Conjunction: ὅπου

GrammarConj – ὅπου

The conjunction ὅπου is a kind of relative pronoun. Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause. Relative clauses are subordinate clauses that modify a noun, as in The man who listened to the teacher where who is a relative pronoun that introduces the clause listened to the teacher which modifies the noun phrase the man. The specific man we are referring to is the one that listened to the teacher.

fromLesson 19.4

SyntaxConj – ὅπου

You may have noticed that ὅπου looks very similar to the question word ποῦ ‘where?’ The conjunction ὅπου has the same meaning of ‘where,’ but instead of questioning a location, it is used to introduce a relative clause that refers to a location, as in Peter went to the place where Jesus told him to go. In this example, the conjunction where is modifying the noun the place, and the location described is the place Jesus told him to go. Many languages, such as English, use the same word to both question locations and refer to locations in relative clauses. Greek adds an initial ο to distinguish the relative pronoun from the question word.

There are two basic options for what ὅπου can modify. It can either modify an explicit noun that refers to a location, or it can modify an implicit location associated with a verb:

fromLesson 19.4