Lesson Six

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Lesson Six

• By Christos Hadjichristidis

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Todays attractions

• Review of the Similarities Differences between
  Greek and English Grammar
• The active present tense of some of the most
  commonly used verbs
• I have
• I want
• I do
• I stay/live
• Be aware! Greeks ask all kinds of personal
  questions!!
• Asking what facilities are available and how to
  find them
• Understanding basic directions and/or asking for
  help to understand
• Watch a short movie about Greece

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Greek-English differences

• 1. Consistency between spelling pronunciation
  of the Greek letters. Contrary to popular belief
  Greek is not a difficult language to speak,
  particularly at the beginners level. Unlike
  English, the same letter or combination of
  letters, is pronounced in exactly the same way
  wherever it occurs. Lets prove it!

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Differences between Greek-English languages
continued..

• In Greek almost all words within a noun phrase
  (noun, article, adjective, pronoun) are
  declinable in gender, number and case. In English
  this happens only with the pronouns!
• She went to the store. The clerk greeted her and
  handed over a small package. The new camera was
  hers at last!
• Moreover, within a noun phrase all other
  declinable words must agree with the noun in
  gender, number and case.

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How on Earth we can guess the gender of a given
Greek noun?

• Some tips
• All masculine nouns (nominative/singular) end in
  ?
• Almost all feminine nouns end in either a or ?
• Most neuter nouns end in ?, ?, or µa
• Of course, there are exceptions, and there are
  those words ending in ??, which can be of any
  gender.

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Differences between Greek- English

• The normal order of a sentence in Greek is like
  that in English subject, verb, object. There is
  no special tendency as in Latin to put the verb
  at the end. However, Greek can vary the order for
  purposes of emphasis or euphony much more freely
  than in English. For example
• ? ???st?? ??????e? t? ?a??a but also T?
  ?a??a ??????e? ? ???st??. (Christos chases
  Mary).
• Thus, when you translate from Greek you have to
  concentrate at the case of the noun (illustrated
  by its inflectional ending) rather than its order
  within the sentence.

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Differences between Greek- English

• You will be pleased to know that to ask questions
  in Greek there are no changes in word order as in
  English , such as you are are you?, or the
  addition of extra words (you love me do you
  love me?).
• You just have to remember that the pitch of your
  voice goes up
• E?sa? ???a?d?? means you are Irish when the pitch
  of your voice goes down at the end and are you
  Irish? when the pitch of your voice goes up at
  the end

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Personal Pronouns

• Personal pronouns (I, you, he, they) are used to
  refer to the three grammatical persons and are
  also part of the English verbs since they define
  who is doing or receiving the action. Even though
  Greek has equivalent corresponding words they are
  normally left out and mostly used only for
  emphasis
• (i.e. ?s?, t? ???e?? ed? You and nobody
  else!, what are you doing here)

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Differences between Greek- English

• While in English the personal pronoun is always
  used together with the verb in order to
  distinguish the person that it is referring to,
  in Greek this is not necessary.
• The ending of the verb itself differs from the
  first person to the second and so on, and this
  indicates whether the speaker is referring to
  himself or herself, or to another person or
  persons

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The verb to be

• The verb to be is irregular, i.e. the pattern
  of the personal endings is not the same as for
  any other verb, so it needs to be memorized. The
  present tense form follows

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Some of the most commonly used Greek verbs
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Try to do the same with the verb ??? (I have)
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Try to do the same with the verb ???? (I do/make)
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Try to do the same with the verb µ??? (I
live/stay)
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Try to do the same with the verb ???? (I know)
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The different uses of the verb ???? (I do/make)

• The verb ???? is one of the most frequently
  used verbs, along with ??? (I have) and e?µa?
  (I am). It has many different meanings depending
  on the context. Please also note that the various
  forms of the present tense in English as I do, I
  am doing are translated by a single form in
  Greek

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The different ways of asking How are you doing?
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The forms of the definite article
Has a ? ending when the word immediately
following begins with a vowel or with any of the
following consonants/consonant combinations ?,
p, t ,??, µp, ?t, ?, ?
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The forms of the indefinite article
The forms of the indefinite article are identical
to those of the numeral one, except of the
feminine (µ?a) which are pronounced as one
syllable, while those of the numeral can be
pronounced as two-syllable word (µ?a)
The final n is not obligatory and may be used
before words beginning with a vowel or any of the
consonants ?, p, t, ? or ?
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Ordering Activity

• One person starts by saying Ill have and
  adding an item of his choice as if s/he were
  ordering something in a café, e.g.
• Ta p??? µ?a sa??ta
• The person on his/her left continues by repeating
  the original order and adding an item of his/her
  own choice, e.g.
• Ta p??? µ?a sa??ta ?a? µ?a p??????a
• The activity continues clockwise around the
  group, each learner adding another item to the
  order for as long as the learners are able to
  sustain the orders.

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Essential vocabulary for the Directions Activity
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Essential vocabulary for the Directions Activity
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Directions Activity

• the aim of the 1st activity is to establish which
  of the places on the list feature on the map.
• After checking which places you have on your map,
  circulate asking each other the question
• S????µ?, ?p???e? (t??pe?a) ed? (Sorry, is there
  a bank here?)
• using all the other places from your list and
  answering according to your map
• ?a? ?p???e? / S????µ?, de? ????
• (Yes, there is / I am sorry, I do not know)

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Directions Activity

• the objective of the 2nd activity are to
  practice of
• Where is?
• the singular definite article
• reading and pronunciation
• A S????µ?, p?? e??a? (? t??pe?a)
• (Sorry, where is the bank?)
• B ???a? st?v ?d? (???t??)
• (Its on ???t?? street)