Learn Greek

Greek language has ten parts of speech. From these, six are inflected (κλιτά) and four are uninflected (άκλιτα). The inflected parts of speech are the following: articles (άρθρα) nouns (ουσιαστικά) adjectives (επίθετα) pronouns (αντωνυμίες) verbs (ρήματα) participles (μετοχές) The uninflected parts of speech are the following: adverbs (επιρρήματα) conjunctions (σύνδεσμοι) prepositions (προθέσεις) interjections (επιφωνήματα) In the inflected word there is a part that changes and we call it an ending (κατάληξη) and there’s a part that doesn’t change and we call it a stem (θέμα). f.e. I love (αγαπώ) is αγαπ (stem) - ώ (ending), You love (αγαπάς) is αγαπ - άς He/She/It loves (αγαπάει) is αγαπ - άει CASES (πτώσεις) The inflected parts of the language have cases – in other words they are declinable. The four cases are the following: nominative (ονομαστική), genitive (γενική), accusative (αιτιατική) and vocative (κλητική). 1) Nominative is the case we use to answer to the question who or what. Example with who (Ποιός, ποιά, ποιό) Ποιός είναι; (Who is it?) Είναι η Μαρία. (It’s Maria)

Example with what (Τι) Τι είναι μπλε; (What is blue?) Ο ουρανός. (The sky) 2) Genitive is the case we use to answer to the question whose. Example with whose (Ποιανού, Ποιανής ή ποιού, ποιάς)

Ποιανού είναι το ποτήρι; (Whose is the glass?) Της Ζωής. (It’s Zoe’s)

Or

To ποτήρι είναι της Ζωής. (The glass is Zoe’s)

3) Accusative is the case we use to answer to the question whom (or what).

Example with whom (Ποιόν, Ποιά, Ποιό)

Ποιόν συνάντησες; (Whom did you meet?) Συνάντησα τον Γιάννη. I met John. Watch this though:

Τι παίζεις; (What do you play?) Παίζω μπάλα. (I play ball *means I play soccer) Παίζω μουσική. (I play music)

Τον παίζω. (to be explained orally)

4) Vocative is the case we use to call or address someone. Έβελυν, έλα ‘δω! (Evelyn come here!)

GENDER AND NUMBER (γένος και αριθμός) - Part 1 The Greek language has three genders, masculine (αρσενικό), feminine (θηλυκό) and neuter (ουδέτερο). Yep, this language was ahead of its time! ;)

We will start identifying gender with the articles. We have talked about the articles before.Let’s start with the definitive (οριστικό) article.

Ο Γιάννης - masculine Η ζωή - feminine Το ποτήρι - neuter When we speak generally about someone and not about a specific person then we use the male gender. Go back to this example:

This is a very friendly grammar book - that we will soon start studying from (this afternoon to be exact). :)

I put the vowels all together, because it will be easier for you to remember to put the letter "ı" (γιώτα) or "υ" (ύψιλον) in front of α,ε,ο.

So, first, we have the vowels α,ε,ο wıth the letter "ı" (γιώτα)

α-ι ε-ι ο-ι

that together (because it's all in unity ;) ) they make the following sounds:

αι like ε ει like η οι like η Examples:

χαίρεται (herete, note: e like ε). It is used to greet people.

ειρήνη (irini). It means "peace".

φίλοι (fili). The word is in plural. It means "friends".

And then we have α,ε,ο wıth "υ" (ύψιλον):

αυ f.e. αυτοκίνητο (aftokinito). It means "car" ευ f.e. ευχαριστώ (efharisto). It means "Thanks!" ου f.e κουλούρι (κuluri). It mainly refers to the Turkish "simit" but we also use it for pastries of similar appearance.

Ok, now to consonants:

γγ, γκ as in anger

f.e. αγγούρι (aguri). It means "cucumber" but it also implies the notion of something extremely hard to accomplish. :)

μπ

f.e. μπαμπάς (babas). It means "dad".

ντ as in dead

The nominative (ονομαστική) case of the definitive article refers to "ο", "η", "το", in other words the three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter).

Singular

ο μπαμπάς (the dad - masculine)

η μαμά (the mom - feminine)

το παπί (the duck - neuter)

Plural

οι μπαμπάδες (the dads - masculine)

οι μαμάδες (the moms - feminine)

τα παπιά (the ducks - neuter)