39.4 Now that we have learned how to form participles, let’s see how they are used in Greek. Recall that participles are VERBAL ADJECTIVES.
- VERBAL: participles have tense and voice, and can take objects or introduce clauses or phrases
- ADJECTIVAL: participles match their antecedent (usually a noun or pronoun) in gender, number, and case
39.5 Α participle performs three basic functions:
- ATTRIBUTIVE: when a definite article precedes it (i.e., the participle falls in the attributive position).
- In this use, the participle is primarily an adjective.
- CIRCUMSTANTIAL: when no article precedes it (i.e., the participle falls in the predicate position).
- In this use, the participle is often translated into English with a dependent clause.
- GENITIVE ABSOLUTE: when a noun and participle form their own independent clause within a sentence.
- In this use, the participle is primarily an adjective.