Γεια σου Τρέβορ!

I'm so glad you were able to find the book I wrote useful, hehe!

I'd recommend you copy and paste this information somewhere handy because like you said, you will probably come back to it later.

As for the blog error, thank you for providing the link. I've forwarded this to the corresponding team.

All the best :)

Stefania

Team GreekPod101.com

Γεια σου Στεφανία,

Wow! Thank you for your very detailed response. I was able to understand all of it in concept, but I haven't used the genitive case or full masculine numeral declensions yet, so I'll come back to some of it later. Fortunately, as it seems the feminine declensions for the accusative are the same as for the nominative, telling time with these numbers should be pretty straightforward now :)

As for the blog post with the "contracted είκοσι πέντε", it's here: https://www.greekpod101.com/blog/2020/07/31/telling-time-in-greek/#3. The last example in that third section contains the following sample: "Είναι δύο παρά εικοσιπέντε".

Ευχαριστλώ!

Hi Trevor,

I'm glad you asked about this so I can clarify. However, note that going deep into these colloquial numerals might be overwhelming for an absolute beginner level because you need to know declension. I suggest you stick to number + και μισή expressions if the below notes seem complicated at the moment.

These colloquial numerals are compound words that use the adjective μισός-μισή-μισό to denote "half" but it takes the form -ήμισι (after a consonant) και -μισι (after a vowel), ex. δυόμισι, πεντέμισι, τρεισήμισι, τεσσερισήμισι.

The lesson had some typos I've corrected.

There are some exceptions though. If the first compound is the masculine number ένας or the feminine number μία, then it is written with an -η(ς) ending. In all other cases, it would be spelled with -ι. For example:

- Ο ενάμισης χρόνος.

- Η μιάμιση ώρα.

- Το ενάμισι λεπτό.

Note how the neuter one is different.

The masculine and feminine forms are declinable, while the neuter remains indeclinable. For example:

- Ο ενάμισης χρόνος, του ενάμιση χρόνου, τον ενάμιση χρόνο.

- Η μιάμιση ώρα, της μιάμισης ώρας, τη μιάμιση ώρα.

- Το / του ενάμισι (indeclinable) λεπτό/-ού.

Δυόμισι is indeclinable, while τρεισήμισι (common for both masculine and feminine), τριάμισι (neuter) as well as τεσσερισήμισι (masculine/feminine), and τεσσεράμισι (neuter) might vary in gender, but not in the different case system of declension when they define nouns. For example:

-Δυόμισι τόνοι - τόνων- τόνους (m) / ώρες- ωρών (f) / κιλά- κιλών (n).

-Τρεισήμισι τόνοι - τόνων - τόνους (m) / ώρες- ωρών (f)

-Τριάμισι κιλά- κιλών (n). (NOT τρεισήμισι κιλά- κιλών)

Similarly:

-Τεσσερισήμισι μήνες- μηνών (m) /ώρες - ωρών (f).

-Τεσσεράμισι κιλά- κιλών (n). (NOT τεσσερισήμισι κιλά- κιλών)

Similar variations we have for all numbers that end in 3 or 4:

δεκατρεισήμισι - δεκατριάμισι / δεκατεσσερισήμισι - δεκατεσσεράμισι.

The rest of the numerals are indeclinable:

πεντέμισι, εξίμισι, επτάμισι ... δεκαεννιάμισι...

The forms from μιάμιση until δωδεκάμισι are often used when telling the time and since they refer to η ώρα, the feminine forms are used when ώρα is implied. The article for the form μιάμιση is στη (because it's singular) for all other forms, it is στις (which is plural). For example:

-Στη μιάμιση (NOT στις μιάμιση).

-Στις τρεισήμισι (NOT στις τριάμισι.)

-Στις τεσσερισήμισι NOT (στις τεσσεράμισι.)

I hope you are doing OK after all this read 😅. To be honest, it's a very common mistake even among Greeks because it is quite complex, so don't worry too much about it if it feels super complicated to remember.

As for εικοσιπέντε, it should be two different words. Είκοσι πέντε. Perhaps if you send me the link I could forward this to the corresponding team for review and correction.

All the best.

Stefania

Team GreekPod101.com

Γεια σου,

I have two questions about the numeral forms used for telling time.

Firstly, this lesson mentions that instead of "πέντε και μισή" we can say "πεντέμιση". The accent moved in the new word, and the same thing seems to happen with "δύο και μισή", giving "δυόμιση". Strangely, when I Googled for these words, all I could find was a few incomplete dictionary entries for forms like "επτάμισι" spelled with iota instead of ita. Is there a standard way to form these contractions? If so, how are they spelled?

Also, when I was reading a GreekPod101.com article I encountered some contracted numbers over twenty such as εικοσιπέντε. Are they typically used?

I apologize for these detailed questions.

Ευχαριστώ!

Γεια σου Ράλιτζα!

Εδώ είναι δώδεκα και μισή ακριβώς :)

Γεια χαρά!

Στεφανία

Team GreekPod101.com

Γεια σου ,

εδώ είναι δέκα παρά τέταρτο.

Γεια χαρά,

Ράλιτζα

Γεια σου Ντέιλ,

ελπίζω να σε δω σύντομα λοιπόν στο Premium Plus πρόγραμμα!

Γεια χαρά,

Στεφανία

Team GreekPod101.com

Τέλεια! -Dale

Hi Dale,

I'm really honoured to receive such positive feedback from you! Thank you! It really motivates me to keep doing what I do 😄

If you really want to go for it, you can upgrade and see if you will get assigned to me (I'm also a P+ tutor). If not, you can always email the company (contactus@greekpod101.com) and request to be assigned to me.

As for the types of questions you are describing, that's what the P+ service is for. The good thing is that for longer explanations, audio messages can be exchanged so communication is easier.

I would be very happy to have you as my student! The choice is yours 😉

Kind regards,

Stefania

Team GreekPod101.com

Hello again, Stephania,

On a slightly different issue, currently I'm a Premium member only, and I've been thinking of upgrading to Premium Plus.

The company said I would be assigned a tutor with whom I could correspond. That sounds fine to me, but you probably realize that the kinds of questions I have tend to get into pretty detailed matters of grammar and syntax. You've been able to field them admirably because you're so well trained in Ancient Greek, as well as being a native speaker of Modern Greek.

What I'm getting at is that I'm not sure that just any native speaker would be a right fit for me at the Premium Plus level. Now if if YOU'RE the Greek Pod 101 tutor, I'd have no hesitations at all about upgrading.

What's your sense of this?

Dale