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