Greek Indirect Statement Test for GCSE/A-Level


            Greek Indirect Statement
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Greek Indirect Statement: Quick Help for This Test

This panel is here to help you recognise the main ways Greek reports what someone says, thinks, knows, sees, or realises. Instead of quoting the exact words directly, Greek often turns them into an indirect statement. In plain English, indirect statement means:

“He said, ‘I am coming.’” becomes
“He said that he was coming.”

1) The Three Main Ways Greek Does This

1. ὅτι / ὡς + finite verb

Greek can report a statement using ὅτι or ὡς, meaning
“that”.ὁ φίλος μου λέγει ὅτι αὔριον βοηθήσει μοι= “My friend says that he will help me tomorrow.”

2. Accusative + infinitive

Very often Greek puts the subject into the accusative and then uses an
infinitive.νομίζομεν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους ἀνδρειοτάτους εἶναι= “We think that the Spartans are the bravest.”

3. Accusative + participle

After verbs of seeing, knowing, realising, or perceiving,
Greek often uses an accusative and a participle.ὁ αὐτουργὸς εἶδε τὸν δοῦλον καθεύδοντα= “The farmer saw the slave sleeping.”

2) When Do You See Each One?

Pattern	Common after	What it often means
ὅτι / ὡς + verb	verbs of saying, announcing, replying	a full reported statement introduced by “that”
accusative + infinitive	verbs of saying, thinking, believing, hoping	“that someone is / did / will do …”
accusative + participle	verbs of seeing, knowing, noticing, learning	“seeing / knowing someone doing / being …”

3) Time: Present, Past, and Future

Greek often shows the time of the reported action very clearly:

Present infinitive / participle
usually means the action is going on at that time

τὸν δοῦλον καθεύδοντα = “the slave sleeping”
Aorist infinitive / aorist participle
usually means the action happened earlier or as a single completed event

τὸν πατέρα ἰδεῖν = “to have seen the father”
Future infinitive / future participle
usually means what will happen later

ζητήσειν = “will look for”ζητήσων = “about to look for / intending to look for”

A very useful rough guide is:

present = happening now
aorist = happened
future = will happen

4) A Special Point: Optative after a Past Verb

After a verb in the past, Greek sometimes changes the verb in the indirect statement
into the optative. This often happens after ὅτι or ὡς.

ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἄγγελος ἤγγειλεν ὅτι αἱ τῶν πολεμίων νῆες προσχωροῖεν

= “That messenger announced that the enemy ships were approaching.”

At this level, it is enough to recognise that the optative here is simply part of
reported speech after a past verb. You do not need to panic about the label.

5) The Main Patterns in Plain English

If you see ὅτι or ὡς, think:
“that …”
If you see an accusative noun followed by an infinitive, think:
“that someone is / did / will do something”
If you see an accusative noun followed by a participle, think:
“someone doing / being something”
If the verb of saying or knowing is in the past, do not be surprised if the
reported verb changes form, especially into the optative.

6) Three Very Common Examples

Greek	What to notice	English
ὁ φίλος μου λέγει ὅτι αὔριον βοηθήσει μοι	ὅτι + future verb	My friend says that he will help me tomorrow.
νομίζομεν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους ἀνδρειοτάτους εἶναι	accusative + infinitive	We think that the Spartans are the bravest.
ὁ αὐτουργὸς εἶδε τὸν δοῦλον καθεύδοντα	accusative + participle	The farmer saw the slave sleeping.

7) Quick Survival Tips for the Test

Start by finding the main verb: did someone say, think, know, see, or realise something?
Then ask: How is the reported statement built?
Is it ὅτι? an infinitive? a participle?
Watch the time carefully:
ἐπανελθεῖν is not the same as
ἐπανήσειν.
With participles, make sure you know who the participle describes.
Do not translate word by word first. Translate the whole idea:
“he said that …”, “he knew that …”, “he saw someone doing …”

In other words, the quickest route is usually:

main verb → construction → time → full sense

Greek Indirect Statement – Quick School Guide (some repetition here)

Greek has three main ways of reporting what someone says, thinks, or sees. The construction normally depends on the main verb.

1. Verbs of Saying or Thinking → Accusative + Infinitive

Common verbs	Construction	Example	Meaning
φημί (say) λέγω (say) νομίζω (think) πιστεύω (believe) ἐλπίζω (hope)	accusative + infinitive	ὁ παῖς ἔφη τὸν πατέρα ἐν τῷ ἄστει ζητήσειν	“The boy said that his father would search in the town.”

Here the subject of the reported statement becomes accusative, and the verb becomes an infinitive.

—

2. Verbs of Seeing or Noticing → Accusative + Participle

Common verbs	Construction	Example	Meaning
ὁράω (see) εἶδον (saw) αἰσθάνομαι (notice) γίγνομαι / γιγνώσκω (realise)	accusative + participle	ὁ αὐτουργὸς εἶδε τὸν δοῦλον καθεύδοντα	“The farmer saw the slave sleeping.”

The participle describes what the person is doing.
Greek literally says something like:

“He saw the slave sleeping.”

—

3. Verbs of Saying or Knowing → ὅτι / ὡς Clauses

Construction	Example	Meaning
ὅτι or ὡς + verb	ὁ φίλος λέγει ὅτι βοηθήσει	“My friend says that he will help.”

This construction works very much like English “that”.

—

4. Recognising the Time of the Action

Form	What it usually means	Example
present infinitive / participle	happening at that time	καθεύδοντα = sleeping
aorist infinitive / participle	completed action	ἰδεῖν = to have seen
future infinitive / participle	future action	ζητήσειν = will search

—

5. The Quick Decision Method

When you meet a Greek sentence:

1. Find the main verb (said, thought, saw, knew).
2. Look at the words that follow it.
3. Decide which pattern it is:

• accusative + infinitive → indirect statement
• accusative + participle → seeing / noticing someone doing something
• ὅτι / ὡς → “that” clause

—

6. Three Very Common Patterns

Greek	Meaning
νομίζω τοὺς Ἀθηναίους νικήσειν	I think that the Athenians will win.
εἶδον τὸν δοῦλον φεύγοντα	I saw the slave running away.
λέγει ὅτι ἥξει	He says that he will come.