8714550 modern greek learning method
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The each of the words introduced in the above table have two forms. One formales and another for females. This roughly corresponds to the actor andactress that is present in English. But in Greek, this is case for every noun. It iswrong to use the masculine form to describe yourself if you are female.
Examples
: ;: . ;: .
He's handsome
Big , -, - Small , , Pretty or Handsome , , Clever , , Good , , Bad , ,
Examples
.
. . O . O .
Explanations Notice how there is agreement with the definite articles and the noun that is
present before. In summary, ' ', ' ' and ' ' are the definite articles forfeminine, masculine and neuter nouns. They all correspond to 'the' in English.In Greek, definite articles are always placed before Peoples names. Thismeans that means Maria in English. You'll find definite articleslisted after nouns in Dictionaries. This tells us the gender of the word.
You have probably noticed that there are three forms of each of the adjectiveslisted in the table above. If the adjective ends with it is masculine. Feminineif it ends with. Finally if it ends with it is neuter. This is important becauseadjectives have to agree with the nouns that they describe. So if the noun ismasculine then the adjective must also be masculine. This is called agreement.We can see this illustrated in the examples above, numbers 2, 4 and 5. 'O ' is masculine so ' ' must also be masculine. The same applies forfeminine nouns look at the first example. is feminine so the form
must be to agree with it. The same is true of neuter nouns look at thethird example.
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If we look at the I'm Greek section, the second example is a question simplybecause of its semicolon. Recall that in speak what makes it a question is therising intonation towards the end of the sentence. In the same way, we canform questions asking whether someone is a doctor ( / .)
Summary We are able to ask someone's name and give our own name. (
? .) We have learnt the ways to what nationality you are. ( .) We can inquire if someone is a certain nationality. ( ;) We now know how to ask what profession someone has. (
;) We can tell people what we do. ( )
professions and nationalities.
accountant baker beginner businessman carpenter cook garbage man general hairdresser housewife journalist explorer farmer
fireman florist
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librarian manager mailman mechanic
musician nurse painter pilot philosopher photographer physicist plumber politician
policeman salesman secretary scientist soldier student surgeon thief tourist volunteer waiter writer
American / Argentinian Belgian Brazilian Canadian Chinese Cypriot Czech Dutchman Englishman French Finnish
German Indian
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Italian Japanese Mexican Moroccan
Norwegian Portuguese Russian Slovenian South African Spaniard Swede Swiss Turk
reading and pronunciation, subjectpronouns, and verbs
Vowels
Greek has five vowel sounds, all vowels are pronounced nearer the English longrather than short:
approximately as inball (closer to father in a Boston accent) approximately as inbet as in beet approximately as inboat as in boot
Throughout this book, tables highlighted in this color have (or will eventually have)audio recordings to go with them.
As you can see from these examples, many letters in the Greek alphabet look liketheir counterparts in English. There are multiple spellings for some of these sounds:
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, , , , , and all sound alike. and sound like EH as in "kettle". and sound like OH as in "over".
ConsonantsThe following letters sound like the English letters they resemble:
,
Note: If you're a native English speaker, try to pronounce a plain , that is without the"h" sound in the end.
Reading practice:
, , , , , , , , ,
Most Greek words have a stressed syllable which in words of more than one syllableis shown with an accent over the stressed vowel.
Vocabulary:
bad against, according to, toward
The following Greek consonants sound like familiar sounds from English, but lookdifferent from their English counterparts:
vee
elle
pee
the
emm
, ess
zee
enn
fee
theh
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eks
eeps
Vocabulary and reading practice:
yes good where with from in but
The following Greek consonants have sounds not found in English:
a soft, gargling g sound, except before the sounds and , where it sounds like y like Spanish r like the ch in Scottishloch
Vocabulary and reading practice:
I write for why?, because to, toward no please
The following combinations of letters have sounds that have to be learned:
oo av before vowel or voiced consonant, else af ev before vowel or voiced consonant, else ef iv before vowel or voiced consonant, else if b at the beginning of a word, mb elsewhere d at the beginning of a word, nd elsewhere , heh , keh
Vocabulary and reading practice:
and
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or he tomorrow I give thanks, thank you (~"Eucharist")
I look for I can Rejoice! (a greeting and leave-taking) summer
One of the big obstacles for an English speaker trying to learn Greek is that so fewcommon usage words are related to English ones (although an estimated 10% to 20%of the total English vocabulary has Greek roots, most of it though of scientific/technical nature). However, sometimes there is a relationship that wouldhelp you to remember the Greek word, but the relationship isn't obvious, as with and Eucharist. When this happens, we'll note it as in the example above,with ~. This may mean that the English word is derived from the Greek one, ormerely that both the English word and the Greek one come from a common root.
Names of the letters:
(or ) (or ) (or ) (or )
Personal subject pronouns
Greek has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Here are the personalsubject pronouns:
I we you, singular you, plural he they (masculine) she they (feminine) it they (neuter)
The second-person plural is also used as the formal form of address, even whenspeaking to a single person.
Verbs
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First conjugation
The subject pronouns are usually omitted, because the form of the verb indicates thesubject. For example:
I write you (singular) write he/she/it writes we write you (plural) write they write
There is no infinitive in modern Greek. For naming a verb, the first-person singular of the present tense is used as a generic term. For example, we refer to the verb ,
to write. To summarize the conjugation of a verb, we write it in a table like this:
Audio recording:This recording was made by a non-native speaker of Greek. Wewould be grateful to any native speaker who could redo it.
is an example of a verb belonging to the first conjugation. Verbs in thisconjugation can be recognized because their accent falls before the final.
The following verbs belong to the first conjugation:
give (~"donate") change read look at see hear arrive leave take buy know think put drink
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Conjugations of some of these verbs: Audio recording: listen(helpinfo) This recordingwas made by a non-native speaker of Greek. We would be grateful to any nativespeaker who could redo it.
The verbs , to have, and , to be
Two important verbs are , to have, and , to be. The first-conjugation verb is regular in the present tense, so it has the same endings as .
To be in English is expressed in the active voice, but the Greek is passive, anddoesn't have an active form. The ending - is a typical, regular ending for passiveverbs. Although we won't be concerned with passive constructions until later, isso important that you need to get it under your belt right away.
Capital letters
Now that we're ready to handle complete sentences, we need capital letters. Most of the capital letters of the Greek alphabet are similar in form either to the lowercaseletters, or to their counterparts in the Latin alphabet:
Sentences
The order of words in a Greek sentence is much more free than in English, but youcan correctly construct a sentence using the familiar English syntax of subject+verb,or subject+verb+object. The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun.
Sentences:
. It is good.
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. It is bad.
In Greek, adjectives change their endings to agree with the gender and number of thenouns they describe (declension ). The following vocabulary list introduces somenouns that happen to be neuter, and some adjectives, which are given in neuter form.The word is the definite article, like English "the," used with singular neuter nouns.
Vocabulary:
water wine tea hot cold
white red to want
Sentences:
. The water is cold . The wine is cold. . The tea is hot. . The white wine is cold.
Negatives are formed by placing before the verb. The question mark in Greek isthe semicolon.
Sentences:
. The red wine is not cold . The water is not hot.
Dialog:
. Hello. . Hello. ; Do you have tea? , . ; No, we don't have tea. Do you want water? , . Yes, thank you.
Dialogue 1
Greeting others
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Mark: .Anna: K .Mark: ;Anna: ;Mark: .
Vocabulary Hello!K Good morning How are you? Very well And you?
Dialogue 2
Introducing yourself Mark: v ;Anna: M v vv .
Vocabulary How they call you they call me
Summary of the alphabet andpronunciationAlphabet /
The Greek Language was one of the first written languages in all world. The scriptused had some peculiarities not observed today: for instance, the vowels were notwritten, and one needed to guess or to know their specific place inside the word. Thisalphabet has been evolving, through contact with other cultures and through thesimple action of the time, until it became what it is today. Amongst the Greekalphabet, we can spot some (or even many) similarities with the Latin (or Roman)one. The alphabet used nowadays has 24 letters: 7 vowels and 17 consonants.
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Letter English Name Greek NameA a alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta eta theta iota
kappa lambda mu nu ksi omicron pi rho
* sigma tau ypsilon phi chi psi
omega
* The sigma has a special lowercase form,used only at the end of words. Both lowercasesigmas have the same value.
Pronunciation of the Alphabet
Greek sounds are, in general, soft. As a major rule, each letter carries a single sound(this is not universal, but almost, as we'll see later in this page). As in the previouschapter, we see here a table with the various letters. This time, the columns representnot the name, but theapproximate sound of the letters.
Letter How to say it IPA XSAMPAA arc [a] a vacuum [v] v
yes before certain vowels,
otherwise like Spanisha gua []before[]or [i]; []
otherwiseG
th is [] D bed [] E zoo [z] z see [i] i
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th in [] T see [i] i
cute before certain vowels, else knock [c] before[]or [i]; [k]otherwise
c, k
clock [l] l m ine [m] m n ine [n] n excellent [ks] k_s oh [] O ape [p] p like Spanish pe ro [] 4 soup [s] s hate [t] t see [i] i ph oto [f] f
like Germani ch before certain vowels,else like German Lo ch [] before[]or [i];
[x] otherwiseC, x
maps [ps] p_s oh [] O
Note: The letter is the most difficult to pronounce for an Englishspeaker: it is like a stronger h, simultaneous with the vibration of thevocal cords; in other words, it is the voiced counterpart of the .Before e and i vowels, it is pronounced as a y like in Diphthongs
Diphthongs are combinations of two vowels that function as a unique sound. Note thatin Modern Greek, the word Diphthong ( ) is also used for combination of vowels that sound like a simple vowel. There are eight diphthongs in Modern Greek.There are also some similar combinations of consonants:
Tabela II - DiphthongsDiphthong How to say it IPA XSAMPA
bed [] E hav e before certain letters,af ter before others [av], [af] av, af see [i] i ever before certain letters,ef fect before others [v], [f] Ev, Ef evening before certain letters, beef before others [iv], [if] iv, if see [i] i
soon [u] u
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see [i] i fing er [g] Ng
good at the beginning of words, fing er anywhereelse [g], [g] g, Ng
banana at the beginning of words, thumb anywhere else [b] , [mb] b, mb
day at the beginning of words, sand anywhereelse [d] , [nd] d, nd
Accent and Diaeresis
Most Greek words have astressed syllable which is the syllable said with morestrength: for instance, in the English wordscomfort and peculiarity , the stressedsyllables arecom and ar , respectively.
Greek marks the stressed syllable with anaccent mark ( ) over the vowel. In one-syllable words, the accent is usually omitted. When the stress falls on a syllable thathas a diphthong, the accent is used above the last letter of this diphthong. Thus, wordslike (Paul ) ou (woman ), are correctly accented.
If the accent is put on the first vowel of a diphthong, it is not read as a diphthong butread as two independent vowels, as in the word (watch or clock ), which hasthree syllables, not two. On the other hand, if one wishes to separate the diphthong,but the accent falls on other syllable, thediaeresis ( ) is used, as in the word ( Hebrew ).
There are, however, some words that aren't stressed (usually monosyllabicgrammatical words), and these don't have an accent. Words like these are read asaffixes added to the main word.Examples :
( the masc.) " " (The father ) is read as a single word -aw-pah-TE-ras ;
( my), " " ( My father ) is also read as a single word -aw-pa-TE-raz-mu .
Every stressed word with more than one syllable carries an accent. However, there are
monosyllabic words that also have accent, like (or ) and (where ). This accenthas a double function:
It distinguishes words that, otherwise, would be equal - (the fem.) and (that, which );
It marks words as strong, unlike their weak comparing counterparts.
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Irregular verbs, the genitive, family, the
body, prepositions
Irregular verbsThe following three verbs have simplified forms that are used in the present tense, butthe other tenses are actually formed from their longer forms.
/ , to say:
/ , to eat:
/ , to go:
, to hear (regular form are also used occasionally):
()
The body
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Vocabulary:
the body (~"somatic") the head (~"decapitate") the brain (~"encephalitis", literally "in-the-head") the eye the eyebrow the hair
the mouth (cognate with "stomach," but meansmouth!)
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the teeth (~"dentist") the ear (~"audio") the nose the lips
the cheeks the jaw the neck the chest (~"stethoscope") the belly the arm AND the hand (the whole upper limb) the palm (cognate with the English word)
the foot AND the leg (the whole lower limb)(~"podiatry")
(colloquial)/ (formal) the sole of the foot
the knee (~"genuflect") naked (~"gymnasium") to comb (~"ctenophore," comb jelly) to take a bath death life (~"zoo") to give birth, give birth to (~"genesis")
the health (~"hygiene") the pain (cognate with the English word) to hurt the heart (~"cardiac")
Example:
. The mother combs the child's hair. . My feet hurt.
! You're tickling my belly!
Clothing/ the clothing to wear to put, put on (clothes) to take out, take off (clothes) the shirt (singular!) the pants/trousers
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the skirt the jacket the coat the shoes
the socks or stockings the hat the belt (~ "zone") the tie (~"cravat")
Examples:
. I put on my clothes. . I take off my coat.
. We aren't wearing shoes.
The genitiveWhat English expresses using possessives or the presposition "of," Greek expressesusing the genitive case. The following example shows the noun in all thesubject, genitive, and object cases.
the dog (subject form) the dogs (subject form) of the dog (genitive form) of the dogs (genitive form) the dog (object form) the dogs (object form)
Example:
the dog's foot (literally, the foot of the dog)
The genitive plural is easy, because it's always formed with - , and the article isalways .
the dogs' feetThe genitive singular is formed according to a greater variety of patterns, of whichthree of the most important are shown here:
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Accentuation
In some nouns, when the antepenult is accented, the genitive is accented at the penultand when the penult is accented the genitive is accented at the ultimate. There is a setof rules to distinguish in which cases this happens. Most of the rules derive fromAncient Greek and have to do with either long and short vowels or Ancient Greekdeclensions. This is an issue with Modern Greek itself, since most of the nuances of Ancient Greek are lost in Modern Greek. People in most cases put the accentintuitively and at some instances even native speakers have great difficulty inaccentuating correctly. This is why it is often said that in order to properly speakModern Greek, one has to have at least a basic level of Ancient Greek.
( / ) the men's feet (genitive plural) ( / ) the man's feet (genitive singular) ( / ) the men's feet (genitive plural)but ( / ) the fathers' feet ( / ) the man's feet (genitive singular)
The accent can also advance two positions, from antepenult to ultimate betweennominative plural and genitive plural. The noun (the caress) presents thefollowing declensions:
Genitive indefinite article
The following list shows the indefinite article in all three of the cases covered so far:
one, masculine subject of one, masculine genitive
one, masculine object or one, feminine subject or of one, feminine genitive or one, feminine object one, neuter subject of one, neuter genitive one, neuter object
Genitive pronouns
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, ,
When indicating possession, the genitive pronoun follows the noun it modifies.
! To your health (Cheers!) my book . His head is big.
When greeting a person you either say (the polite plural) or (friendly address, more often than not the is omitted). is a short form for (health "hygiene"). For a group of people except the abovementioned , the salutation (rejoice) is also utilized.
When a noun followed by a possessive pronoun has the accent on the third syllablefrom the end, it gets a second accent on the final syllable:
my knee
In Greek, rather than saying that you like something, you say that it is pleasing to you,using the verb :
. I like the car (lit. "The car is pleasing to me.")
This form is a remnant of the ancient dative case ( ). Something similarhappens with certain prepositions (see below).
PrepositionsThe following are some common prepositions:
with, by means of together with without for from (moving away from) , in, at, on, moving to into on above, over below, under
after before (~"pre-")
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before, in front of (~"proactive") against against , from, out of (~"ex-wife")
Examples:
. Anna's key is under the table. . I'm from America.
If the preposition is followed by a definite article, the joint form ( )/ ( )/ ( plus ( )/ ( )/ ) is used:
. Anna's key is on the table. . Paul is at the theater.
As a remnant of ancient Greek's more complex case system, certain prepositions ( , , / ) are supposed to take the genitive case rather than the object(accusative) case. In these constructions, the genitive is really being used as the dative(indirect object) case, as in the use of the genitive with the verb . This is ausage that is dying out, and a beginner doesn't need to worry about it too much. Thereare, however, certain fixed phrases that will seem inexplicable otherwise:
, .. before Christ
OK
Prepositions used as prefixes
It is extremely common for Greek verbs to be formed by adding a preposition as aprefix to a simpler verb. However, the preposition may be in a different form than theones given above, e.g., rather than . A common prefix is -/ -, from theancient Greek preposition , with, together. Two other suffixes based on ancientGreek prepositions are , for, because of, relating to , and , under (~"hypodermic").
to shoot; in ancient Greek, to throw to invade: (modern )+ , 'throw in' to contribute to: + , 'throw together' to debouch to expel to pay, put down money, buckle to to slander someone, put someone down to submit something, subject to, suggest
to blow (~"pneumatic")
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to inhale something to exhale, die, expire, terminate something to run through
to be away, to be lacking to leave something behind to vanish, be in eclipse (~"eclipse") to be intermittent (also = lapse of memory) (passive) to fall short of (also = the rest, residual)
FamilyVocabulary:
the father the mother the man, the husband the woman, the wife the son the girl, daughter the brother (~"Philadelphia") the sister the grandfather the grandmother the uncle the aunt the nephew (~"nepotism") the niece
Examples:
my father your son . Helen is my daughter. . She's Anna's mother. . It's the brothers' house.
Note that in Greek, a definite article is used with a person's name.
Grimm's law
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The words and are actually closely related to the English wordsmother and father. When English and Greek words are derived from the same root intheir common ancestral language, Indo-European, the consonants are related asfollows:
f th h p t k b d g
This is known as Grimm's law (after a linguist from the same family that collected theGrimm's fairy tales). Sometimes it can help you to learn words in Greek.
Examples:
two three foot
In some cases, the Greek word that's cognate to the English one is ancient rather thanmodern. For example,brother corresponds to the ancient (e.g. "fraternity"),not the modern , and door to the ancient rather than modern (which is a loan from italian).
Nouns in - and -
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Other than - , the most common endings for masculine nouns are - and - .
, the father:
subject genitive object
, the student, pupil:
subject genitive object
These endings are particularly common in nouns referring to professions, e.g., , the astronaut.
PeopleVocabulary:
the worker
the doctor(~"psychiatrist") (formal) and in plural and not asis noted by the picture, (coll.)
the priest(~"hieroglyph")
the soldier the tailor
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the sailor the sailor (military) the thief, guerrilla the farmer
the driver the teacher the student (university)
the student (technicalschool)
the student (elementaryschool) the clerk, the employeeo the police officer
the friend the neighbor (coll.), (formal) the baby
(also , but rarely) the young person(~"new")
the old man(~"geriatrics") strong rich poor the king the queen
Examples:
. My friend's son is a priest. . The king is rich. The teacher has 30 students.
The letter at the end of a wordYou might have noticed above that while both and aremasculine nouns, the definite article at the accusative (object) case is different:
There is a general rule that applies to not only the definite article but most words
ending with a. According to this rule if thenext word doesnot start with a vowel orany of the voiceless plosives ( , , , , ) then the is often omitted.
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Thus, the avoidance of complex consonant combinations helps in keeping the smoothflow of the speech.
ReadingVocabulary:
lit. "around ten," used loosely the sameway "a dozen" is used in English . I'm ordering a suit. , -- , , .
Fortunately, there's a store that sellsvery good material, and it has a largevariety of fabrics -- wool, cotton,nylon, etc.
' .
The Greeks don't like to buy ready-made suits.
. They usually go to the tailor. , .
The tailor takes your measurements,and uses all his skill to make your suitperfect.
'
At the same store, I'm also buying a abunch of white shirts.
.
They also have very good silk ties in allcolors.
Object pronouns, the vocative, morenumbers, food, past tenses in first
conjugationObject pronounsWe've already seen the personal subject pronouns in lesson 1, and the genitives inlesson 3. Here are the object forms:
me us you, singular you, plural
him them (masculine) her them (feminine)
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it them (neuter)
The object pronouns come before the verb:
. They see me.
The vocativeThe vocative case is used when the noun is a person (or, conceivably, a thing) beingaddressed. The following are some examples of nouns in all four cases.
Masculine nouns
, dog, is a masculine noun. Note the different forms of the definite article.
the dog (subject, singular) the dogs (subject, plural) of the dog (genitive singular) of the dogs (genitive plural)( ) the dog (object, singular) the dogs (object, plural) ! dog! (vocative singular) ! dogs! (vocative plural)
The ending - is the most common one for masculine nouns, and demonstrates their regular pattern. Another noun in -o is , human/man
Examples: . The dog bites the man. . The man bites the dog.
Feminine nouns
The noun (the hour, the time) is shown below:
the hour (subject, singular) the hours (subject, plural) of the hour (genitive singular) of the hours (genitive plural) the hour (object, singular) the hours (object, plural) ! hour! (vocative singular) ! hours! (vocative plural)
Neuter nouns
(the child) is an example of a neuter noun.
the child (subject, singular) the children (subject, plural)
of the child (genitivesingular)
of the children (genitiveplural)
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the child (object, singular) the children (object, plural) ! child! (vocative singular) ! children! (vocative plural)
More numbersMultiples of 10:
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Most numbers from 1 to 100 are formed by giving a multiple of 10 following by thesecond digit of the number. (The numbers from 13 to 19 are written as single words,and the ones above 20 as two words.)
13 68
The numbers 11 and 12 are exceptions:
(or ) 11 12
Past tenses
Imperfect tense in first conjugationThe imperfect tense is used to describe an action in the past that was continuous orrepeated. For verbs in the first conjugation, it is formed from the progressive stem bymoving the accent to the third syllable from the end, and adding endings that differfrom those used in the present. The following example illustrates this with the verb :
Present:
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Imperfect:
Example:
. My grandmother used to read.
If the stem of the verb is too short to allow an accent on the third syllable from theend, the prefix- is added:
Past tense in first conjugation
The past tense is used to indicate an action that occurred at one time in the past, orthat has been completed. It is formed in the same was as the imperfect, but from theaorist stem.
Past:
Example:
, . Yesterday, he read the newspaper.
Past tenses of and
The verbs and have only a single past tense, rather than separate imperfectand past tenses.
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Past tense of :
Past tense of :
Example:
, , .[1]
Achilles was the son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the nymph Thetis.
Formation of the aorist stem in the first conjugation
We have already seen that aorist stems are often formed by adding an "s" sound. Thefollowing list shows more of the common patterns:
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loosen put, place hear feel read change exist open aim push teach write
lack lean, bend over
Examples:
. They loosened their belts. . We can hear the dogs. , . .
[2]
Euclid was a greek mathematician whotaught in Alexandria, Egypt. Today (lit."in our days") he is known as the father
of geometry.
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The colors/
black white red yellow green / azure, light blue (transliteration from french: bleu ) blue ( from the fruit ) orange
( from coffee ) brown / (transliteration ) mauve (transliteration from french: gris ) grey
Examples:
. The flower is red. . The flowers are white.
Since (the color) is a neuter noun, we use the neuter gender to refer to itself,although we use the masculine or feminine gender to refer to it as a characteristic of amasculine or feminine noun:
Foreign words like do not change to show case or number:
(french: cache-col) the blue scarf
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(french: cache-col) the blue scarfs
Food and restaurants
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/ the food
the traditional restaurant(~"tavern") the modern restaurant
the coffee the traditional coffee-house / the modern coffee-house the menu the waiter the bill (lit.the account ) the bread (colloquial)/ (formal) the bakery the salad
the beer the milk the yoghurt the fish the meat (~"pancreas") the tomato the olive the fruit the honey (~"mellifluous") the sugar the salt the dish, plate (colloquial)/ (formal) the breakfast sweet (colloquial)/ (formal) the sweet, the dessert the spoon the knife the fork (when not from paper, ) the napkin
the drinking glass the grapes the hemlock
Example:
.
A long time ago, women weren't supposed
to sit in traditional coffee houses.
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The verbs , to eat , and , to drink, are irregular.
The verb () , to eat
.
Present tense:
Imperfect:
Past (The aorist stem is -):
Notice the- prefix on the past tense of all persons except first and second person
plural. Example:
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. Adam and Eve ate the fruit.
The verb , to drink
.
Present tense:
Imperfect:
Past:
Example:
. Socrates drank the hemlock.
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(The scientific name for hemlock is conium maculatum , which is Latin for "poisonhemlock." A very popular rock band in Greece during the sixties and seventies borethe name "Socrates drank the conium.")
Dialog- . ; -I'm hungry. Where can I eat?- . .
-That tavern has very good food. Let's gothere.
- , . -Waiter, the menu, please.- , . ;
-I know they have fresh fish here, andgood chicken and very tasty meat. Butwhat can we drink?
- , .
-Everybody in Greece drinks ouzo, butwe can drink beer or retsina.
- ; ;
-In other words, you're trying to tell methat ouzo is the national drink? And isn'tlamb their national food?
- , , .
-Of course, as well as souvlaki,moussaka, etc.
- . .
-Then we'll taste their famous food rightaway. Bon apetit!
Song: is a very well known folk song.
Review of old vocabulary:
(aorist -) to carry (aorist -) to fall to throw (aorist -) to take out to take to grab, here to hitch
New vocabulary:
to move bracelet to rumble, thunder voice sorrow
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lit. "sorrowful," used in expressions meaning poor me, poor you, etc. golden cord, rope
- - -
...
...
. ...
...
...
Translation:Yerakina moved to fetch cold water...her bracelets thunder (present).She fell into the well, and she shouted with a big voice (lit. brought a big voice out of her mouth).And everyone came running, and I came running, too, poor me.Threw down a golden rope, and hitched it to her belt.Yerakina, I'll pull you out, and take you for my wife.
The countryside, more about second-conjugation verbs
Vocabulary
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to fly the fly the bee (~"mellifluous", honeyed) the ant
the path, trail narrow (~"stenographer") the mountain pass / to go for a walk (~"peripatetic") the mountain the hill the valley / the river (~"hippopotamus") the stream, creek the rock the soil ; the north; northern (~"aurora borealis") ; the south; southern ; the east; eastern (~"Anatolia") ; the west; west the sun (~"helium," which was first detected in the sun) the moon the sky (~"Uranus," the sky god) the shadow / the star (~"astronaut") the Earth
Examples:
; Where is the path? . The trail is narrow. the farmer's horse
the valley of the shadow of death
The verb , to exist The verb , to exist , is used where we would saythere is or there are inEnglish.
. There are cows in the countryside.
; Is there any birdn the tree? (lit. Is there no bird onthe tree? )
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, . I think, therefore I am.
The verb , to goThe common verb has the aorist forms and .
. We're going to the country. . We went to the country. ; Do you want to go to the country?
More about second-second-conjugationverbs
Imperfect tense
The Imperfect is the Past Continuous in English.
Both first order verbs like (to love) and second order verbs like (to call),use the suffix- -:
Examples:
. The mother was calling her child. . The child loved his mother.
Aorist
The aorist is the simple past in English.
Verbs use one of the suffixes --, - , --. The accent also goes to the previoussyllable:
The verb (to love) becomes
The verb (to go thirsty) becomes
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The verb (to call, to invite) becomes
Examples:
. The mother called her child. . The children went thirsty.
Subjunctive
The subjunctive has two forms according to the aspect being perfective orimperfective:
Perfective Aspect:
The perfective aspect uses the aorist stem, which can be one of - -,- -,- .
Imperfective Aspect:
The imperfective subjunctive is conjugated exactly like the present tense (with theaddition of )
Examples:
I want to invite you to my birthday (party) thisyear. ( perfective )
,
You should invite me every year, not only thisyear. (imperfective )
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The seasons the summer the fall; the autumn the winter the spring
The weatherVocabulary:
the weather
the sunshine the cloud the rain the (rain) shower the storm the thunder the lightning (from cloud to cloud) the lightning (if reaching the ground) to moisten
it rains the snow it snows the sleet the fog the mist the dew the hail the frost
Examples:
; .
Do you want to go for a walk on thepath to the village? It isn't raining.
, . It was summer, but it was raining. . It's hot today. . It's cold on the mountain. , .
We don't want to go on foot, becauseit's raining.
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. .[1]
Zeus is the son of Kronos and Rhea. Heis the god of the sky and the thunder.
Future tensesThe future tense is formed by adding the word before the verb:
. It will be hot tomorrow.
Combining with the present tense gives thefuture continuous ( , exakolouthitikos melondas, "future imperfect"), which implies that theaction will continue, perhaps indefinitely:
. I will be cleaning the house.
If we instead use the aorist stem, we have thefuture simple ( ,stigmieos melondas, "future instantaneous"), which implies that the action will onlyhappen once:
. I will clean the house (at a certain time).
Dialog
- , . -Hello, ma'am. - , . -Hello, sir. - , ; -This farm, is it yours? - . ; -Yes. Where are you going on your walk? - . . ;
-To the village. The country is verybeautiful. How many cows do you have?
- , . -Twelve, and a bull.
Song:
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A scene from the Greek War of Independence.
This song dates to the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1827.
thief, guerrilla, resistance fighter young resistance fighter , long gun (rifle, musket, or shot gun)
,
, , , , ,
' ' , ' ' : !
, ,
, '
, .
(Note: The words above are transcribed from the recording. In the second-to-lastverse, the traditional words are actually " ' ' .")
Translation:
Mother, mother, the warriors, they eat and sing, they drink and make merry.
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But one young warrior, he doesn't eat, he doesn't sing, doesn't drink or makemerry.He only looks at his weapons, and says to his musket, "Hello Kitso, my braveman!"My musket, my proud musket, my sword unsheathed, a joy you are, my dear.
Many times, many times you saved me from the hands of my enemies whochased me day and night.And now, and now you forget me like a reed in the field. You don't tell mewhat to do.
Passive voice, perfect tenses, the verbs and , numbers to 1000
Passive voiceCertain verbs have both active and passive forms:
. I marry (i.e. perform a wedding in the capacity of a priest, mayorand/or best man/woman). . I am getting married.
Just as the first-person singular present-tense form, , is used to refer to theactive verb in general, so the first-person singular present tense of the passive voice, , refers to the passive form in general.
Example:
. The wine makes me dizzy. . I get dizzy.
Sometimes the passive voice is used to express the idea of doing something tooneself, or to describe someone's own physical or mental state:
. I hide the money. . I hide (myself) . The mother combs the child's hair. . The mother combs her (own) hair. to comb one's own hair (a lyrical construction) ; Where do you get your hair done?
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In many cases, the passive form has a meaning that can't be guessed simply by takingthe same concept and making the subject of the verb the recipient of the action. Thefollowing are some passive verbs:
be, sit, stand drill, train (sports) break apart get ready be born
Some verbs only exist in the passive voice, for example:
arrive, come appear (~"phenomenon")
need, require remember (~"thymus") be afraid (~"phobia") feel (~"aesthetics") sleep fall asleep to reflect, to ponder something (~"skeptic") to think (~"syllogism") sit become receive, accept
The present tense of the passive is conjugated like this:
Example: . The mother puts the baby to sleep. . The baby falls asleep. . The baby and the mother fall asleep.
Perfect and PluperfectAs in English, the perfect tenses are formed using the helping verbto have .
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The Perfect tense (same as Present Perfect in English) is called (parakeimenos, "being close") is formed by the verb in present tense followed bythe third person singular of the past subjunctive of the verb. The past subjunctive isformed by the aorist stem plus the suffix - .
. I have written. . We have written.
The Pluperfect tense (same as Past Perfect in English) is called (hypersyndelikos, "hyper-perfect") is formed by the verb in past tense followedby the third person singular of the past subjunctive of the verb
. I had written. . We had written.
. He had said goodbye to his wife.
Future PerfectFuture Perfect is another future tense, which is formed with the word preceding thePerfect tense and signifies that in a moment in the future, an action will be a thing of the past. Its Greek name is (syndelesmenos melondas) and itis equivalent to the Future Perfect in English.
. I will have written.
Note that in Greek there is no equivalent to the Future Perfect Continuous tense. Bothmeanings are expressed with Future Perfect and usually the actual nuance is derivedfrom the neighboring words.
. I will have written. . I will have been writing.
Due to the lack of Future Perfect Continuous, very often the phrase is changed toFuture Continuous.
No Greek equivalent. I will have been waiting for two hours whenthe plane arrives.The phrase changes to
. I will be waiting for two hours until theplane arrives.
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The irregular verb , to seeThe present tense is regular:
The aorist uses a stem that is related to the English word "kaleidoscope:"
The irregular verb , to say Present:
Aorist past:
Numbers to 1000 100 200 300 400 500 600 (coll. ) 700 (coll. ) 800 900 1000 2000
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The battle of Thermopylae/
Vocabulary
the battle the war (~"polemic") to fight the peace (~"Irene," "irenic") , .. before Christ to shoot (in ancient Greek, 'to throw') to invade (from + , 'throw in') Persia the Persian
Sparta the Spartan
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the army (~"strategy") the arrow the bow the sword
hide (+genitive) against (+accusative) stand fast (lit. "hold strong") to slow down ( + )
Reading
Much of the following reading was adapted from the Wikipedia article
(Battle of Thermopylae).
484 .., . 200.000 , 4.000 .
In 484 B.C., King Darius of Persiainvaded Greece. Against 200,000Persians, there were 4,000 Greeksunder King Leonidas of Sparta.
, . . .
Leonidas was saying farewell to hiswife, Gorgo. Gorgo asked him what sheshould do now that he was leaving. Hereplied that she should find a good manand continue her life.
. : . .
At the Pass of Thermopylae, the Greekswere waiting for the Persians. ThePersians saw them: They couldn't understand why they were combing their hair and taking exercise. It was becausethey were expecting death.
. . . . , : , .
There was no fear. They were doing theonly thing they knew. To fight. It had become their life. When someone said hehad seen the Persian army and their
arrows were hiding the sun, a Spartansaid: Nice, then we will fight in theshade.
. , . , . 479 .., .
The Greeks held out for five days. Whentheir swords broke, they fought withtheir hands and teeth. The battle of Thermopylae slowed down the Persians,and Greece was able to get ready to
fight. In 479 B.C., the Persians retreated from Greece.
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Passive imperfect, comparisons,expressions of time
Passive imperfect tenseReview of the present passive; , to trust :
The passive imperfect, like the active imperfect, indicates an action in the past thatwas ongoing:
ComparisonsComparisons of adjectives like -er and -est in English are expressed using the endings- and - :
rich richer the richest a rich politician a richer politician the richest politician the richest queen
Note the shift in the accent toward the end of the word. The common word ,big , has the irregular form .
The word can be used instead:
. That politician is richer. . That politician is the richest.
Vocabulary:
much
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many how much how many more
least a little a few ... ... as ... as ... almost (used with numbers and amounts) enough very much
Expressions of timeReading
' , .
, , .
, . ' . , .
-- ! --
. . . ' .
.... ' . .
. (1897)
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An old man is sitting, bent over the table in the back of the noisy coffeehouse, anewspaper in front of him, companionless.
And in the despair of miserable old age, he thinks how little he enjoyed the yearswhen he was strong and beautiful, and had a say in things.
He knows he's very old; he can feel it and see it. Still the time when he was youngseems like yesterday. What a short time, what a short time.
And he thinks what a trick Prudence has played on him; how he trusted her -- whatfolly! -- and how she lied when she said, "Tomorrow. There's always tomorrow."
He remembers the passions he controlled, and the joys he passed by. Now those lostopportunities mock his foolish wisdom.
But all that thinking and remembering makes him dizzy, and he falls asleep in thecoffeehouse, bent over the table.