (no article on αὐτός, article on the noun)

Family. αὐτός family.
Gender + number + case. αὐτὸς + ὁ Ἰησοῦς — agreement is masc nom sg throughout.
Which of three functions? αὐτός sits in predicate position (no article on αὐτός, article ὁ on the noun). ⇒ intensive use: "himself."
State the parse. αὐτός in intensive use, masc nom sg, agreeing with Ἰησοῦς.

Parse: αὐτός (intensive use, predicate), masc nom sg

Translation: "Jesus himself" (e.g., John 4:2 καίτοιγε Ἰησοῦς αὐτὸς οὐκ ἐβάπτιζεν). Note the three-position rule borrowed from adjectives in Lesson 6: identical = attributive position; intensive = predicate position; 3rd-person pronoun = standalone.

Exact NT form: Mk 16:8

7οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωποςDemonstrative · near

BDAG-style entry: οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο — this; he/she/it (near demonstrative)

Family. οὗτος — the τ-stem near demonstrative ("this, these"). Forms alternate: τ-stem in masc/neut acc and most plurals (τοῦτον, τοῦτο, τούτων...) vs. no τ in masc nom sg οὗτος and fem nom αὕτη.
Gender + number + case. οὗτος ending -ος + rough breathing + diphthong ου matches masc nom sg of this paradigm.
Position rule. οὗτος sits in predicate position relative to ὁ ἄνθρωπος (demonstrative + article + noun, with no article on the demonstrative). All NT demonstratives sit in predicate position when modifying an articular noun — this is the demonstrative's distinctive pattern.
State the parse. Near demonstrative, masc nom sg, modifying ἄνθρωπος.

Parse: demonstrative pronoun, masc nom sg, from οὗτος

Translation: "this man." Don't translate the predicate position literally as "this is the man"; demonstratives functioning attributively always sit in predicate position.

Exact NT form: Mk 15:39

8αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολήDemonstrative · the αὕτη/αὐτή trap

BDAG-style entry: οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο — this (note: αὕτη with smooth-then-rough breathing — not the same word as αὐτή!)

Family. αὕτη with rough breathing on the αυ- diphthong + circumflex/acute pattern is the fem nom sg of the demonstrative οὗτος. DO NOT confuse with αὐτή (smooth breathing, fem nom sg of αὐτός = "she"). This is the most common pronoun-confusion in Greek 101.
Gender + number + case. Stem alternation αὕ- (the no-τ form, matching article ἡ → fem) + ending -η → fem nom sg.
Function. Subject of ἐστίν, with ἡ ἐντολή as predicate nominative. Agreement: ἐντολή is feminine, so αὕτη is feminine to match (cataphoric — pointing forward to "the commandment that follows").
State the parse. Near demonstrative, fem nom sg.

Parse: demonstrative pronoun, fem nom sg, from οὗτος (fem αὕτη)

Translation: "This is the commandment..." (John 15:12, 1 John 3:23). The demonstrative is cataphoric: "this" points forward to the content of the commandment, stated next.

Exact NT form: 1Jn 3:23

9ἐκεῖνος ὁ προφήτηςDemonstrative · far

BDAG-style entry: ἐκεῖνος, ἐκείνη, ἐκεῖνο — that; he/she/it (far demonstrative)

Family. ἐκεῖνος — the far demonstrative ("that, those"), parallel to οὗτος but spatially/temporally distant. Stem ἐκειν-, 2-1-2 endings.
Gender + number + case. Ending -ος + smooth breathing → masc nom sg.
Position rule. Predicate position relative to ὁ προφήτης — same demonstrative pattern as drill 7.
State the parse. Far demonstrative, masc nom sg.

Parse: demonstrative pronoun, masc nom sg, from ἐκεῖνος

Translation: "that prophet."

Exact NT form: Mt 18:28

10ὁ λόγος ὃν ἤκουσαςRelative · case-mismatch

BDAG-style entry: ὅς, ἥ, ὅ — who, which, that (relative pronoun; rough breathing + accent on every form)

Family. ὅν: rough breathing + acute accent on the omicron → relative pronoun. (The article would be τόν — entirely different shape with τ + smooth breathing.)
Gender + number + case from the form. -ον ending → masc acc sg.
Find the antecedent. Previous clause has ὁ λόγος (masc nom sg). Gender + number match: both masc sg ✓. Case does NOT match — antecedent is nom, relative is acc. This is exactly the case-mismatch the lesson flagged. The relative's case comes from inside the relative clause: ὅν is the direct object of ἤκουσας ("you heard"), so it's acc. The antecedent supplies only gender + number; the relative clause supplies the case.
State the parse. Relative pronoun, masc acc sg.

Parse: relative pronoun, masc acc sg, from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

Translation: "the word that you heard." The textbook case-mismatch scenario: antecedent nominative, relative accusative, because of the relative clause's own grammar.

Exact NT form: Mt 5:37

11ἡ ἐντολὴ ἣν ἐγράψατεRelative · feminine

BDAG-style entry: ὅς, ἥ, ὅ — who, which, that

Family. ἥν — rough breathing + accent → relative pronoun.
Gender + number + case from the form. -ην ending → fem acc sg.
Antecedent + case from clause. Antecedent ἡ ἐντολή (fem nom sg) supplies gender (fem) and number (sg). Inside the relative clause, ἥν is the direct object of ἐγράψατε ("you wrote") — case is therefore accusative.
State the parse. Relative pronoun, fem acc sg.

Parse: relative pronoun, fem acc sg, from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

Translation: "the commandment that you wrote" (cf. 2 John 5). Same case-mismatch pattern as drill 10 but in feminine.

Exact NT form: Mt 22:36

12ὁ μαθητὴς ᾧ ἔδωκενRelative · dat (indirect obj)

BDAG-style entry: ὅς, ἥ, ὅ — who, which, that

Family. ᾧ — rough breathing + circumflex + iota subscript → relative pronoun.
Gender + number + case from the form. -ῳ (omega + iota subscript) → masc/neut dat sg.
Antecedent + case from clause. Antecedent ὁ μαθητής (masc nom sg) gives gender (masc) and number (sg). Inside the relative clause, ᾧ is the indirect object of ἔδωκεν ("he gave") — dative.
State the parse. Relative pronoun, masc dat sg.

Parse: relative pronoun, masc dat sg, from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

Translation: "the disciple to whom he gave..." Three different cases on three different relatives so far (acc, acc, dat) — same antecedent could give all three; case always from inside.

Exact NT form: Mt 10:24

13ἐμαρτύρησεν περὶ ἑαυτοῦReflexive

BDAG-style entry: ἐμαυτοῦ (1st), σεαυτοῦ (2nd), ἑαυτοῦ (3rd) — reflexive pronouns ("myself, yourself, himself/herself/itself")

Family. ἑαυτοῦ — rough breathing + αυτ- stem → reflexive (3rd person). The reflexive refers back to the subject of its own clause.
Gender + number + case. -ου ending → gen sg masc (or neut; gender from context, here masc subject).
No antecedent search needed (or rather, antecedent is the local subject). Reflexives always refer to the subject of their clause — the antecedent is built in. By definition reflexives have no nominative form — you cannot reflexively be the subject.
State the parse. Reflexive pronoun (3rd pers), masc gen sg.

Parse: reflexive pronoun (3rd pers), masc gen sg, from ἑαυτοῦ

Translation: "he testified concerning himself" (e.g., John 5:31). The reflexive flags that the testifier and the one testified about are the same person.

Exact NT form: Jn 1:32

14ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλουςReciprocal

BDAG-style entry: ἀλλήλων — one another, each other (reciprocal pronoun)

Family. ἀλλήλ- stem → reciprocal pronoun ("one another"). The lexical form is listed as the gen pl (ἀλλήλων) because no sg or nom forms exist.
Gender + number + case. -ους ending → masc acc pl. (Reciprocal uses 2-1-2 endings on stem ἀλληλ-.)
No antecedent search; mutual subject. Reciprocals refer to the plural subject acting on itself in a mutual way (the subjects act on each other). The reciprocal cannot itself be a subject — no nominative form exists by definition (same reason as reflexive).
State the parse. Reciprocal pronoun, masc acc pl.

Parse: reciprocal pronoun, masc acc pl, from ἀλλήλων

Translation: "Love one another" (John 13:34, 1 John 4:7). Direct object of ἀγαπᾶτε; the disciples are to love each other, mutually.

Exact NT form: Jn 13:34

15τίς ἐστιν;Interrogative

BDAG-style entry: τίς, τί — who? what? which? (interrogative pronoun, always accented)

Family. τίς with an acute accent (which never moves to a grave) plus question context (often a Greek question mark ; at the end) → interrogative. The accent and clause-initial position are the diagnostic — the indefinite τις is enclitic (no accent of its own).
Gender + number + case. -ς ending on a 3rd-decl stem (τίν-) → nom sg. Interrogative does not distinguish masc/fem in nom/acc sg.
No antecedent (interrogatives never have one).
State the parse. Interrogative pronoun, masc/fem nom sg.

Parse: interrogative pronoun, masc/fem nom sg, from τίς, τί

Translation: "Who is [it]?" / "Who is [he/she]?"

Exact NT form: Mt 7:9

16ἄνθρωπός τιςIndefinite

BDAG-style entry: τις, τι — someone, anyone, a certain one (indefinite pronoun; enclitic)

Family. τις with no accent + immediately after another word (which therefore carries an extra acute accent for the enclitic to lean on, ἄνθρωπός with double accent) → indefinite. Same form as τίς but UNaccented (and never opens a clause).
Gender + number + case. -ς ending → nom sg.
Function. Adjectival to ἄνθρωπος, agreeing in case + number. Indefinites do not need antecedents.
State the parse. Indefinite pronoun, masc nom sg, modifying ἄνθρωπος.

Parse: indefinite pronoun, masc nom sg, from τις, τι

Translation: "a certain man" / "someone, a man." Luke 10:30 (the Good Samaritan): ἄνθρωπός τις κατέβαινεν ἀπὸ Ἰερουσαλήμ, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem." The accent (or lack thereof) is doing all the grammatical work.

Exact NT form: Lk 14:2

17ταῦτα πάνταDemonstrative · neut pl

BDAG-style entry: οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο — this; these

Family. ταῦτα — τ-stem of οὗτος (the τ shows up in the oblique cases and most plurals) + neuter-plural ending -α → neut nom OR acc pl of οὗτος.
Gender + number + case from the form. Neuter rule: nom pl = acc pl — ambiguous, context resolves.
Function. Substantival: "these things" (no separate noun). Often the subject (or object) of saying-verbs in narrative.
State the parse. Near demonstrative, neut nom OR acc pl.

Parse: demonstrative pronoun, neut nom OR acc pl, from οὗτος (context resolves)

Translation: "all these things." Common in Synoptics: ταῦτα πάντα ἐλάλησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς (Matt 13:34), "all these things Jesus spoke."

Exact NT form: Mt 6:33

18τίνος ἐστιν ἡ εἰκών;Interrogative · gen

BDAG-style entry: τίς, τί — who? what? whose?

Family. τίνος — accented + at the start of a question → interrogative.
Gender + number + case from the form. -ος ending on 3rd-decl stem τιν- → gen sg (masc/fem/neut all share this form in the interrogative).
Function. Possessive question: "whose...?"
State the parse. Interrogative pronoun, gen sg (masc/fem/neut).

Parse: interrogative pronoun, gen sg, from τίς, τί

Translation: "Whose is the image?" (Matt 22:20, the coin question: τίνος ἡ εἰκὼν αὕτη καὶ ἡ ἐπιγραφή;). Note: both an interrogative (τίνος) and a demonstrative (αὕτη) in one verse.

Exact NT form: Mt 22:28

19πᾶς ὁ πιστεύωνπᾶς · attributive

BDAG-style entry: πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν — all, every, whole (3rd-decl masc/neut; 1st-decl fem)

Family. πᾶς — the universal quantifier. Mixed declension: 3rd-decl masc/neut (stem παντ-), 1st-decl fem (stem πάσ-).
Gender + number + case. πᾶς is the nom sg masc form (stem παντ- + nom sg -ς; τ drops before σ → πᾶς, just like the dental rule for χάρις).
Position rule. πᾶς + article + participle = "every (one who) ..." or "everyone who..." The participle τοῦ πιστεύοντος / ὁ πιστεύων is doing the substantival work; πᾶς quantifies it.
State the parse. πᾶς, masc nom sg, modifying ὁ πιστεύων.

Parse: πᾶς, masc nom sg, from πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν

Translation: "everyone who believes" (John 3:16, etc.: ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται). The articular participle + πᾶς is the standard NT formula for universal subject ("everyone who...").

Exact NT form: Jn 3:15

20πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετοπᾶς · substantival neut pl

BDAG-style entry: πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν — all, every; (neut pl substantival) all things

Family. πᾶς — same lexical entry, neuter substantival use.
Gender + number + case. πάντα: 3rd-decl παντ- stem + neuter-plural ending -α → neut nom OR acc pl.
Function. Substantival ("all things"), serving as the SUBJECT of ἐγένετο. Despite being neuter plural, the subject takes a singular verb (ἐγένετο, "came into being") — the standard neuter-plural rule (Lesson 4).
State the parse. πᾶς, neut nom pl, substantival.

Parse: πᾶς, neut nom pl, from πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν

Translation: "All things came into being through him" (John 1:3). δι' αὐτοῦ = διά + gen ("through" + agency, Lesson 9 preview). Substantival πάντα is John's favorite cosmic-scope subject.

Exact NT form: Jn 1:3

Practice plan Run all twenty out loud, parsing aloud before glancing at the answer. Force yourself to (1) name the family, (2) state the gender-number-case, (3) name the antecedent (relatives) or the αὐτός function (drills 4–6), (4) state the parse. The three patterns that trip up beginners most often are: (a) the αὕτη/αὐτή confusion (drill 8 vs drill 6), (b) the relative-pronoun case mismatch (drill 10), and (c) the τίς/τις accent distinction (drill 15 vs drill 16). Re-read those three until they're effortless.

PracticeTranslation Exercises

Translate

ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν, ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἀκούετε. [ἀκούετε = "you (pl) hear"]
ταῦτα πάντα λέγει ὁ Χριστὸς τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ.
ἐκεῖνος ὁ προφήτης ἐστὶν ὁ αὐτὸς ὃν ἠκούσατε. [ἠκούσατε = "you (pl) heard"]
ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν. [ἀγαπῶμεν = "let us love / we love" — Preview: contract verb, Lesson 11]
τίς ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ γυνή;
ὁ μαθητής, ᾧ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἔδωκεν τὴν ἐντολήν, μένει ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ. [ἔδωκεν = "gave" — Preview: aorist, Lesson 15]

Answers 1. "I say to you, but you do not hear." (Both pronouns emphatic — they're stated.)
2. Christ says all these things to his disciples. (ταῦτα πάντα = "these all" / "all these things," neuter accusative plural. αὐτοῦ = "his.")
3. That prophet is the same [one] whom you heard. (Three pronouns at work: ἐκεῖνος demonstrative, ὁ αὐτός attributive = "the same," ὅν relative.)
4. Let us love one another, because love is from God. (1 John 4:7. ἀλλήλους = "one another," masc acc pl reciprocal.)
5. Who is this woman? (αὕτη = fem nom sg of οὗτος, predicate position with ἡ γυνή.)
6. The disciple, to whom Jesus gave the commandment, remains in the house. (ᾧ = masc dat sg relative — dative because it's the indirect object of ἔδωκεν.)

PracticePart 13: Translation Practice — Reading Pronouns in Context

Twelve short NT-style Greek phrases featuring every Lesson 8 pronoun family. For each, we parse the pronoun(s), then give an idiomatic English rendering. The set deliberately covers ALL six families at least once and includes two relative-clause sentences (where the relative’s case comes from inside its own clause) and two αὐτός sentences (one third-person use, one intensive/identical use).

1. ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν.

Parse: ἐγώ = 1sg nom personal pronoun — emphatic because explicit (verb ending alone would convey “I say”). ὑμῖν = 2pl dat personal pronoun (“to you-pl”), recipient of the speaking. English: “But I say to you.” The Sermon on the Mount’s contrast formula (Matt 5:22, 28, 32, etc.). The explicit ἐγώ is the rhetorical point.

2. βλέπω αὐτὸν καὶ λέγω αὐτῷ.

Parse (αὐτός third-person use): αὐτόν = masc acc sg of αὐτός — standalone, no noun in view, so this is the third-person personal pronoun “him.” Direct object of βλέπω. αὐτῷ = masc dat sg of αὐτός, the indirect object of λέγω (“to him”). English: “I see him and I speak to him.” Both forms refer back to whatever masc sg antecedent the prior context supplied.

3. αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐβάπτιζεν.

Parse (αὐτός intensive use): αὐτός = masc nom sg of αὐτός, in predicate position with the article-noun unit ὁ Ἰησοῦς (outside the article-noun bracket). Predicate position ⇒ intensive function — “Jesus himself.” English: “Jesus himself was baptizing.” Cf. John 4:2, which clarifies that the disciples actually did the baptizing — the intensive αὐτός emphasizes personal identity (“Jesus, in person”) precisely because the reality was indirect.

4. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός.

Parse: οὗτος = masc nom sg demonstrative (“this [one]”), predicate-position subject of ἐστιν. μου = 1sg gen enclitic (“my”). ὁ ἀγαπητός = 2nd-attributive-position adjective (“the beloved”). English: “This is my beloved Son.” (Matt 3:17, the voice at Jesus’s baptism.)

5. οἱ μαθηταὶ οὓς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκάλεσεν ἀκολουθοῦσιν αὐτῷ.

Parse (relative — case from own clause): οὕς = masc acc pl relative pronoun from ὅς, ἥ, ὅ. Antecedent: οἱ μαθηταί (masc nom pl). Gender + number match (masc pl). Case mismatch is normal: inside the relative clause οὓς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκάλεσεν, the relative is the direct object of ἐκάλεσεν (“called”), so it’s accusative. αὐτῷ = masc dat sg of αὐτός, third-person personal “him” (the verb ἀκολουθέω takes a dative object). English: “The disciples whom Jesus called are following him.”

6. ὁ θεός ἐστιν ὃς ἀγαπᾷ τὸν κόσμον.

Parse (relative — case from own clause): ὅς = masc nom sg relative pronoun. Antecedent: ὁ θεός (masc nom sg). Gender + number match (masc sg). Here the cases happen to match: inside the relative clause ὃς ἀγαπᾷ τὸν κόσμον, the relative is the subject of ἀγαπᾷ (“loves”), so it’s nominative — the same case as the antecedent in the main clause. Still, the case came from the relative clause, not by inheritance. English: “God is the one who loves the world.” (Echoes John 3:16.)

7. ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἑαυτὸν ἔδωκεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν.

Parse (reflexive): ἑαυτόν = masc acc sg reflexive pronoun from ἑαυτοῦ — the subject (ὁ Ἰησοῦς) gives himself; the object of the verb is the subject. ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν = preposition + 1pl gen (“for us / on behalf of us”). English: “Jesus gave himself for us” (cf. Gal 1:4, Eph 5:25). Reflexive vs intensive contrast: compare ex. 3 above (αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐβάπτιζεν, “Jesus himself was baptizing”) — intensive αὐτός emphasizes identity; here reflexive ἑαυτόν is the object of his own action.

8. ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν.

Parse (reciprocal): ἀλλήλους = masc acc pl reciprocal pronoun (“one another”) — direct object of ἀγαπῶμεν (“we love”). Always plural; no nominative form exists. ὅτι here = “because.” English: “Let us love one another, because love is from God” (1 John 4:7). The verb form ἀγαπῶμεν can be indicative (“we love”) or hortatory subjunctive (“let us love”); context decides — here, hortatory.

9. τίς ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ γυνή;

Parse (interrogative + demonstrative): τίς = masc/fem nom sg interrogative pronoun (acute accent ⇒ interrogative, not indefinite). αὕτη = fem nom sg demonstrative (rough breathing on αυ-, demonstrative οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο) — in predicate position with the article-noun unit ἡ γυνή. English: “Who is this woman?” Trap to watch: αὕτη (demonstrative “this”) vs αὐτή (third-person/intensive/identical “she/herself/the same”) — same letters, different breathing + accent placement, very different meaning.

10. ἄνθρωπός τις πορεύεται εἰς τὴν πόλιν.

Parse (indefinite): τις = masc/fem nom sg indefinite pronoun (no accent of its own — enclitic; usually leans on the preceding word, which is why ἄνθρωπος appears with the unusual double-accent ἄνθρωπός). Same form-set as the interrogative, but without the acute ⇒ indefinite “a certain” or “someone.” English: “A certain man is going into the city.” The construction ἄνθρωπός τις introduces an unspecified character — a common NT idiom for opening a parable (Luke 14:16, 15:11, etc.).

11. πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἁμαρτάνουσιν.

Parse (πᾶς): πάντες = masc nom pl of πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν. Sits in predicate position relative to the article-noun unit οἱ ἄνθρωποι (πᾶς is outside the article-noun bracket). Predicate position with article ⇒ “all (of)” / “the whole.” English: “All people sin.” Cf. Rom 3:23 (πάντες ἥμαρτον, “all sinned”).

12. ὁ αὐτὸς θεός ἐστιν ὁ ἐργαζόμενος τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν.

Parse (αὐτός identical use + πᾶς twice): ὁ αὐτὸς θεός: αὐτός in attributive position (article + αὐτός + noun = inside the article-noun bracket) ⇒ identical function — “the same God.” τὰ πάντα = neut acc pl of πᾶς, substantival — “all things, everything.” ἐν πᾶσιν = ἐν + dat pl of πᾶς — “in all [people].” English: “The same God is the one who works all things in all” (1 Cor 12:6, lightly adapted). Three pronoun-area moves in one verse: αὐτός attributive, πᾶς substantival neuter plural, πᾶς dative plural masculine.

Translation tips — how to read pronouns fluently

1. Check the article first. The article carries case + number + gender unambiguously; the pronoun’s ending usually reinforces what the article already says. When in doubt about a pronoun’s case, scan the article(s) in the same nominal unit.

2. For αὐτός, position matters. Predicate position (outside the article-noun bracket) = intensive “himself.” Attributive position (inside the article-noun bracket) = identical “the same.” Outside any article-noun unit (standalone) = third-person personal “he/she/it.”

3. For relatives, the case is decided BY ITS OWN CLAUSE, not by the antecedent. Gender + number look backward to the antecedent; case looks inward at the relative clause. Train yourself to parse the case twice as a safety check.

4. πᾶς + article = “all/whole”; πᾶς without article = “every.” πᾶς ἄνθρωπος = “every person” (anarthrous); πᾶς ὁ κόσμος = “all the world” (predicate with article); ὁ πᾶς νόμος = “the whole law” (attributive with article).

5. Interrogative τίς (acute) vs indefinite τις (no accent). Same letters, same paradigm, different jobs. Acute accent on the iota ⇒ direct question (“who? what?”). No accent of its own (enclitic, leans on previous word) ⇒ indefinite (“someone, a certain”). One tiny mark carries the meaning.

6. Watch the breathing-mark trap on αὕτη vs αὐτή. Rough breathing on αυ- and an accent on αύ- ⇒ demonstrative “this” (fem nom sg of οὗτος). Smooth breathing on αυ- and an accent on -ή ⇒ third-person/intensive/identical “she/herself/the same” (fem nom sg of αὐτός). Two diacritical decisions: different breathing + different accent placement.

Watch — Bill Mounce companion lecture

BBG Ch 12

BBG Ch 12 First and Second Person Personal Pronouns Watch on YouTube ↗

Mounce splits pronouns across chapters 11–14 (ἐγώ/σύ, αὐτός, demonstratives, relative). This Chapter 11 overview opens the pronoun unit; the others are linked from his channel sidebar.

Practice — drill the concepts

Six skill-specific drill sets, then a cumulative Mastery Test of 49 questions on pronouns — distinguishing the three functions of αὐτός (personal/intensive/identical), parsing relative pronouns and tracking antecedents through clauses, the τίς/τις accent distinction, and applying πᾶς in attributive/predicate/anarthrous positions. Items you miss loop until mastered.

Vocabulary — Lesson 8 14 pronouns & pronoun-related

Greek	Translit.	Meaning
αὐτός, ή, ό	autos	he/she/it; same; -self
ἐγώ	egō	I
σύ	sy	you (sg)
ἡμεῖς	hēmeis	we
ὑμεῖς	hymeis	you (pl)
οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο	houtos	this; he, she, it
ἐκεῖνος, η, ο	ekeinos	that; that one
ὅς, ἥ, ὅ	hos	who, which, that (relative)
ἑαυτοῦ	heautou	himself, herself, itself
ἀλλήλων	allēlōn	one another, each other
τίς, τί	tis	who? which? what? (interrogative)
τις, τι	tis	someone, a certain (indefinite)
πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν	pas	all, every, whole
ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅ τι	hostis	whoever, whichever