How do I find how many time a Greek word has a specific English translation?

Jim
Jim Member Posts: 730 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

The word δέ has several English translations, most often "but" or "and". I wanted to find out what percentage of the occurrences are translated "but" verses "and."

The Enhanced Strongs Lexicon give counts for how it is translated but it's counts may be based upon older manuscripts. For example it claims the word occurs 2870 times. A Logos Morph search of the ESV gives a count of 2792 which disagrees with the Lexicon and disagrees with the Bible Word Study which shows 2195.

While the differing counts are a problem, the bigger one is that the Logos word study doesn't how many times the word is translated one way or the other.

I've had a related problem. For words that are not used so much, I'd like to have a listing of all the verses where a Greek word is translated into a certain English word.

Have a great day,
jmac

Comments

  • John Brumett
    John Brumett Member Posts: 612 ✭✭

    After you do your search by lemma in the Esv and receive you search results.  Click on the Analysis view and then drag the column lemma and then results to the top right click on the arrow and choose collapse level.  You will see that it is most frequently transled but in the ESV.  These are still a few false results listed but this should help you see how it is translated.

    image 

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,009

    For words at the same location in a reverse interlinear use ANDEQUALS  e.g.

    Lemma:δέ ANDEQUALS  but

    This will find Gk word and where it is translated as 'but'

     

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • NetworkGeek
    NetworkGeek Member Posts: 3,707 ✭✭✭

    You can also right click on the word and do a Bible Word Sudy on the lemma. IN this example, click on the word 'but' and you will see the number of times but is the translation of the lemma. Click on 'and' to see it:

    image

  • Jim
    Jim Member Posts: 730 ✭✭✭

    You can also right click on the word and do a Bible Word Study on the lemma.

    It took me a few tries to get it. The count is over on the left. Thanks!

    I notice though that when my Translation is set to NASB95 the count of occurrences of δέ is 2195 instead of the 2079 you have using the ESV. I guess that means they use a different Greek text which surprises me.

    Have a great day,
    jmac

  • Jim
    Jim Member Posts: 730 ✭✭✭

    For words at the same location in a reverse interlinear use ANDEQUALS 

    This was a new to me. I wasn't aware of this type of search. I think it will come in quite useful. Thanks Dave!

    Have a great day,
    jmac

  • Jim
    Jim Member Posts: 730 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't know about this way of using the search results.

    I did notice two problems though. One is that when I click on the Lemma box, I get all kinds of words in the list, not just δέ.  Does that mean it's using all the words in all the verses that δέ appeared in?

    Secondly, I notice that the counts are very different from the ones that appear in the Bible Word Study Translation results. For example it shows a count of 2972 occurrences of δέ in ESV while the BWS shows 2079. It also shows the "but" translation 405x while the BWS shows 874x. Something's not right.

    Have a great day,
    jmac

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,009

    Jim said:

    For words at the same location in a reverse interlinear use ANDEQUALS 

    This was a new to me. I wasn't aware of this type of search. I think it will come in quite useful. Thanks Dave!

    You might find this wiki article helpful (plus links under See also). Note that

    lemma:δέ NOTEQUALS but

    will find where δέ is not translated "but".

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,009

    Jim said:

    I did notice two problems though. One is that when I click on the Lemma box, I get all kinds of words in the list, not just δέ. 

    Analysis lists all possible results associated with a lemma e.g.

    Mark 14:21

    There are two results for lemma de because there are 2x types of Conjunction.

    Mark 14.31

    "But" is the translation of de + "And" is translated from de and kai.  So you get two results under lemma de and 2 x results for lemma kai because it is an Adverb and a Particle.

    So Analysis will inflate the pure Search count because of multiple values of Morphology, LN, Strong's, etc.

    Jim said:

    Secondly, I notice that the counts are very different from the ones that appear in the Bible Word Study Translation results.

    BWS only counts locations where the lemma is translated. Analysis shows a blank in the Result column where the lemma is NOT translated e.g. Mk 14:20, 29. Note that we have to compare the same bible (ESV) in BWS and Search results. So BWS will deflate the pure Search count.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13