Now, let’s modify each of the nouns with the adjective we have just learned (καλός). Notice how the adjective is placed between the article and its noun, in an article-adjectivenoun sequence:
[
][
ὁ καλὸς ἄγγελος
][
τὴν καλὴν βίβλον
]
τοῖς καλοῖς τέκνοις
δίδωσι
(English Translation: The good angel is giving the good book to the good children.)
But the same idea can be expressed in Greek with a second pattern, the article-noun-article-adjective sequence. As you can see below, the adjective is placed after the noun, but with the article repeated just before the adjective:
[
][
ὁ ἄγγελος ὁ καλὸς
][
τὴν βίβλον τὴν καλὴν
]
τοῖς τέκνοις τοῖς καλοῖς
δίδωσι
(English Translation: The good angel is giving the good book to the good children.) These two patterns of word order relating an adjective to its (articular) noun are called Attributive Positions. But notice what happens when the adjective is not preceded by the article [article-noun-adjective, or adjective-article-noun]: Either…
ὁ ἄγγελος καλὸς ...or… καλὸς ὁ ἄγγελος
These sequences (in the nominative case) create an Independent Declaration: The angel is good. Even though we see no Greek word for “is” in these sequences, these arrangements call on us to “supply” the idea of “being” (whether in the present, past, or future, as context may require). These patterns of word order are called Predicate Positions, since they make predications (actual declarations). Along with Attributive and Predicate positions is the third and last position we’ll consider: the Substantive Position. Consider these English lines: The righteous always help the poor; The wicked always abuse the poor.
5: Adjectives, The Verb “to Be” and Nouns of the 1st Declension
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