The rapid and accurate recognition of declensional forms is a key skill that contributes to reading Greek fluently. This module provides drill in random sets of declensional forms chosen by type of form or declension. This drill has the added value of the ability to display dictionary information, the meaning of the word, and the paradigm relevant to the form displayed.
The database contains over 950 forms.
In the left panel are settings for the drill.
Show Answer After: use the pop-up button to set the number of tries you want to make at the correct answer before the answer is given in full. After each trial, click the Check/Show Answer button, and correct choices will change from black to yellow, while incorrect choices will remain black. If your answer is partially correct because a fuller identification is possible, then the black will change to light yellow while the wider choice is shown in yellow (for instance, if you identify a form as nominative when it is both nominative and vocative, nominative will be accepted as a correct response, with nom./voc. turning yellow and nominative turning light yellow). On the last try all answers will be shown.
If you would like to use the drill for mental practice or study without clicking the choices, set Show Answer After to 1 and simply click Start/Next Action when you wish to see the answer or the next form.
Use Vocabulary from: the choices are quarters of the book, halves of the book, or the whole book.
Select from: use this to determine what kind of form you wish to be confronted with in the drill. The default setting allows forms of all kinds to appear, but you may pick several narrower categories. In the pop-up choices, "pronouns" is to be understood as "pronouns and adjective/pronouns" and "other decl." includes contract declension nouns and adjectives as well as words that are classified as "other declension" (like the article, demonstratives, personal pronouns).
NOTE: certain combinations of pool size, vocabulary chapter range, and type of form may produce a message that the criteria are too narrow to produce a pool of the size requested. You may either work with the small pool presented or redefine the criteria to start over. If no forms at all are found, please select wider criteria and start over.
Pool Size: you may select the size of the random set to be generated, from 15 to 40, with 25 as the default size.
Operation of the drill: first pick one button in the top row (Form Type), and then make selections in each of the five columns of the main table. Only one button in a column can be highlighted at a time, and the buttons in a column are disabled once a correct choice has been verified with the yellow color.
The Choices on the drill screen: the choice for FORM TYPE is among nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and adjective/pronouns (by which are meant words like the article and the demonstratives that can be used both pronominally and adjectivally). For CASE, in the choice nom/acc/voc, voc is taken as an optional element, so that it applies both to neuter nouns that have identical nominative, accusative, and vocative and to neuter pronominal forms that have identical nominative and accusative but naturally have no vocative. Again for GENDER, the drill will accept a correct single answer as well as the applicable multiple answer (for instance, if m/f/n is correct than m or f or n alone will be accepted). For DECLENSION, use the answer Other Decl. for all pronominal declensions and for any mixed declensions, the Attic declension, and contract declensions. For GENITIVE, the correct answer is the genitive ending of a noun or the masculine genitive ending for a pronoun or adjective. Use Other Gen. as the answer if the genitive form is plural only.
Note on Duals: for variety, a few dual forms have been included in the drills. But answers involving the dual have been ignored when the same form has a correct answer for singular or plural. For instance, μέρει is recognized by the program solely as dative singular and not as nom/acc/(voc) dual, and κακά is recognized as nom/acc/(voc) plural neuter and not as nom/acc/(voc) dual feminine.
Additional information: buttons allow you to see the dictionary form (the lemma under which this word would be found), the dictionary information (lemma plus additional needed information), or the definition of the word from which the particular form comes. The paradigm button opens the Paradigms module in a separate screen and loads the particular paradigm that illustrates the current form.
HINTS FOR FORMS WITH MULTIPLE ANSWERS
In the drill by type you may be presented with a form that has two possible correct identifications. Since such forms have two separate entries in the database with one correct answer expected for each entry, this module provides a hint as to which identification will be recognized as completely correct. For instance, the hint "sing" next to σώφρονα indicates this is to be identified as masculine/feminine accusative singular of the adjective, whereas the hint "pl" indicates that the correct answer will be neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural instead. Or the hint "masc" with ἀγαθόν indicates that the expected answer is masculine accusative singular, whereas the same form with the hint "neut" expects the answer neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular.