Drew Learns Greek

day 27 | basic words to revise

2015-10-19T21:16:00.005+01:00

Below are some simple words and phrases that I found useful lately when around the house and holding informal conversations over the phone (note the toilets, where the gents and ladies end in -ών because they're plural).

καλό απογευμα good afternoon
νοσοκοεμίο hospital
κλειδιά keys
ποδήλατο bike
λεωφορείο bus
παραλία beach
ντους shower
διαβατήριο passport
πιστωτική κάρτα credit card
αεροπλάνο plane
πλοίο ship
κρεβάτι bed
μπάνιο bathroom
ξενοδοχείο hotel
τηλέφωνο telephone
τουαλέτες γυναικων ladies' toilets
τουαλέτες ανδρών gents' toilets
πού είναι η τράπεζα; where is the bank?
πού είναι οι βαλίτσες; where are the suitcases?

My recent favourites are:

τι θα μαγειρέψεις απόψε; what are you cooking tonight?

Τι ώρα θα τελειώσεις σήμερα? what time will you finish work today?

Day 26 | Accusative & Genitive

2014-07-27T19:13:00.003+01:00

Reading back over my last post ("the" from last September) it seemed pertinent to scope out this definite article. This is because, unlike in English, not only does "the" change based on whether it is male, female, neutral or plural, but also when the context is accusative or genitive (and the changes are exponential, because they too have gender and plural definitions). In other words, there are 12 more the's to learn.

When I say accusative, I mean a sentence in which the subject is being acted on (with a verb). For example, the dog eat's the ball, where the second the has become accusative (the first the being nominative). This sentence in Greek becomes:

ο σκύλος τρώει την μπάλα

The reason it isn't η (as ball μπάλα is female) is because of the following table of accusative definite articles:

	Singular	Plural
male	τω(ν)	τους
female	τη(ν)	τις
neuter	το	τα

The reason why the ν is in brackets is because in some cases you put τω or τη (male and female without the ν) based on the next letter of the next word. If you struggle to remember the list of appropriate letters in which you should or shouldn't apply the ν the rule of thumb is: if the next letter is a vowel, add the ν, otherwise drop it. I guess based on this it is a matter of how it sounds when you say it out loud.

Similarly, the definite article can also change if the subject owns the object in the sentence. For example, the dog's ball. We in English don't use "the" when it comes to owning something, instead we use the 's against the owner, but in Greek the object will carry the article (to help denote the gender), so it becomes the dog's the ball. More than that, in Greek, you have to flip the whole sentence the wrong way round, as the object comes before the owner. So it now becomes: the ball the dog (or in literal terms: the ball of the dog). So for this phrase (the dog's ball) ends up being:

η μπάλα του σκύλου

The observant amongst you will notice something strange happened to the word for dog. Σκύλος has become σκύλου. That is because the ending of the owner has to match the ending of the genitive article (in most cases!). So του has turn σκύλος into σκύλου. Here are the rest of the genitive definite articles:

	Singular	Plural
male	του	των
female	της	των
neuter	του	των

This is a little easier to remember than the accusative articles, because there are less of them to learn based on patterns. All the plural articles (male, female & neutral) are των and the male and neutral singular share the same (του). In effect, there are only 3 to learn instead of 6!

Remember, this is in conjunction with the nominative cases. An overview of that has already been provided in my last post.

I hope you found that useful. I know it's been a while since my last post, so please leave a comment in the section below & I hope to get some more frequent posts out there soon!

Day 25 | the

2013-09-19T22:19:00.001+01:00

"The" is a simple definite article in English which doesn't change according to context. In greek however, the the shifts depending on several situations. These are listed below:

Ο γάτος. The cat (male)

Η γάτα. The cat (female)

Το γατί. The kitten (neutral)

Οι γάτες. The cats (plural)

So based on gender and whether it is singular or plural, the the is changing. Not only that, if it comes with "for" (for the) it also changes (why? I don't know!). So here is the breakdown:

Για τον γάτος. For the cat (male)

Για την γάτα. For the cat (female)

Για το γατί. For the kitten (neutral)

Για τις γάτες. For the cats (plural)

As usual with Greek, just a case of memorising them. Leave a comment below if there are any typos or mistakes please!

Day 24 | Corfu

2012-08-27T12:05:00.001+01:00

These are the pictures from a 10 day trip to Corfu. There are a lot more where these came from and a tonne more of the sea but there are only so many ways in Greek you can say θάλασσα. Either way, I hope you enjoy the pictures and more to the point, learn from the narratives that come with it.

ακρίδα akreetha Grasshopper

σφήκα sfeeka Wasp

υδροπαρκο eethroparkoh Water park

αράχνη araknee Spider

κρασί krasee Wine

εκκλησία ekkleeseeah Church

θάλασσα thalassa Sea

ποτά potα drink

βράχος vrakos rock

μου moo me!

γάτα / σκύλος gata / skeelos cat / dog

χορός choros dance

Corfu Town

ορίζοντας horeezontas horizon

κατσίκα katseeka goat

ψάρι psaree fish

πεταλούδα petalootha butterfly

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 23 | Cyprus

2012-06-17T23:11:00.002+01:00

Counting down the days until we're off to Corfu (5 days and 35 minutes). Whilst it's Greece I'm heading for, I wanted to devote this post to Cyprus which is the primary purpose for learning the language in the first place. Since I have never been there I'm looking at the Cypriot points of interest in the country which would help me when I make that journey in the near future and potentially anyone else who makes that trip too.

You can see that there are 4 main regions in Cyprus (Paphos in the West, Limassol in the South, Larnaco in the East and Nicosia in the North) that sits underneath the UN buffer zone.

Limassol	Λεμεσός (Lemesos)
Larnaca	Λάρνακα (Larnaka)
Nicosia	Λευκωσία (Lefkosia)
Pahos	Πάφος (Pafos)

So now you know Cyprus is cut up in four, you might want to know the best places to visit when there. I'm unashamedly ripping the below list from a review website which I'll be using myself when popping over there.

Buyuk Han, Nicosia
Ayia Napa
Paphos Castle
Larnaca Salt Lake and Hala Sultan Tekke
Kourion
Kolossi Castle
Cedar Valley
The Paphos mosaics
Greko National Park
Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca

Lastly, to get it back to language here are some place descriptions in Greek that should be useful when navigating around here and there. One caveat is that Town is normally referred to as a poly (πόλη) which is the same as whats used for City. In some rare instances people use a different term for Town which is shown below.

bus station	σταθμό λεωφορείων (stathmó leo̱foreío̱n)
police station	αστυνομικό τμήμα (astynomikó tmí̱ma)
fire station	Πυροσβεστικός Σταθμός (Pyrosvestikós Stathmós)
hospital	νοσοκομείο (nosokomeío)
airport	αεροδρόμιο (aerodrómio)
town	κωμοπολη (komopolee)
city	πόλη (póli̱)
village	χωριό (cho̱rió)
seaside	παραλία (paralía)

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 22 | Restaurant

2012-05-17T22:44:00.001+01:00

This blog is dedicated to my story in learning the Greek language. Here will be notes, scribbles and anecdotes in the pursuit of becoming fluent (with a Cypriot twang!) in this Indo-European dialect (see, we're already learning). I invite help and advice from those equipped to teach the lingo as well as questions from individuals enduring their own journey. There is nothing more solitary than a student head-down in a text book learning something esoteric as a new language, so a more collaborative process will help me and hopefully cajole others in getting "there" quicker (with some fun on the way). Therefore, feel free to email, post comments and share your own experiences.

So, to get the ball rolling as well as for reference, there is no better time to bring up the Alphabet (that hieroglyphic assortment of sticks we use to make words). Below you'll see 24 cryptic letters with the pronunciation below which the Greeks have as their consonants and vowels. I'm reliably informed that in the modern Hellenic language the sound "e" occurs more frequently than is necessary to the extent that the powers that be (the speak police I think they're called) are discussing truncating the alphabet. Epsilon-Iota, Omicron-Iota, Iota, Eta and Upsilon all sound like the "e" in the English language (not a good start, but at least we're tidying up).

So there's the first tentative steps (an indecipherable string of letters that are in some cases redundant). In the next piece I'll look at how these letters sound orally before I embark on the juicy task of making words (some of them clean). As I go into the Alphabet in detail next time please feel free to share your tips and tricks in remembering or articulating them pesky little letters. Enjoy!

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 21 | Countries

2012-05-06T23:40:00.003+01:00

Back from Lake District but then had a "brief" period of neglect with my Greek (see the highest peak we reached in pic above). Here I am picking it up again with Countries this time. You'd think this would be simple on the face of it since they're nouns. However, these words change based on context and gender etc. Britain, for example, as a country is called Βρετανία which sounds like Bretaneeah. A British male is called Βρετανοσ, a British woman is called Βρετανιδα. There are also different words for describing a "thing" as of a country origin. For example, a British show would be described in Greek as βρετανικό Σαλόνι (Bretanikoh) whereas in English British is British in every context. Below is a table of some useful countries with the third column in orange showing first the country in Greek and then in brackets how you would describe a male/female person in terms of nationality. The male generally ends in ος (-os) and the female in either η (ee) or δια (theea).

England (english)	Αγγλία (άγγλος/ιδα)	agleeah
Scotland (scottish)	Σκωτία (σκωτσέζος/α)	scotteeah
Wales (welsh)	Ουαλία (ουαλός/η)	Ooaleeah
Northern Ireland (northern irish)	Βόρεια Ιρλανδία (Βόρειο Ιρλανδός/η)	Boreeah Irlantheeah
Ireland (irish)	Ιρλανδία (ιρλανδός/η)	Irlantheeah
Europe (european)	Ευρώπη (Ευρωπαίος/α)	Evropee
Greece (greek)	Ελλάδα (έλληνας/ιδα)	Ellahthah
Cyprus (cypriot)	Κύπρος (κύπριοσ/α)	Kypros
France (french)	Γαλλία (γάλλοσ/ιδα)	Ghalleeah
Germany (german)	Γερμανία (γερμανός/ιδα)	Jermaneeah
Italy (italian)	Ιταλία (ιταλός/ιδα)	Italeeah
Spain (spanish)	Ισπανία (ισπανόσ/ιδα)	Ispaneeah
Turkey (turkish)	Τουρκία (τούρκος/αλα)	Toourkeeah
India (indian)	Ινδία (ινδιάνος/α)	Intheeah
China (chinese)	Κίνα (κινέζος/α)	Keenah

If you're like me and not a big fan of nationalistic divergences and all what it stands for, you might find these more useful:

world is κόσμος (kosmos)
earth is γη (yee)
solar system is ηλιακό σύστημα (eeliakoh seesteema)

universe is σύμπαν (seempan)

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 20 | Connectives

2012-04-01T21:46:00.000+01:00

Been really bad lately with keeping up with the lingo learning (especially when we're getting beautiful weather like these weekends!). Anyway, here are some connective words that will help pack your sentances a bit more flowingly.

and	και	kay
or	ή	ee
but	αλλά	alla
if	αν	an
because	επειδή	epeethee
before	προτού / πριν	protoo / breen
after	μετά	meta
while	ενώ	enoh
until	μέχρι	mechree
with	με	meh
so	έτσι	ehtsee

This is nothing but a memory exercise (no logic to apply like the last posts on verbs and conjugations). To make it easier here's a sentance to exemplify:

I have coffee with a biscuit after my meal or dessert but not before I pay the bill

Έχω καφέ με ένα μπισκότο μετά το γεύμα ή το γλυκό μου, αλλά όχι πριν να πληρώσω τον λογαριασμό

I'm not quite sure why there are multiple words for before (προτού / πριν) and when to use which. Off to the Lake District in the next couple of days so another possible prolongued abscence. Anyway, anyone know any good mobile apps for greek learning (that are free, obviously).

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 19 | Useful Verbs

2012-03-26T22:45:00.000+01:00

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

2012-03-18T22:18:00.000+00:00

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

2012-03-11T23:28:00.000+00:00

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

2012-03-03T23:02:00.000+00:00

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

2012-03-01T22:28:00.001+00:00

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

Day 14 | Food

2012-02-18T15:21:00.002+00:00

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I am off to Rome tomorrow morning for work and not returning until the next weekend so expect a gap! Inbetween packing and preparing for meetings I decided to concentrate on a staple of Greek culture, which is food. Last time I looked at how you can ask for something but that's pretty pointless if you don't know what you want.

Water	νερο	Nero
Alcohol	αλκοόλ	alkool
Potato	πατάτα	patatah
Chicken	κοτόπουλο	kotopoolah
Beef	βοδινό	votheenoh
Goat	κατσίκα	katsika
Tea	tsái	Chay
Juice	χυμός	Xheemos
Fruit	φρούτο	Frootoh
Milk	γάλα	ghala
Rice	ρύζι	reezee

I think quantity is also important when ordering or buying food, so for me I was certain to learn big or small, which for Greek is quite intuitive: μεγάλος (big) μικρό (small). These are quite generic food types so next post (which will have to be after Rome) I will look at the Greek specific foods (like Souvlaki and Keftedes). With the list above you will have to apply the article to them (a or the) which will alter based upon the gender. If you can remember the rule based on gender, look at Day 6 in my posts. The good news however is that the majority are neutral and so when ordering anything from above you put, for example:

Θέλω το κοτόπουλο

I want the chicken

The only caveats are Potato and Goat (f) and Juice (m), so instead of το just replace with η and ο respectively. απολαύσετε! (enjoy)

Written by JuiceSoup.com

Day 13 | I do, I don't

2012-02-13T19:37:00.000+00:00

Today I thought I would look at how you ask for something and then flip it on its side by telling how you don't want something. Lets start nice and easy

I want a sandwich

Θέλω ένα σαντουιτς

Thelo ena sandwich (yes, it's the same!)

He wants a sandwich

θέλει ένα σάντουιτς

Thelee ena sandwich

One thing interesting here is that we're not using the "I" or "He" here which I expected (no εγώ or αυτός). Instead we use the verb itself, which in this case is "want". Notice how this verb changes with each sentance to align with who we are talking about. Want is spelt θέλο for I and Θέλει for he, instead of just one want which we have in English. Because this changes there is no need to put the person at the start and so rely on the verb instead. I am going to put some more here which I think might help people in vocabulary as well as grammar:

She wants a coffee

θέλει έναν καφέ

Thelee enan kafeh

You want a beer

Θέλετε μια μπύρα

Thelete mia beerah

They want a taxi

θέλουν ένα ταξί

Theloon ena taxee

I want a sleep

Θέλω έναν ύπνο

Thelo enan hypno

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted another combination not picked up yet in this blog. The sound "b" has popped up despite not being in the Greek Alphabet and this comes about from putting the letter μ and π (m and and p) together. Because of this we can say beer.

OK, so since I have told you to have a beer, the correct response would be to decline it (right?). There is actually an advantage to say this in Greek because the simple trick is put a δεν at the start of any sentance to negate it.

I don't want a beer

Δεν θέλω μια μπύρα

Then thelo mia beerah

You wouldn't normally say you don't want one beer (so I'd advise dropping the μια). If you are that adament about refusing beer then you might want to drop a "never" in it, which is a negative placed at the end of the verb. Might seem complex but likely to be useful for all them beers you're avoiding. Note you have to keep the δεν at the start though.

I never want a beer

Δεν θέλω ποτέ μπύρα

Then thelo mia beerah

Pretty useful stuff I reckon. Let me know what you think. Keep sober ;)

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Day 12 | Months

2012-02-11T10:35:00.001+00:00

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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Day 11 | Days

2012-02-09T22:18:00.003+00:00

Today I concentrated on the days of the week (maybe because there is only a Friday left of the working week?). You'll be pleased to know there are only 7 words - one for each day - to learn here, not like all of the other aspects of the Greek language I've showcased lately which seem to change depending on context (still getting to grips with the five words for a brother!). So here is Monday through to Sunday:

Monday	Δευτέρα	thefterah
Tuesday	Τρίτη	Tritee
Wednesday	Τετάρτη	Tetartee
Thursday	Πέμπτη	Pemptee
Friday	Παρασκευή	Paraskevee
Saturday	Σάββατο	Savato
Sunday	Κυριακή	Keeriakee

Again, we come across a combination that messes things up a bit. Look at Monday and Friday and note the use of ευ and then at how its pronounced as "ef". Whilst not a rule, the majority of times that ευ are put together we get this unique sound. Overall these seven ickle words will take an hour or so to get it to stick in your mind permanently. If you want to put these words into sentances you'll more than likely need to use the "on" preposition which in Greek will be την or teen. Lets see what that looks like in a sentance:

εγω θα σε δω την δευτέρα

Egho tha seh teen thefterah

Ι will you see on Monday

Might look at Months next I reckon and thereafter start putting some proper sentances together, unless I get recommendations for anything else to cover.

Καλησπέρα!

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Day 10 | More Numbers

2012-02-05T20:12:00.001+00:00

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 9 | Knowing me, Knowing you

2012-02-05T00:39:00.001+00:00

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!

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Day 8 | Who? What? Where?

2012-02-02T22:40:00.000+00:00

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

2012-01-27T22:49:00.000+00:00

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!

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Day 6 | Gender & Family

2012-01-25T21:56:00.000+00:00

As is always the case, work has a tendency of getting in the way of things you think are more important and hence a few days have passed since the last posting (one day I might get round to uploading a personal profile with this Blog to explain what I do & why I'm learning Greek!). So today I'm looking at the use of Gender by using the simple example of family to tease out its special nuances.

It has already been mentioned that in the Greek language they use the dreaded gender system which means multiplying the learning process by 2 (or as you will find out, 3!). If you are not familiar with this (Old English or Anglo-Saxon used to have this but now modern English has done away with it), it is simply that words have embedded within them a specific male or female type and based on this all of the other words that surround it (adjectives and articles etc) are changed as a consequence. This can be show when calling out members of your own family.

Father is known as Πατέρας (pahtehras) and no prizes for what gender this belongs to. Mother is known as Μιτέρα (Meetehrah) and is of the female persuasion. What gender would you apply to the word "child" (or Παιδι, Peethee - remember "αι" make "ee") though since there is an equal chance of it being either a boy or girl. That is where the third gender comes in which is called the "neuter". So we have three words with three different genders, but what does that mean for those other words that surround it. We can tease this out using the definite and indefinite articles (the former being "the" and the latter "a"):


Father (m)	Mother (f)	Child (n)
A father, ένας πατέρας "enas patehras"	A mother, μία μητέρα "meeah meetehra"	A child, ένα παιδί "ehna peethee"
The father, Ο πατέρας "oh patehras"	The mother, η μητέρα "ee meetehra"	The child, το παιδί "toh peethee"

So the bad news is that we're having to learn genders as well as words. The good news is that there are clues in which we can get just from looking at the way the word is spelt. Masculine words for example normally end with ς. Female nouns end in η and α. Whilst the neuter words close off using ι or ο. As I said these are clues and not hard and fast rules to abide by but they should nevertheless give you a hint.

So in summary there is no one word for "the" or "a" but changes depending on the gender of the noun it is applied to. To make sure this sinks in, I'm going to put down the following words in English & Greek and want to see whether people can pick up whether they are Masculine, Feminine and Neuter.

Sister αδελφή (adelfee)

Baby μωρό (moroh)

Boy αγόρι (aghoree)

This αυτός (avtos)

This αυτή (avtee)

One of these is a "trick" question (as in what I expected it to be isn't what it is in reality!). Please leave your attempts in the comments, I'd be interested if other people get the same responses as I did.

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Day 5 | To Be

2012-01-23T23:02:00.001+00:00

Today's entry might look short but that's intentional. From my reckoning I view the "to be" verb as the most important component of a language as it drives sentences. Once you get this nailed the task of conversing will be that much easier. On that note, see below the various ways to be:

I am	εγώ είμαι	egho eemeh
You are	εσύ είσαι	esee eese
He is	αυτός είναι	aftos eene
She is	αυτή ειναι	aftee eene
We are	εμεις εί μαστε	emees eemaste
You are	εσείς είσαστε	esees eessaste
They are	αυτοί είναι	aftee eene

After devoting the first couple of posts looking at "combinations" you'll notice another one pop up out of the blue. It looks like "αυ" in the they are statement at the bottom of the table somehow turns into "af" instead of "ahee" which is how you would expect to read it.

That aside, with these sentance starters it will be possible to say where you're from, passing compliments and conveying you're emotions. For me for example, I would say such things as:

εγώ ειμαι αγγλικά	εσύ είσαι Ομορφος	εμεις εί μαοτε κουρασμένοι
I am English	You are beautiful	We are tired!

A running theme you'll notice is that it can never be this simple. For the "You are..." translation as shown above we are only stating a fact. This would be different if you are describing someone as doing something. For instance, "You are sleeping" is εσύ κοιμασαι (esee keemasee), which is very different from εσύ εισαι xxx (esee eese xxx).

Short but nevertheless a little bugger to get right. Next post I'll try and string some more substantial sentances together to exemplify the above points. Thanks for the genuinely helpful comments of which I'm redrawing my own notes!

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Day 4 | Greeting

2012-01-22T17:38:00.000+00:00

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!).

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Day 3 | Consonants

2012-01-21T23:37:00.000+00:00

As hinted in the last post, today will be devoted to the other portion of the Alphabet: the consonants. These represent the sounds which are of "complete or partial closure of the vocal tract" (thanks Wikipedia) opposed to the vowels which are open. In Greek there are 17 of these "closed noises" but like the vowels these get extended when we add combinations to the letter soup. All of these are shown below:

β veeta "v" βιβλιο (vivlio = book)

γ ghama "y" γατα (yata = cat)

δ dhelta "th" δρόμος (thromos = road)

θ theeta "th" θαρρος (tharos = courage)

ζ zeeta "z" ουζο (oozo = yum!)

κ kappa "k" καλοσ (kalos = good)

λ lamdha "l" λεμονι (lemonee = lemon, obviously)

μ mee "m" μιλι (mili = mile)

ξ ksee "ks" ξυδι (kseedhi = vinegar)

π pee "p" πολυ (poly = many)

ρ pee "ro" ρολοι (roloi = watch)

σ sigma "s" συγνώμη (signomi = sorry)

τ taf "t" τι (ti = what)

φ fee "f" φιδι (fidi = snake - my word of the week!)

χ khee "ch" χερι (kheeri = hand)

ψ psee "ps" ψυχολογία (psychologia = psychology)

There are some sounds you'll notice that occur in English but not in the list above, hence the need for them blasted extensions again:

μπ "b" μπάλα (bala = ball)

ντ "d" ντόμινο (domino = domino)

τζ "j" τζατζίκι (tzatziki, more like a bee "zzz" than j!)

γκ "g" γκρί (gri = grey)

γγ (very rare other than the name Evangelia, forget it)

So 17 turns into 21ish. OK, just to round off, lets look at the other complication with the use of the "two dots" ¨ (diaresis...ya) and the "tic" ´ (pitch accent) which you can see on some words. These two features have an impact on the last post on vowels, where two letters can be put together to make new sounds.

For example, where we put the letters α and ι in to αι to make the "eh" sound instead of its component letters "ah" and "ee" (read Day 2 if this makes no sense), it can be seperated again if it looks like this with a tic: άι. Because of this it not longer reads "eh" by combination but seperated as "ah ee". Lets see this in action. Picture a fairy and give it its greek name νεράιδα. To say this out loud you would say Neraeetha (to my ears at least). If we spelt it as νεραιδα (without the tic) however it would sound like Neretha.

Then comes the two dotted diaresis ¨, which would have the same effect. Whilst the tic is used for tone and pitch the dotted line seems to have only one purpose, which is to split up the combination. Again, to tease this out, say we have the Greek word απλοϊκος we would pronounce this as aploeekos (there is no combination effect on the οι that would normally sound as "ee"). Should that be spelt (incorrectly) as απλοικος then it would read as apleekos. Fittingly, this απλοϊκος means in English simple (irony never ceases).

Hope this was interesting for the reader. Again, let me know how you feel this coming is across and leave your comments below to let me know I'm not the only one going through this adventure/torture! Next post I'll be making some words (hell yeah!)

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