Day 9 | Knowing me, Knowing you

2 hour FIFA marathon over, lets get back to the Greek!  Earlier tonight I was looking at introductions since I thought it would reiterate the "to be" verbs which I sometimes still struggle with.  If you want to introduce someone the sentance begins with Να σου συστήσω (nah soo seestehsoh).  However you're unlikely to be so formal so instead you could just say "this is my brother" or ask about someone's mother's age.  Examples of these comments can be found here to tease out the patterns and behaviours of the Greek grammar.

Χαίρο πολύ (kehro poly) nice to meet you (always a good start!)
αυτός είναι ο αδελφός μου (aftos eeneh oh adelfos moo) this is my brother
αυτη είναι η αδελφή μου (aftee eneeh ee adelfee moo) this is my sister
Πόσο κρονών είναι ο πατέρας σού (poso chronon eeneh oh patehras) How old is your father?
έχω και εγώ έναν αδελφό (ehro kay enan adelfoh) I also have a brother
η ματέρα είναν δέκα χρονών (Ee matehra eenan dehka chronon) my mother is 10 years old(!)

Some points to note.  You'll see that where you expect αυ to sound like ah-ee in the He and She (αυτός and αυτη) it actually sounds like "af", which isn't very intuitive.  Also to bear in mind is when you are talking about someone that belongs to you (i.e. "this is my sister") the words are actually ordered as "this is sister my" or in Greek: αυτη είναι η αδελφή μου.  Something more peculiar though which I am still none the wiser about is how the spelling of αδελφος turns into αδελφό when I say "I also have a brother" (please advise why έχο και εγώ έναν αδελφόσ is wrong).  

To break this up a bit, it helped me to look at the interrogative words.  These are the 5 W's (and 1 H) which I'm replicating below for your entertainment: 

Who	Ποιος	pooios
Where	Ποu	poo
What	Τι	tee
Why	Υιατί	Yeeatee
When	πότε	poteh
How	πως	pos

OK, before I get picked up on this you'll notice that the "How" in the above table is different from that used in the "How old is your..." sentance earlier on.  This is because there are two different types of "How".  One for a quantitative translation (how many years, how much money etc) which will be articulated as πόσο (at the top of this post) but when you are asking how someone is for example, it is is read as just πως (for example: ποσ εισαι;).  This complication aside these 6 words can be used as sentances in themselves (Who? What? When? you get the jist), but more importantly understand the point of the sentance being asked!

Thats enough for tonight, Καληνύχτα!

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 4 | Greeting

After the headache of consonants and vowels we can start sticking letters together into words to make beautiful conversations with the locals.  Here is my first attempt at coping with bumping into someone that I would already know in a Greek street (and swiftly moving on after a quick Αντιό!).

Andreas P	Hello Mrs K	Γεια σου Κυρια Κ	Yiasoo Keereea Κ
Despina K	Hello Mr P	Γεια σου Κύριος Π	Yiasoo Keereos Π
Andreas P	How are you?	Τι Κάνετε;	Tee Kahnehteh
Despina K	I'm fine	Μιά Χαρά	Meeah Harah
Andreas P	Me too	Και ερώ Επίσις	Keh-eroh Epeesees
Despina K	Good seeing you	Xάρηκα που σε ειδα	Hahreeka poo see eetha
Andreas P	Thank you	Ευχαριστώ	Efhareestoh
Despina K	Goodbye	Αντίο	Adeeo
Andreas P	Goodbye	Αντίο	Adeeo

 the tics in 3rd column are emphasised in bold in the far-right column

Some interesting points from this.  The question mark in English "?" is used in Greek with a semi-colon ";" (what they use for a semi-colon is a mystery).  Also, Γεια σου (Yiasoo) I understand is used interchangeably for Hello and Goodbye in Cyprus whilst in Greece they use the αντίο (Adeeo) for the Goodbye (so one less word to remember).  Also, don't be fooled by the "I'm fine" sentance and assume "I am" equals Μιά because it doesn't.  "I am hungry" for example translates to Είμαι νυσταλέος (Eemeh neestalehos) which uses the true translation for "I am" whilst the one shown in the table above translates to "one" (I know, it still doesn't make sense to me either - comments please!).    


Written by JuiceSoup.com