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

Written by JuiceSoup.com

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.


Written by JuiceSoup.com

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!


Written by JuiceSoup.com

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! 


Written by JuiceSoup.com

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).



Written by JuiceSoup.com