Preposition: πρός ‘to, towards’

GrammarPreposition – πρός ‘to, towards’

A preposition (abbreviated prep) is a word that relates whatever comes after it (usually a noun) to something else in the clause. For example, the boy in the room specifies the location of the boy as being spatially related to the room (particularly, the boy is inside the room). Prepositions will have similar functions across languages, but the overlap will only be partial. Because of this, you should be cautious of associating the meaning of a Greek preposition with a particular English gloss. Prepositions in Greek also differ from English in that the noun following the preposition may appear in different cases, and the meaning of the preposition can change depending on the case of the noun that follows. Some meanings are associated with certain cases, such as movement towards something, which is usually associated with the accusative case:

• (6) ἄγω σε πρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον
• I am leading you to the man

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SyntaxPreposition – πρός + accusative

Although πρός may be found with other cases (see 43.4.3), it is almost always found with a noun in accusative case, e.g. πρὸς τόν/τήν/τό.

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SyntaxPreposition – πρός + accusative

Prepositions often have a wide range of interpretations. Oftentimes they are used in different domains of meaning, such as temporal, spatial, causal, etc. As we introduce each preposition, an exhaustive list of the range of uses will not be given, but the primary interpretations for each main domain will be given.

There are two primary parts of the context that determine the meaning of the preposition: the verb the preposition is used with and the noun that follows the preposition. Beginning with the latter, Greek is sensitive to the animacy of the noun after the preposition. Generally, πρός is used to indicate direction towards an animate object. Whereas ‘Bill is going πρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον [to the person]’ is fine, Greek speakers do not normally use a construction like ‘Bill is going πρὸς τὸν οἶκον [to the house],’ as evidenced by the following example:

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