Day 12 | Months

As promised in the last post, I decided to look at the Greek months today.  As expected, on first impressions, they look almost exactly the same as the English equivalent except a lot longer.  However, I'm told that they can be shortened to a more informal version which is why in the latter column there is a transliteration which is more commonly used in Greece and more significanty in Cyprus than the more formal version (that you can read off in the middle column).

 

January	Ιανουάριος	Eeanarees
February	Φεβρουάριος	Flevrarees
March	Μάρτιος	martees
April	Απρίλιος	Aprilees
May	Μάιος	Mice(!)
June	Ιούνιος	Yoonees
July	Ιούλιος	Yoolees
August	Αύγουστος	Avgoostos
September	Σεπτέμβριος	Septemvrees
October	Οκτώβριος	Octovrees
November	Νοέμβριος	Novemvrees
December	Δεκέμβριος	Themkemvrees

Like I said, the third column does not read what is in the middle because - as I understand - it is these that are more commonly spoken but the actual Greek text is what is written.  In terms of remembering this I suppose you just take the English month but replace the "-ber" with "-vris" and "-ry" with "-ees".  There are a few messy ones, for example May sounds like "mice" and February in the common version begins with "fl-" but the traditional, formal version it is the standard "fev-".  Compared to everything else, like numbers and days, this is actually a doddle since you don't need to remember them just convert them.

Next post I'll make it more interesting with some actual sentances and phrases (let me know if you have anything in mind you think would help learners learn quicker!).  Make sure to "like" this blog as much as possible with Twitter and Facebook etc please.


Off to catch the train to Λονδίνο!


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