Note on "7. Exercises" (Lesson 1 in textbook)

The exercise asks you to "Identify each syllable as either short or long."

New Testament Greek books that I have don't really go into whether these vowels are long or short. Some of my Ancient (Classical) Greek grammars use a line over the vowel (a macron) to indicate if it's long.

One will not be able to tell for some of the syllables which are short or long, as Croy does not give enough information in the Lesson for a person to know the answer for every vowel in that exercise. I didn't catch that on Saturday. (Thanks to Lydia for bringing this to my attention.) You know that:

• all diphthongs (including improper diphthongs) are long, except for final αι and οι, which are short;
• a circumflex must be over a long syllable;
• η and ω are long;
• ε and ο are short;
• α, ι, and υ can be either short or long;
• if the ultima is long:
• the antepenult cannot be accented, and
• an accented penult must be acute;
• if the ultima is short:
  • the antepenult may receive an [acute] accent, and
  • an accented penult must be circumflex

Do the best you can with the above in figuring out which syllables are short and which are long, but don't worry if you cannot answer for some of them.

Knowledge of which vowels are short or long helps with knowing which kind of accent might go where on a word, but I am not really going to emphasize the accent rules too much in terms of you having to be correct with all your accents when writing Greek words. The accent rules that Croy presents in the book are probably the more important ones, so students should learn these. He seems to discuss accenting more than most first-year books I've read or used.