Learn about nominative personal pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Iro:Hi I’m Iro. |
| Judith: Judith here, Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 7; Modern Life in Greece. Hello and welcome back to GreekPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and the most fun way to learn Greek. I’m joined in the studio by? |
| Iro: Hello, everyone, Iro here. |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to talk to someone on the phone. |
| Iro: This conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Judith: The conversation is between Ellie and her mother. |
| Iro: The speakers are family. Therefore, they will be speaking informal Greek. |
| Judith: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Έλλη: Παρακαλώ… |
| κ. Σοφία: Ελάτε, παιδιά μου, τι κάνετε; |
| Έλλη: Εμείς είμαστε μια χαρά. Εσείς; |
| κ. Σοφία: Καλά… Κάνει πολλή ζέστη εδώ. |
| Έλλη: Ναι, κι εδώ. Τι κάνει ο μπαμπάς; |
| κ. Σοφία: Αυτός είναι πάντα μια χαρά… Βλέπει τηλεόραση. Ο αδερφός σου παίζει μπάσκετ και η αδερφή σου είναι σε ένα πάρτι. Εσύ τι κάνεις; Ο Πέτρος; Είστε καλά; |
| Έλλη: Πολύ καλά. Τώρα πάμε για φαγητό. Λοιπόν, καλό βράδυ μαμά. Πολλά φιλιά. |
| κ. Σοφία: Παιδί μου, το φαγητό έξω δεν είναι καλό και… |
| Πέτρος: Έλα Έλλη, πάμε! |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Έλλη: Παρακαλώ… |
| κ. Σοφία: Ελάτε, παιδιά μου, τι κάνετε; |
| Έλλη: Εμείς είμαστε μια χαρά. Εσείς; |
| κ. Σοφία: Καλά… Κάνει πολλή ζέστη εδώ. |
| Έλλη: Ναι, κι εδώ. Τι κάνει ο μπαμπάς; |
| κ. Σοφία: Αυτός είναι πάντα μια χαρά… Βλέπει τηλεόραση. Ο αδερφός σου παίζει μπάσκετ και η αδερφή σου είναι σε ένα πάρτι. Εσύ τι κάνεις; Ο Πέτρος; Είστε καλά; |
| Έλλη: Πολύ καλά. Τώρα πάμε για φαγητό. Λοιπόν, καλό βράδυ μαμά. Πολλά φιλιά. |
| κ. Σοφία: Παιδί μου, το φαγητό έξω δεν είναι καλό και… |
| Πέτρος: Έλα Έλλη, πάμε! |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Έλλη: Παρακαλώ… |
| Judith: Hello… |
| κ. Σοφία: Ελάτε, παιδιά μου, τι κάνετε; |
| Judith: Come in, my children, how are you? |
| Έλλη: Εμείς είμαστε μια χαρά. Εσείς; |
| Judith: We're fine. You? |
| κ. Σοφία: Καλά… Κάνει πολλή ζέστη εδώ. |
| Judith: Well… It's very hot here. |
| Έλλη: Ναι, κι εδώ. Τι κάνει ο μπαμπάς; |
| Judith: Yes, here too. How's dad? |
| κ. Σοφία: Αυτός είναι πάντα μια χαρά… Βλέπει τηλεόραση. Ο αδερφός σου παίζει μπάσκετ και η αδερφή σου είναι σε ένα πάρτι. Εσύ τι κάνεις; Ο Πέτρος; Είστε καλά; |
| Judith: He's always fine. He's watching TV. Your brother is playing basketball and your sister is at a party. How are you doing? What about Peter? Are you well? |
| Έλλη: Πολύ καλά. Τώρα πάμε για φαγητό. Λοιπόν, καλό βράδυ μαμά. Πολλά φιλιά. |
| Judith: Very well. Now we're going out for food. Well, good evening, mom. Many kisses. |
| κ. Σοφία: Παιδί μου, το φαγητό έξω δεν είναι καλό και… |
| Judith: My child, the food out there isn't good and… |
| Πέτρος: Έλα Έλλη, πάμε! |
| Judith: Come on, Elli, let's go! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay now for cultural point, today we are going to talk about English words in Greek. Iro, can you tell us a bit about that? |
| Iro: Yes, of course. Nowadays, English words are part of our everyday vocabulary. Words like okay, sorry, bye, thanks and resort are used by many people. The main reason for this is because English is everywhere, on TV, in movies, in music, on the Internet, hobbies. |
| Judith: Can you give us some examples of words that have been adopted for Greek? |
| Iro: Yes, for example volley or volleyball, basket or basketball. |
| Judith: Are they also words that are not translated at all, that cannot be translated? |
| Iro: Yes like bungee jumping for example or for words that we use for technology like Internet, PC, laptop. |
| Judith: Yeah, or imagine words like download, decompile, things like that. At least in German, they’re not translated. In IT there are a lot of words that are just used in English. |
| Iro: However, young people tend to replace many Greek words with English so their language usage seems strange, poor and unsophisticated. |
| Judith: So can I say that the younger a person is, the more English words he uses? |
| Iro: Yes and that is why a lot of older Greeks get frustrated about this. |
| Judith: How easy is it to get along in Greece to knowing English? |
| Iro: Actually it’s very easy because everywhere in Greece, all the signs for example are translated into English or at least written in the Latin alphabet. Sometimes bars, shops, hotels and restaurants even have English names. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: Okay, thank you very much for this insight. Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is? |
| Iro: έλα |
| Judith: Come. |
| Iro: έλα |
| Judith: This is come as a request or a command, the imperative form. Next? |
| Iro: παιδί |
| Judith: Child. |
| Iro: παιδί |
| Judith: This word is neuter. Next? |
| Iro: χαρά |
| Judith: Joy. |
| Iro: χαρά |
| Judith: This word is feminine. Next. |
| Iro: μπαμπάς |
| Judith: Dad or father. |
| Iro: μπαμπάς |
| Judith: Obviously masculine. Next? |
| Iro: πάντα |
| Judith: Always. |
| Iro: πάντα |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: αδερφός |
| Judith: Brother. |
| Iro: αδερφός |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: παίζω |
| Judith: To play. |
| Iro: παίζω |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: αδερφή |
| Judith: Sister. |
| Iro: αδερφή |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: σε |
| Judith: At or to. |
| Iro: σε |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: φαγητό |
| Judith: Meal or food. |
| Iro: φαγητό |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: λοιπόν |
| Judith: Well or so. |
| Iro: λοιπόν |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: βράδυ |
| Judith: Evening. |
| Iro: βράδυ |
| Judith: This word is neuter. Next? |
| Iro: πολλά φιλιά |
| Judith: Many kisses. |
| Iro: πολλά φιλιά |
| Judith: Next? |
| Iro: έξω |
| Judith: Outside. |
| Iro: έξω |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Judith: Now, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iro: The first phrase we’ll look at is Είμαστε μια χαρά, |
| Judith: Literally, this is, “We are a joy,” but it means, “We are fine.” |
| Iro: Καλό βράδυ |
| Judith: Good evening. This is a greeting and also a way to say goodbye, καλό βράδυ |
| Iro: Πολλά φιλιά |
| Judith: Many kisses. You could compare this to ending an English letter with hugs and kisses, πολλά φιλιά. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Judith: Now, the grammar focus of this lesson is nominative personal pronouns. We already said that Greek verbs are independent. They don’t need words like I, you, he, she or the like. Everything is clear from the verb ending and the context. |
| Iro: However, there are cases where you might want to use such words usually when you want to emphasize a subject, “He did it and not me.” |
| Judith: There are also other sentences where you’d stress the personal pronoun in English. For example, “And you, how are you doing?” |
| Iro: However, this is only part of the spoken language. This emphasis is lost in writing you use all capital letters, bold phase or the like. |
| Judith: In Greek, you don’t need to. Instead you just use a pronoun with your verb. |
| Iro: "Εγώ" is one such and we’ve already seen. A normal Greek sentence could be like "Είμαι εδώ". |
| Judith: I am here. |
| Iro: However, when you’re waiting for your friend and he’s already half an hour late, then you might say, "Εγώ είμαι εδώ, εσύ που είσαι;" |
| Judith: I am here. Where are you? Now, Judith, can you give us the full list of these special personal pronouns? |
| Iro: Here’s the full list of Greek personal pronouns. εγώ |
| Judith: I. |
| Iro: εσύ |
| Judith: You, singular and informal. |
| Iro: αυτός |
| Judith: He. |
| Iro: αυτή |
| Judith: She. |
| Iro: αυτό |
| Judith: It. |
| Iro: εμείς |
| Judith: We. |
| Iro: εσείς |
| Judith: You, plural or formally. |
| Iro: αυτοί |
| Judith: They. Can you repeat this? |
| Iro: αυτοί |
| Judith: For completeness sake, I should add that there are also the forms "αυτές" and "αυτά" for they, but they are more rare. "Αυτές" is they for a group of all fem ales and "αυτά" for things that are neuter from a grammatical point of view. As soon as there is even one masculine word among them, we use "αυτοί,". So that is the one that you should focus on for now. Well that’s just about does it for today. |
| Iro: Looking for a word definition? |
| Judith: Find exactly what you’re looking for with the instant word finder. Search the word dictionary in the top-right corner of our site to find the word you’re looking for. You can search in English or Greek. |
| Iro: We will also display related audio lessons in our archive. |
| Judith: Add the word directly to your word bank. |
| Iro: Enjoy yourself with my word bank flashcards. |
| Judith: Go to GreekPod101.com and try it now. |
Outro |
|---|
| Judith:So, see you next week! |
| Iro:Γεια σας! |
55 Comments
HideDo you prefer homemade or restaurant food?
Hi Tiff,
Thank you for contacting us.
I noticed you are in the absolute beginner level. Have you tried following this pathway?
https://www.greekpod101.com/lesson-library/level-1-greek/
It contains exercises to put into practice the grammar and vocabulary taught.
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
It would be really helpful if you could start to add grammar practice to these lessons. The audio is excellent, the grammar is nicely explained. To really make it stick. and Greek is really difficult grammatically, students need gap fills/ listening comprehension tasks, multiple choice. If you added some grammar support this would an excellent and much more complete course.
Γεια σου Μπάρμπαρα,
εμένα δεν μου αρέσει πολύ να μαγειρεύω, όμως πάντα μαγειρεύω και τρώω σπίτι. Δεν τρώω πολύ συχνά έξω, γιατί μου αρέσει το υγιεινό σπιτικό φαγητό.
Γεια χαρά,
Στεφανία
Team GreekPod101.com
Μου αρέσει να μαγεραιύω, αλλά μου δεν αρέσει να κατθαρίσω. Λοιπόν, προτιμώ το φαγητό έξω.
Hi Pernille,
Καλό is a neuter adjective in the singular, so you would use it to define a neuter noun in the singular. Ex. το καλό παιδί.
Καλά can be the same in the plural, ex. τα καλά παιδιά, OR it could be an adverb defining a verb, ex. παίζω καλά, "I play well".
So the difference is "good/kind" (adjective) vs "well" (adverb).
All the best,
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
When to use καλό και καλά ?
Hi Pernille,
You are very welcome!
έλα is from the verb έρχομαι and it's a very irregular verb. Here's the full conjugation:
https://moderngreekverbs.com/erxomai.html
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Hello Stefania
Thanks for all your answers😄
What is the conjugation of έλα (to come)
Hi Pernille,
This video will help answer your question:
https://www.greekpod101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-stefania-19-why-do-some-words-have-alternative-spellings/?lp=96
All the best,
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Why is it αδερφός sometimes and other times I see the spelling as αδελφός? Confused! 🤦