Can you say ‘Yes’ in Koine Greek?

No?
Neither can at least 30 Greek Professors by the looks of things…

Write the Greek word/phrase for the following common English words or phrases:

1. Yes
2. Chair or Seat
3. Ball
4. Cat
5. Monkey
6. Nine
7. Red
8. Cold
9. Nose
10. To jump
    Bonus: “Hello, how are you?” “Goodbye!”

After the audience [of 30 Greek Professors] had finished, I collected their quizzes. The average “grade” was 0.4 out 10 correct. Most testees could not answer any of the questions correctly, although they tried. The highest grade was 2 out of 10. Now, this audience included many scholars who had written best selling Greek textbooks and grammars. Of course, I won’t name names!

Makes me feel an awful lot better!

We’re experts at filling out paradigm charts. We love to explain the historical role of the digamma in irregular verbs. We can nerd on an on about proclitics and enclitics (ok, maybe not, but you get my point ). What we lack is simple proficiency in Greek.

Daniel R. Streett is on a roll over at καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

∞

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