Day 24 | Corfu

These are the pictures from a 10 day trip to Corfu.  There are a lot more where these came from and a tonne more of the sea but there are only so many ways in Greek you can say θάλασσα.  Either way, I hope you enjoy the pictures and more to the point, learn from the narratives that come with it.

ακρίδα akreetha Grasshopper

σφήκα sfeeka Wasp

υδροπαρκο eethroparkoh Water park

αράχνη araknee Spider

κρασί krasee Wine

εκκλησία ekkleeseeah Church

θάλασσα thalassa Sea

ποτά potα drink

βράχος vrakos rock

μου moo me!

γάτα / σκύλος gata / skeelos cat / dog

χορός choros dance

Corfu Town

ορίζοντας horeezontas horizon

κατσίκα katseeka goat

ψάρι psaree fish

πεταλούδα petalootha butterfly

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Day 23 | Cyprus

Counting down the days until we're off to Corfu (5 days and 35 minutes).  Whilst it's Greece I'm heading for, I wanted to devote this post to Cyprus which is the primary purpose for learning the language in the first place.  Since I have never been there I'm looking at the Cypriot points of interest in the country which would help me when I make that journey in the near future and potentially anyone else who makes that trip too.

You can see that there are 4 main regions in Cyprus (Paphos in the West, Limassol in the South, Larnaco in the East and Nicosia in the North) that sits underneath the UN buffer zone.

Limassol	Λεμεσός (Lemesos)
Larnaca	Λάρνακα (Larnaka)
Nicosia	Λευκωσία (Lefkosia)
Pahos	Πάφος (Pafos)

So now you know Cyprus is cut up in four, you might want to know the best places to visit when there.  I'm unashamedly ripping the below list from a review website which I'll be using myself when popping over there.

Buyuk Han, Nicosia
Ayia Napa
Paphos Castle
Larnaca Salt Lake and Hala Sultan Tekke
Kourion
Kolossi Castle
Cedar Valley
The Paphos mosaics
Greko National Park
Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca

Lastly, to get it back to language here are some place descriptions in Greek that should be useful when navigating around here and there.  One caveat is that Town is normally referred to as a poly (πόλη) which is the same as whats used for City.  In some rare instances people use a different term for Town which is shown below.

bus station	σταθμό λεωφορείων (stathmó leo̱foreío̱n)
police station	αστυνομικό τμήμα (astynomikó tmí̱ma)
fire station	Πυροσβεστικός Σταθμός (Pyrosvestikós Stathmós)
hospital	νοσοκομείο (nosokomeío)
airport	αεροδρόμιο (aerodrómio)
town	κωμοπολη (komopolee)
city	πόλη (póli̱)
village	χωριό (cho̱rió)
seaside	παραλία (paralía)

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Day 22 | Restaurant

This blog is dedicated to my story in learning the Greek language.  Here will be notes, scribbles and anecdotes in the pursuit of becoming fluent (with a Cypriot twang!) in this Indo-European dialect (see, we're already learning).  I invite help and advice from those equipped to teach the lingo as well as questions from individuals enduring their own journey.  There is nothing more solitary than a student head-down in a text book learning something esoteric as a new language, so a more collaborative process will help me and hopefully cajole others in getting "there" quicker (with some fun on the way).  Therefore, feel free to email, post comments and share your own experiences. 

So, to get the ball rolling as well as for reference, there is no better time to bring up the Alphabet (that hieroglyphic assortment of sticks we use to make words).  Below you'll see 24 cryptic letters with the pronunciation below which the Greeks have as their consonants and vowels.  I'm reliably informed that in the modern Hellenic language the sound "e" occurs more frequently than is necessary to the extent that the powers that be (the speak police I think they're called) are discussing truncating the alphabet.  Epsilon-Iota, Omicron-Iota, Iota, Eta and Upsilon all sound like the "e" in the English language (not a good start, but at least we're tidying up). 

So there's the first tentative steps (an indecipherable string of letters that are in some cases redundant).  In the next piece I'll look at how these letters sound orally before I embark on the juicy task of making words (some of them clean).  As I go into the Alphabet in detail next time please feel free to share your tips and tricks in remembering or articulating them pesky little letters.  Enjoy!



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Day 21 | Countries

Back from Lake District but then had a "brief" period of neglect with my Greek (see the highest peak we reached in pic above).  Here I am picking it up again with Countries this time.  You'd think this would be simple on the face of it since they're nouns.  However, these words change based on context and gender etc.  Britain, for example, as a country is called Βρετανία which sounds like Bretaneeah.  A British male is called Βρετανοσ, a British woman is called Βρετανιδα.  There are also different words for describing a "thing" as of a country origin.  For example, a British show would be described in Greek as βρετανικό Σαλόνι (Bretanikoh) whereas in English British is British in every context.  Below is a table of some useful countries with the third column in orange showing first the country in Greek and then in brackets how you would describe a male/female person in terms of nationality.  The male generally ends in ος (-os) and the female in either η (ee) or δια (theea).

 

	England (english)	Αγγλία (άγγλος/ιδα)	agleeah
	Scotland (scottish)	Σκωτία (σκωτσέζος/α)	scotteeah
	Wales (welsh)	Ουαλία (ουαλός/η)	Ooaleeah
	Northern Ireland (northern irish)	Βόρεια Ιρλανδία (Βόρειο Ιρλανδός/η)	Boreeah Irlantheeah
	Ireland (irish)	Ιρλανδία (ιρλανδός/η)	Irlantheeah
	Europe (european)	Ευρώπη (Ευρωπαίος/α)	Evropee
	Greece (greek)	Ελλάδα (έλληνας/ιδα)	Ellahthah
	Cyprus (cypriot)	Κύπρος (κύπριοσ/α)	Kypros
	France (french)	Γαλλία (γάλλοσ/ιδα)	Ghalleeah
	Germany (german)	Γερμανία (γερμανός/ιδα)	Jermaneeah
	Italy (italian)	Ιταλία (ιταλός/ιδα)	Italeeah
	Spain (spanish)	Ισπανία (ισπανόσ/ιδα)	Ispaneeah
	Turkey (turkish)	Τουρκία (τούρκος/αλα)	Toourkeeah
	India (indian)	Ινδία (ινδιάνος/α)	Intheeah
	China (chinese)	Κίνα (κινέζος/α)	Keenah

If you're like me and not a big fan of nationalistic divergences and all what it stands for, you might find these more useful:

world is κόσμος (kosmos)
earth is γη (yee)
solar system is ηλιακό σύστημα (eeliakoh seesteema)

universe is σύμπαν (seempan)

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Day 20 | Connectives

Been really bad lately with keeping up with the lingo learning (especially when we're getting beautiful weather like these weekends!).  Anyway, here are some connective words that will help pack your sentances a bit more flowingly.

and	και	kay
or	ή	ee
but	αλλά	alla
if	αν	an
because	επειδή	epeethee
before	προτού / πριν	protoo / breen
after	μετά	meta
while	ενώ	enoh
until	μέχρι	mechree
with	με	meh
so	έτσι	ehtsee

This is nothing but a memory exercise (no logic to apply like the last posts on verbs and conjugations).  To make it easier here's a sentance to exemplify:

I have coffee with a biscuit after my meal or dessert but not before I pay the bill

Έχω καφέ με ένα μπισκότο μετά το γεύμα ή το γλυκό μου, αλλά όχι πριν να πληρώσω τον λογαριασμό

I'm not quite sure why there are multiple words for before (προτού / πριν) and when to use which. Off to the Lake District in the next couple of days so another possible prolongued abscence.  Anyway, anyone know any good mobile apps for greek learning (that are free, obviously).  


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Day 19 | Useful Verbs

Today I am teasing out the verbs a little futher by looking at the future, past and have tenses.  I deliberately picked out the words that I use most often on the phone secretly at work.  Unsuprisingly I looked at the verb to leave and to work which I've shown below.  It's a lot of work writing out the transliteration of these as I've done in the past so for this post entry I won't bother and rely on the reader to read the Greek letters.  Let me know if you need any help.

To leave

φυγη	Leave (noun)
θα φυγω	I will leave
θα φυγεις	you will leave
θα φυγει	he/she/it will leave
θα φυγουμε	we will leave
θα φυγετε	you lot leave
θα φυγουν	they will leave
φύγε	you leave! (command)

To work

δουλειά	work (noun)
δουλεύω	I am working
δουλεύεις	you are working
δουλεύει	he/she/it is working
δουλεύουμε	we are working
δουλεύετε	you lot are working
δουλεύουν	they are working
Future tense
θα δουλεψω	I will work
θα δουλεψεις	you will work
θα δουλεψει	he/she/it will work
θα δουλεψουμε	we will work
θα δουλεψετε	you lot will work
θα δουλεψουν	they will work
εσύ δουλεψε!	you work! (command)
Past tense
δουλεψα	I worked
δουλεψες	you worked
δουλεψε	he/she/it worked
δουλεψαμε	we worked
δουλεψατε	you lot worked
δουλεψαν	they worked
Have tense
εχω δουλεψει	Ι have worked
εχεις δουλεψει	you have worked
εχει δουλεψει	he/she/it worked
εχουμε δουλεψει	we worked
εχετε δουλεψει	you lot worked
εχουν δουλεψει	they worked

I don't know about you but that is a danger to the brain.  So many subtle nuance to learn and apply.  I put in the "have" sentances above because it looks like a bit of a cheat since you only have to learn the "to have" verbs and learn only one variation of the operative verb ("worked") instead of loads of different ones.  Good luck to all who embark on this.  I've only just started it so I'll keep repeating the process on different verbs.  Practise makes perfect.  Just keep in your backpocket the below pseudo-rules for verb endings:

I -ω

you -εις

he/she/it -ει

we -ουμε

you lot -ετε

they -ουν

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Day 18 | 5 Senses

To be honest, I'm still struggling with the verbs even after all this time.  Because of that I made a point of the five senses since there aren't many actions that are more important than taste, touch, see, hear and smell.  Remember that these are prone to change based on who and what you are talking about in context.

See δείτε theeteh
Hear ακούω akoo-oh
Touch αγγίζετε agheezeteh
Taste γεύση ghevsee
Smell μυρωδιά meerotheeah

Here are some sentances to demonstrate.

can you see it?	μπορείς να το δείτε;	borees na to theeteh
can you hear it?	μπορείς να το ακούσετε;	borees na to akoosehteh
can you touch it?	μπορείς να το αγγίξετε;	borees na to agheezehteh
can you taste it?	μπορείς να το δοκιμάσετε;	borees na to thokemasehteh
can you smell it?	μπορείς να μυρίζει;	borees na meereezee

You'll be forgiven for some confusion in the above translations.  "Can" for whatever reason comes in two letters (μποτείς να) and the "it" (το) comes before the verb.  More distintinctly though is how "taste" changes (γεύση, δοκιμάσετε etc).  This is a very difficult verb to apply in sentances so if anyone can help with some examples that would be very helpful!  It seems that one is a noun and the other a verb.  Here's some more sentances to tease out some questions...

it looks good	φαίνεται καλό	fehnehteh kahloh
it sounds good	ακούγεται καλό	akoogehteh kaloh
it feels good	αισθάνεται καλό	ehsthanehteh kaloh
it tastes good	δοκιμάζει καλό	thokemazeh kaloh
it smells good	μυρίζει καλό	meereezee kaloh

Important to remember here is that there seems to be a lot of different words for what seems to be on the surface a single word.  To look for example can have the following applied: βλεπω, κοιταζω, δειτε (if anyone can explain the differences that would help me and no doubt everyone else!). 

Finally, this is what someone else has done on the internet to explain how look can change based on conjugation, which I'm unashamedly recreating below for your entertainment(!) as its pretty neat:

Βλέπω

Singular
εγώ βλέπω
εσύ βλέπεις
αuτός βλένει
αύτη βλένει
αυτό βλένει

Plural
εμείς βλέπουμε
εσείς βλέπετε
αυτοί βλέπουν
αυτές βλέπουν
αυτά βλέπουν

Really need a lot of help with this stuff, so please drop me a comment if you can explain some of the gaps/mistakes.


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Day 17 | Face

This is going to be a quick one as need to get some sleep in before work early in the morning.  On the way to Seven Sisters in Sussex on the train I thought a lot about my face (yep, that's right) and decided to start naming parts of it as there is no better way to call out people than by how they look.  So here are the main assets most people are likely to have in both English and Greek (I'm not aware of any major differences between the two populaces), from top to bottom:

Hair	μαλλιά	may-yah	neutral plural
Hair	τρίχα	treeha	feminine singular
Eyebrow	φρύδι	freethee	neutral singular
Eyebrows	φρύδιa	freetheeah	neutral plural
Eye	μάτι	matee	neutral singular
Eyes	μάτια	mateeah	neutral plural
Nose	μύτη	meetee	feminine singular
Ear	αυτί	aftee	neutral singular
Ears	αυτιά	afteeah	neutral plural
Mouth	στόμα	stomah	neutral singular
Tongue	γλώσσα	glossah	feminine singular
Tooth	δόντι	Thondee	neutral plural
Teeth	δόντια	Thondeah	neutral singular

To tease these out some more and their nuances, here are some exemplary sentances.  Note the "have" verb which is another aspect of Greek that I've not really concentrated on in this blog (my bad). 

You have big ears

Εσύ εχεις μεγάλα αύτιά

Esee ekhees meeyraloh afteeah

I have blue eyes

εγώ έχω μάτια μπλε

egho ekho mateeah bleh

They have small feet

Αυτοι εχουν μικρά ποδια

aftee ekhoon mikra potheeah

Another important point is the article "the" which changes when plural.  For example, when you say the girl (singular), the "the" changes for when you say the girls (plural) instead.  In the above example this will apply for when you talk about one nose (υ μύτη) to many noses (οι μύτες).  You won't hear the difference since υ and οι sound exactly the same ("ee") but it nevertheless changes in text.  Let me demonstrate the rule:

το (neutral singular) = τα (neutral plural), "ta"

η (feminine singular) = οι (feminine plural), "ee"

ο (masculine singular) = οι (masculine plural), "ee"

Apologies but have to keep this short and sweet as got to hit the hay for some sleep.  Again, please bring me up on any mistakes (it is late after all!).

καληνύχτα!


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Day 16 | Animals

Today is my favourite subject which is Animals (a massive Richard Dawkins fan).  As you can imagine the list can be a thousand deep so I'll just stick to the essentials (the ones that you're most likely to see in the zoo or at best escaping your plug holes).  

Dog	σκυλί	skeelee
Cat	γάτα	gyata
Elephant	ελέφαντας	elephantas
Bird	πουλί	poollee
Snake	φίδι	feethee
Mouse	ποντίκι	pondeekee
Bear	αρκούδα	arkootha
Goat	κατσίκα	katsika
Cow	αγελάδα	agelahtha
Pig	χοίρος/γουρούνι	Kheeros/gyoorooni
Worm	σκουλήκι	skooleekee
Tiger	τίγρη	teegree
Lion	λιοντάρι	liontahree
Spider	αράχνη	araknee
Duck	πάπια	papeyah
Fish	ψαρι	Psaree
Monkey	μαϊμού	maimooh
Insect	έντομο	entomoh

Animal incidently is ζώο ("Zoo").  Useful I thought (short and intuitive) except when I stupidly asked what Zoo would then be, which is long, complicated and unintuitive.  ζωολογικός κήπος  (Zooloyikos kypos) where κήπος means Garden.  Hmmm!

Anyway, lets try and marry the animals with the last post on colours with some sentances to exemplify: 

This is my grey elephant

αυτος είναι γκρι ελέφαντας μου

This is a black spider

αυτη είναι η μαύρη αράχνη

I want a pink pig 

εγώ θέλο ένα ροζ χοιρος 

Where is a red duck?

Πού είναι μια κόκκινη πάπια;

How old is your green cat?

πόσο χρονών είναι η πράσινος γατα σου;

I'm not very confident with these, so please let me know if I have got these wrong in anyway (still a little rusty after nearly 2 weeks off!).  Last point, I understand that the Greek word for Bird is also used for a particular swear word (I'm not saying what), so use wisely! 


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Day 15 | Colours

Back from my business trip in Rome and then contracted a nasty cold which I'm still suffering from (poor me).  That meant learning Italian last week instead of what I should really be doing, which is keeping up with my Greek.  Because of this I'm easing myself into it with some colours to brighten up the horizon.  Below are some of the main ones (I'm not interested in Falu Red, Xanadu, Caput Mortuum or Arsenic and I'm not sure they even exist in Greek).  

Orange	πορτοκαλί	portokalee
Green	πράσινο	Prasinoh
Red	κόκκινο	Kokkeenoh
Black	μαύρο	mahvroh
Grey	γκρί	Gree
White	άσπρο	asproh
Blue	μπλε	bleh
Yellow	κίτρινο	kitrinoh
Brown	καφέ	kafe
Pink	ροζ	roz

Now this is Greek remember so here comes the complications. In English we can describe nouns with colours (a black dog, a white cloud etc) and the colour does not change form.  This is because there is no sense of gender.  However, in Greek the above list shows the neutral colours.  When we apply them to a gender specific noun however as an adjective, these will change. 

This is a black dog

αυτός είναι ένα mαύρος σκύλος

aftos eenah enah mavros skylos

This is my red blouse

αυτή είναι η κόκκινη μπλούζα μου

aftee eenah e kokkinee bloozah mou

Note how the colour is changing as we put them alongside gender specific nouns.  The black goes from the neutral μαύρο to the masculine μαύρος.  The red goes from κόκκινο to female κόκκινη.  So again, we're not learning one word but three (although you might argue we learn the neutral and then use the formula for translating it to male and female with the use of -ος and -η).  

I think I'll look at animals next for the intrigue more than anything (guessing a lot of English words that end with -ios).



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Day 14 | Food

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I am off to Rome tomorrow morning for work and not returning until the next weekend so expect a gap!  Inbetween packing and preparing for meetings I decided to concentrate on a staple of Greek culture, which is food.  Last time I looked at how you can ask for something but that's pretty pointless if you don't know what you want.   

Water	νερο	Nero
Alcohol	αλκοόλ	alkool
Potato	πατάτα	patatah
Chicken	κοτόπουλο	kotopoolah
Beef	βοδινό	votheenoh
Goat	κατσίκα	katsika
Tea	tsái	Chay
Juice	χυμός	Xheemos
Fruit	φρούτο	Frootoh
Milk	γάλα	ghala
Rice	ρύζι	reezee

I think quantity is also important when ordering or buying food, so for me I was certain to learn big or small, which for Greek is quite intuitive: μεγάλος (big) μικρό (small).  These are quite generic food types so next post (which will have to be after Rome) I will look at the Greek specific foods (like Souvlaki and Keftedes).  With the list above you will have to apply the article to them (a or the) which will alter based upon the gender.  If you can remember the rule based on gender, look at Day 6 in my posts.  The good news however is that the majority are neutral and so when ordering anything from above you put, for example:

Θέλω το κοτόπουλο

I want the chicken

The only caveats are Potato and Goat (f) and Juice (m), so instead of το just replace with η and ο respectively.  απολαύσετε! (enjoy)

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Day 13 | I do, I don't

Today I thought I would look at how you ask for something and then flip it on its side by telling how you don't want something.  Lets start nice and easy

I want a sandwich

Θέλω ένα σαντουιτς

Thelo ena sandwich (yes, it's the same!)

He wants a sandwich

θέλει ένα σάντουιτς

Thelee ena sandwich

One thing interesting here is that we're not using the "I" or "He" here which I expected (no εγώ or αυτός).  Instead we use the verb itself, which in this case is "want".  Notice how this verb changes with each sentance to align with who we are talking about.  Want is spelt θέλο for I and Θέλει for he, instead of just one want which we have in English.  Because this changes there is no need to put the person at the start and so rely on the verb instead.  I am going to put some more here which I think might help people in vocabulary as well as grammar:

She wants a coffee

θέλει έναν καφέ

Thelee enan kafeh

You want a beer

Θέλετε μια μπύρα

Thelete mia beerah

They want a taxi

θέλουν ένα ταξί

Theloon ena taxee

I want a sleep  

Θέλω έναν ύπνο

Thelo enan hypno 

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted another combination not picked up yet in this blog.  The sound "b" has popped up despite not being in the Greek Alphabet and this comes about from putting the letter μ and π (m and and p) together.  Because of this we can say beer.

OK, so since I have told you to have a beer, the correct response would be to decline it (right?).  There is actually an advantage to say this in Greek because the simple trick is put a δεν at the start of any sentance to negate it.  

I don't want a beer

Δεν θέλω μια μπύρα

Then thelo mia beerah

You wouldn't normally say you don't want one beer (so I'd advise dropping the μια).  If you are that adament about refusing beer then you might want to drop a "never" in it, which is a negative placed at the end of the verb.  Might seem complex but likely to be useful for all them beers you're avoiding.  Note you have to keep the δεν at the start though.

I never want a beer

Δεν θέλω ποτέ μπύρα

Then thelo mia beerah

Pretty useful stuff I reckon.  Let me know what you think.  Keep sober ;)




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