Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone. Stefania here. Welcome to another video where I'll teach you 10 Phrases to Amaze Native Speakers. Let's start!
1. Είναι διασκεδαστικό και εύκολο το να μάθεις ελληνικά! (Íne diaskedastikó ke éfkolo to na máthis eliniká!) "Greek is fun and easy to learn!"
I don't think Greek is an easy language to learn, but if you do, good for you!
2. Εκτός από τα ελληνικά, μιλάω και μερικές άλλες γλώσσες επίσης. (Ektós apó ta eliniká, miláo ke merikés áles glóses epísis.) "Apart from knowing Greek, I can speak a few other languages as well."
For example, you can say,
μιλάω αγγλικά και ισπανικά (miláo angliká kai ispaniká) "I speak English and Spanish"
Some other languages are...
Πορτογαλικά (Portogaliká) for Portuguese
ιταλικός (italikós) for Italian
Γερμανός (Germanós) for German
Ρωσική (Rosikí) for Russian
αραβικός (aravikós) for Arabic
and κινέζικα (kinézika) for Chinese.
These are just a few examples, if you want to say your language in Greek, just leave a comment below.
3. Κατάλαβα εντελώς όλα όσα είπες. (Katálava endelós óla ósa ípes.) "I completely understood everything you said."
The next phrase is...
Κατάλαβα εντελώς όλα όσα είπες. (Katálava endelós óla ósa ípes.) "I completely understood everything you said."
In this sentence, you can also skip εντελώς (endelós) and say Κατάλαβα όλα όσα είπες. (Katálava óla ósa ípes.) "I understood everything you said."
4. Μαθαίνω ελληνικά εδώ και δέκα χρόνια. (Mathéno eliniká edó ke déka hrónia.) "I've been learning Greek for 10 years."
Although, 10 years sound like too much, I think it is not an unusual amount of time to reach fluency. It took me 8 to 9 years during my school years to learn English, which I consider an easier language than Greek.
And all that, I was getting a lot of exposures to English in music and movies. Perhaps you don't know that, but in Greece, foreign movies and shows never get dubbed, they get subtitles, unless it's intended for very young audiences.
So you can always hear English on the TV or on the radio. If I remember correctly, for most of my school years, I was doing lessons once or twice a week, maybe if I've done a super intensive course, like, every day for 4-5 hours, I would have learned much faster.
My point is that, if you want to reach great fluency, you need to dedicate a lot of time, one way or the other.
5. Μαθαίνω ελληνικά μόνος μου. (Mathéno eliniká mónos mu.) "I'm learning Greek all by myself."
Let's move on to the next phrase.
Μαθαίνω ελληνικά μόνος μου. (Mathéno eliniká mónos mu.) "I'm learning Greek all by myself."
If you're a woman, you can say, Μαθαίνω ελληνικά μόνο μου. (Mathéno eliniká móno mu.)
I don't think I can ever learn a language μόνο μου (móno mou).
I like being in class, with teacher and classmates, but some people might learn a lot of things on their own, which is amazing! I wish I have the discipline it takes to do that. There's so many languages I'd like to learn.
6. Μου πήρε μόνο έναν χρόνο για να μάθω να μιλάω άπταιστα. (Mu píre móno énan hróno ya na mátho na miláo áptesta.) "It took me only one year to become fluent."
People will get very impressed for sure if you managed to do that. We Greeks considered our language to be quite difficult to learn.
7. Μπορώ και αποστηθίζω γύρω στις 50 νέες ελληνικές λέξεις την ημέρα. (Boró ke apostithízo yíro stis penínda nées elinikés léxis tin iméra.) "I can memorize around 50 new Greek words a day."
That is a lot!
8. Μπορώ να βλέπω ελληνικές ταινίες χωρίς υπότιτλους. (Boró na vlépo elinikés teníes horís ipótitlus.) "I can watch Greek movies without subtitles."
If you can do that, congratulations! You're fluent, my friend. And you don't need me anymore.
9. Σε τρία χρόνια θα μιλάω ελληνικά σαν να ήταν η μητρική μου γλώσσα. (Se tría hrónia tha miláo eliniká san na ítan i mitrikí mu glósa.) "I’ll speak Greek like a native speaker in 3 years."
Sounds like a big challenge, you think you can do it?
10. Έχω μάθει να τραγουδάω τον εθνικό ύμνο. (Ého máthi na tragudáo ton ethnikó ímno.) "I learned how to sing the Greek national anthem."
Do you know the title of the Greek national anthem?
It's called Ύμνος εις την Ελευθερίαν (Ýmnos is tin Eleftherían), meaning "hymn to liberty" or "hymn to freedom".
And it was written by the Poet Dionysios Solomos, and was put into music by Nikolaos Mantzaros.
When sung, the anthem consists of two stanzas, or verses, as we call it in music. Although normally, the poem consists of 158 stanzas, making it the longest in text national anthem in the world. I bet you didn't know that.
So there you have it! 10 Phrases to Amaze Native Speakers.
I hope you found the lesson interesting, can you think of other phrases that can amaze a Greek? Γεια χαρά! (Ya hará!)

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