Plain-English grammar help

Original-Language Grammar Mini-Guides

Original-language work should make the passage clearer, not create false confidence. Use grammar notes only when you can verify them and return every finding to sentence, paragraph, and book context.

Course lesson

How to complete this study section

This lesson teaches careful use of language tools. Words do not carry meaning by themselves; they work inside phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and books. Use grammar and word tools only after observing the passage carefully.

Do this

Choose only load-bearing words or grammatical features that affect the meaning of the unit.
Record the lemma or Strong's number where useful, but do not make the Strong's gloss your final meaning.
Check how the word functions in this sentence: subject, verb, object, command, condition, purpose, contrast, or emphasis.
Compare same-book usage first, then same-author usage, then wider biblical usage.
State the contextual sense in plain English and show how it advances the author's argument.

Examples

If “therefore” begins a verse, do not explain that verse alone; identify the reason or argument that came before it.
If an imperative command follows several indicative statements, note that the command rests on what God has already done.

Quality check

A good word study ends with a sentence about this passage, not with a list of dictionary options.

Mini-guides

Tense

The time or kind of action shown by a verb. In Greek, aspect often matters as much as time.

Voice

Shows whether the subject acts, is acted upon, or is involved in the action.

Mood

Shows whether a verb states reality, gives a command, expresses possibility, or gives a wish.

Participle

A verbal adjective; often translated with -ing. It can explain timing, cause, means, condition, or manner.

Conjunction

A connecting word such as and, but, for, therefore, because, so that. These reveal logic.

Conditional sentence

An if/then statement. Identify the condition and the result.

Hebrew stem

A verb pattern that can show simple action, intensive action, causative action, passive action, or reflexive action.

Hebrew waw

A common Hebrew connector often translated and, but, then, now, or so depending on context.

Parallelism

A Hebrew poetry pattern where lines repeat, contrast, complete, or develop one another.

Semantic range

The range of possible meanings a word can have. Context decides which meaning fits here.

Word-study rule

Choose only two to five load-bearing words.
List possible meanings, but choose the contextual sense from this sentence and paragraph.
Same book and same author carry more interpretive weight than distant usage.
A lexicon gives options; context decides meaning.