Coptic Academy

Understand and Pray

The three books Understand and Pray (افهم وصلِّ) by Anba Demetrius, Bishop of Mallawi, teach Coptic grammar through the Church’s own prayers and the Bible. Each lesson explains one rule and then reads the texts the book chose for it, word by word.

The books themselves are not on the site; what you read here is taken from them.

Understand and Pray, book 1

  1. Lesson 1Definite and indefinite articles · p. 1 · 6 texts
    • Prayer of Reconciliation
    • From the Sunday Theotokia
    • From the Wednesday Theotokia
    • From the Thursday Theotokia
    • From the Prime Doxology (Adam)
    • Litany of Offerings
  2. Lesson 2The conjunctions with, and · p. 17 · 6 texts
    • From the First Hoos
    • From the Fourth Hoos
    • Beginning of the Gospel
    • From the Fraction of St. Basil
    • The book’s examples
    • Conversation
  3. Lesson 3Of · p. 28 · 11 texts
    • From the Midnight Praise
    • From the Third Hoos
    • From the Monday Theotokia
    • From the Tuesday Theotokia
    • From the Commemoration of the Saints
    • From the Litany of the Sick
    • Through the Intercessions
    • After the Commemoration
    • The book’s examples with ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ
    • The short form ⲛ̀ / ⲙ̀
    • Conversation
  4. Lesson 4Demonstrative pronouns · p. 41 · coming
  5. Lesson 5Imperative · p. 57 · coming
  6. Lesson 6Personal pronouns · p. 70 · coming
  7. Lesson 7The sign of the object · p. 82 · coming
  8. Lesson 8The sign of the subject · p. 95 · coming
  9. Lesson 9Negative · p. 110 · coming
  10. Lesson 10Joined pronouns · p. 122 · coming
  11. Lesson 11Past tense, present, future · p. 135 · coming
  12. Lesson 12Possessive adjectives · p. 148 · coming
  13. Appendix 1Cases where the definite and indefinite articles are omitted · p. 163 · coming
  14. Appendix 2Other prepositions, in addition to ⲛⲉⲙ and ⲟⲩⲟϩ · p. 167 · coming
  15. Appendix 3Relative demonstrative pronouns (from far) · p. 174 · coming
  16. Appendix 4Verbal sentence and nominal sentence · p. 178 · coming
  17. Appendix 5The negative of the simple past tense · p. 182 · coming

Understand and Pray, book 2

  1. Lesson 1The relative pronoun · p. 1 · coming
  2. Lesson 2The past before another past · p. 15 · coming
  3. Lesson 3The continuous past · p. 25 · coming
  4. Lesson 4The continuous present · p. 37 · coming
  5. Lesson 5The certain future · p. 51 · coming
  6. Lesson 6Possession (I have) · p. 67 · coming
  7. Lesson 7Condition · p. 86 · coming
  8. Lesson 8The causal form · p. 104 · coming
  9. Lesson 9The prefixes ⲣⲉⲙ and ⲣⲉϥ · p. 123 · coming
  10. Lesson 10The prefixes ⲙⲉⲧ and ϫⲓⲛ · p. 138 · coming
  11. Lesson 11Adverbs of place · p. 157 · coming
  12. Lesson 12Adverbs of time · p. 171 · coming
  13. Appendix 1The different forms of the relative pronoun · p. 187 · coming
  14. Appendix 2Prepositions with a time meaning · p. 189 · coming

Understand and Pray, book 3

  1. Lesson 1The form of wishing · p. 1 · coming
  2. Lesson 2Adjectives · p. 12 · coming
  3. Lesson 3The descriptive form of the verb · p. 24 · coming
  4. Lesson 4Verbs with two pronouns · p. 35 · coming
  5. Lesson 5The pronominal form of the verb · p. 48 · coming
  6. Lesson 6The object signs with pronouns, and other important forms · p. 57 · coming
  7. Lesson 7Derived verbs · p. 68 · coming
  8. Lesson 8The complete future · p. 79 · coming
  9. Lesson 9Negating the habitual present · p. 86 · coming
  10. Lesson 10Comparative and superlative · p. 92 · coming
  11. Lesson 11Questions · p. 101 · coming
  12. Lesson 12Comparison (like) · p. 118 · coming