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154. The grave is written in place of a final acute on a word that is followed immediately by another word in the sentence. Thus, μετὰ τὴν μάχην after the battle (for μετά τήν μάχην). It is also sometimes placed on τὶς, τὶ (334), to distinguish these indefinite pronouns from the interrogatives τίς, τί.

a. An oxytone (157) changes its acute to the grave when followed by another word, except: (1) when the oxytone is followed by an enclitic (183 a); (2) in τίς, τί interrogative, as τίς οὗτος; who's this? (3) when an elided syllable follows the accented syllable: νύχθ᾽ ὅλην (124), not νὺχθ᾽ ὅλην (174 a); (4) when a colon or period follows. (Usage varies before a comma.)

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