Day 10 | More Numbers

Looks like I've brought the continental snow from Germany with me all the way back to the south of England (note the birds are preferring the white stuff to the asphalt).  Lets hope the cold temperatures continue to drop and the downpour of snow intensifies before tomorrow morning ("working" from home).

I got a very welcomed response from the last post explaining how nouns are altered and why it was that αδελφός would change for what seemed no apparented reason.  I'm unashamedly plaigarising by pasting the explanation below which has definitely shone a light for me at least:

Nominative (subject of the sentence): ο αδελφός μου είναι έδω. My brother is here.
Accusative (object of the sentence): αυτός είναι ο αδελφό μου. This is my brother.
Genitive (showing possession): αύτο είναι το σπίτι του αδελφού μου. This is my brother’s house.
Vocative (calling out to someone): γεια σου, αδελφέ! Hello, brother!

This looks very annoying, having to learn 4 words instead of just one (assuming this is the case for all nouns).  Nevertheless, thanks for picking me up on this, I hope it adds value to everyone else's learning also.  OK, back to the original topic which is Numbers.  I briefly picked this up on the Day 7 entry but only up to 10.  I'm now going to make it possible for someone to count all the way up to 100 without as much effort as you think based on an advantage in how Greeks say numbers.  To remind us of the 1 to 10, look here:

1 ένα (ehnah), 2 δύο (theeoh), 3 τρία (treeah), 4 τέσσερα (tehsserah), 5 πέντε (pendeh), 6 έζι (ehxee), 7 επτά (eptah), 8 οκτώ (oktoh), 9 εννέα (enneeah), 10 δέκα (thehkah)

So as alluded in the Day 7 post we only have to add these to the end of the decimal numbers (10, 20, 30 etc) which will help you reach 100 without any difficulty.  On this then you should only need to learn 20 words (0 to 9 and the 10 decimals).  Lets try:

10	δέκα	thekah
20	είκοσι	eekohsee
30	τριάντα	treeandah
40	σαράντα	sarandah
50	πενήντα	peneendah
60	εξήντα	ekseendah
70	εβδομήντα	evdomeendah
80	ογδόντα	orghthondah
90	ενενήντα	eneneentah
100	εκατό	ekatoh

So there isn't much to do other than reciting these by memory and gluing the 1, 2, 3 etc to the end in order to start telling the time or counting beans!  However, as with everything else with this langauge there are exceptions.  For numbers this deviant is the integers 11 and 12.  So where you would expect everything to read off as δέκα τρία or δέκα οκτώ etc (13 and 18), the 11 and 12 are actually written as έντεκα and δώδεκα (no decimal-number format).  If you're expecting me to explain this nuance you are going to be left wanting as I haven't got the foggiest.  However, I think learning the above 10 numbers with those outlined in Day 7 is a powerful tool to have when conferring in the Greek language so spend some time on it.

Again thanks for the comments (all are welcome!).  On that note I wish everyone καλησπέρα


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Day 8 | Who? What? Where?

Apologies all for the break in posting.  I'm now back from a very cold and snowy East Berlin (picture below of me at the Soviet Union Treptower Park).  Learning Greek whilst keeping up with pigeon German in cafés and restaurants was impossible, so I'm desperately throwing myself back into the Greek text books to learn and re-learn what I had lost as a consequence!

So that aside, lets look at some very useful conversation starters.  These might look basic but after a long break its a ruddy struggle to learn (people call it bad day).

What is your name?	πώς σε λένε;	pos seh lehneh?
My name is Andy	Με λένε Andy	meh leneh Andy
Where are you from?	Από πού είσαι;	Apoh poo eeseh?
I am from England	Είμαι από την Ελλάδα	Eemeh apo teen Ehlantha
How old are you?	πόσο χρονών είσαι;	Poso kronon eeseh?
I am 30 years old	Είμαι τρίαντα ετών	Eemeh triantah ehton

Notice I left my name as it is in English (anyone know how Andy would be spelt in Greek?). Another nuance to note is that when we talk about "years" there is ετών (eton) as shown in the above table but you can also use Χπόνωη (Khrohnon) which seems more Cypriot than Greek.  Either way you can adopt both in your grammar tool kit.  Perhaps someone can ask me a question in Greek in the Comments section and I'll try to respond in the next post (missing that feedback!).

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Day 7 | Numbers

Lets start with the good news.  The lovely people at Greektionary kindly put my blog on their site with a little blurb; this has surely made the road less lonely.  This is a really good site for language resources and well worth a visit.  The bad news: I'm off to Berlin tonight which means I'll be both feet out of the virtual realm for several days.  Anyway, administration aside lets get on with the word-play.


Today I'm focusing on the numbers.  I found this took several hours to really get these to stick in sequence so I strongly advise concentrating on the first 10 digits in one session if you really want this to remain memorable.  Lets have a crack at least.  

 

1	ένα	ehnah
2	δύο	theeoh
3	τρία	treeah
4	τέσσερα	tehsserah
5	πέντε	pendeh
6	έζι	ehxee
7	επτά	eptah
8	οκτώ	oktoh
9	εννέα	enneeah
10	δέκα	thehkah

Short and sweet but nevertheless can be tricky to make it remain in the membrane (advise you to go over this time and time again; like I did for the past 2 hours!).  Couple of points.  Whilst 4 looks like it should be spoken as tehsserah it actually sounds like it begins with a d.  More strangely though is 7 which seems to divide opinion around whether this is articulated as eptah (as the spelling suggests) or eftah.  I'm still none the wiser which way to go on this one, please advise.

Looking at the larger numbers it seems on paper that these are much more simple to memorise than the English equivalent.  3, 13, 23 and 33 for example are τρία, δεκατρια, εικοσι τρια, τριαντα τρια (see the pattern emerging?).  You're just adding the the three to the end of the ten, twenty and thirty.  None of that teen number nonsense we have in English.  Anyway, for my penny's worth, just concentrate on the 1-10 and we can deal with the bigger numbers in a later post!  


Written by JuiceSoup.com