Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ἦ ῥα ‎(ê rha) (Homeric)

Particle

ἆρα • ‎(âra)

1. (interrogative particle, introducing a yes-no question, and often indicating impatience or anxiety)
   1. (in a main clause)
   2. (in a subordinate clause)
2. (in poets, sometimes equivalent to ἄρα ‎(ára))

Usage notes

ἆρα has no single translation when it introduces a main-clause question. English, instead of beginning yes-no questions in an interrogative, begins them in a verb, either the auxiliary used in the non-question form of the sentence, or a form of do:

• He can do it > Can he do it?
• He did it > Did he do it?

ἆρα simply serves as a marker of a yes-no question, as the verb at the beginning of the sentence does in English:

• ποιῆσαι δύναται > ἆρα ποιῆσαι δύναται
• ἐποίησα > ἆρ᾿ ἐποίησα

References

• ἆρα in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἆρα in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «ἆρα» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ἆρα» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2016)
• ἆρα in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G687”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • after idem, page 17.
  • all idem, page 22.
  • so idem, page 790.
  • then idem, page 865.