Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Fay: Hello, and welcome back to GreekPod101.com - the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Greek. Fay here! Beginner Season 1, Lesson 18 - Not Even for an E-mail from Your Greek Friend?
Chrissi: And I’m Chrissi.
Fay: What are we learning in this lesson?
Chrissi: We are looking at the past tense of echo ("to have").
Fay: The conversation takes place at the software company in Athens.
Chrissi: It’s between Petra Gordon and her co-worker, Vaggelis Thomaidis.
Fay: The characters are co-workers so the conversation is in informal language.
Chrissi: Let’s listen.

Lesson conversation

Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Πέτρα, είχες χρόνο να διαβάσεις το email που σου έστειλα;
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δυστυχώς, δεν είχα καθόλου χρόνο. Είχα πολλή δουλειά με το άλλο πρότζεκτ.
Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Α, ναι, σωστά. Είχατε το μίτινγκ εχτές. Πώς πήγε;
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, πολύ καλά. Η Δανάη είχε μερικές πολύ καλές ιδέες.
Fay: Now let’s listen to the slow version.
Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Πέτρα, είχες χρόνο να διαβάσεις το email που σου έστειλα;
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δυστυχώς, δεν είχα καθόλου χρόνο. Είχα πολλή δουλειά με το άλλο πρότζεκτ.
Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Α, ναι, σωστά. Είχατε το μίτινγκ εχτές. Πώς πήγε;
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, πολύ καλά. Η Δανάη είχε μερικές πολύ καλές ιδέες.
Fay: Now with the English translation.
Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Πέτρα, είχες χρόνο να διαβάσεις το email που σου έστειλα;
Fay: Petra, did you have time to read the email I sent you?
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δυστυχώς, δεν είχα καθόλου χρόνο. Είχα πολλή δουλειά με το άλλο πρότζεκτ.
Fay: I'm afraid I didn't have any time at all. I had a lot of work with the other project.
Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Α, ναι, σωστά. Είχατε το μίτινγκ εχτές. Πώς πήγε;
Fay: Oh, yes, right. You had the meeting yesterday. How did it go?
Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, πολύ καλά. Η Δανάη είχε μερικές πολύ καλές ιδέες.
Fay: Very well. Danai had some very good ideas.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Fay: You do use email, don’t you?
Chrissi: I use it extensively. But this is not the case with most Greeks.
Fay: But we said in a previous lesson that most people under 45 are online!
Chrissi: Yes, they are. Still, most prefer texting.
Fay: Don’t people use the internet with their phones?
Chrissi: Very few—the cost is too high for non-corporate users. But SMSes are cheap, so…
Fay: SMSes?
Chrissi: Yes. This is what text messages are called in Greece. By the way, that’s the official name for the technology. It stands for “Short Message Service.”
Fay: Really? I didn’t know that. Anyway, how about communication through social networks?
Chrissi: Oh, these are huge in Greece! Most internet users are on Facebook; actually, there are many people who got internet connections just to get on Facebook.
Fay: So I can make Facebook friends from Greece?
Chrissi: Sure. But you have to make your Greek better, so let’s go to our vocabulary!
Fay: Okay!
VOCAB LIST
Fay: First, we have…
Chrissi: είχες [natural native speed].
Fay: You had (singular).
Chrissi: είχες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. είχες [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: διαβάζω [natural native speed].
Fay: To read.
Chrissi: διαβάζω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. διαβάζω [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: στέλνω [natural native speed].
Fay: To send.
Chrissi: στέλνω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. στέλνω [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: δυστυχώς [natural native speed].
Fay: Unfortunately, I'm afraid that…
Chrissi: δυστυχώς [slowly - broken down by syllable]. δυστυχώς [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: είχα [natural native speed].
Fay: I had.
Chrissi: είχα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. είχα [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: καθόλου [natural native speed].
Fay: At all (as in "not at all").
Chrissi: καθόλου [slowly - broken down by syllable]. καθόλου [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: άλλο [natural native speed].
Fay: Other.
Chrissi: άλλο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. άλλο [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: σωστά [natural native speed].
Fay: Correct.
Chrissi: σωστά [slowly - broken down by syllable]. σωστά [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: πάω / πηγαίνω [natural native speed]..
Fay: I go, I am going.
Chrissi: πάω / πηγαίνω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πάω / πηγαίνω [natural native speed].
Fay: Next…
Chrissi: είχε [natural native speed].
Fay: He/she/it had.
Chrissi: είχε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. είχε [natural native speed].
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Fay: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this lesson. Here’s something that’s been puzzling me for a while. How do you say “I go” in Greek?
Chrissi: Εγώ πηγαίνω. (Ego pigaino.)
Fay: But I’ve heard people saying Πάω για ψώνια (Pao gia psonia) "I go shopping”. Is this πάω (pao) an idiom?
Chrissi: Actually, it’s another version of the verb πηγαίνω (pigaino).
Fay: I see! So ego pao and ego pigaino both mean “I go.”
Chrissi: Or “I’m going.” Remember that in Greek we don’t have separate tenses for simple present and present progressive.
Fay: Right. Can you give us a sentence using both versions of “I go”?
Chrissi: Sure. Listeners, please repeat after me. Πάω στο γραφείο με το Μετρό (Pao sto grafeio me to Metro.)
Fay: “I go to the office on the Metro.”
Chrissi: Πηγαίνω στο γραφείο με το Μετρό (Pigaino sto grafeio me to Metro.)
Fay: Same thing—“I go to the office on the Metro.”
Chrissi: Yes.
Fay: Okay. Now let’s look at another phrase from the dialogue. “I didn’t have any time at all.”
Chrissi: Δεν είχα καθόλου χρόνο. (Den eicha katholou chrono.)
Fay: I know that den makes things negative, but katholou looks like it’s also somehow negative—am I wrong?
Chrissi: Not at all. It’s a stronger negation, used as extensively in Greek as in English.
Fay: Can we have a couple of examples?
Chrissi: Sure. Δεν πήγα καθόλου διακοπές φέτος. (Den piga katholou diakopes fetos.) Listeners, repeat that.
Fay: Which means...?
Chrissi: “I didn’t go anywhere at all for my vacation this year.” See? English adds “at all” to make the negation stronger.
Fay: How about another example?
Chrissi: Δεν άκουσα καθόλου τι μου είπες. (Den akousa katholou ti mou eipes.)
Fay: “I didn’t hear what you said at all.”
Chrissi: Right!
Fay: What does καθόλου (katholou) literally mean?
Chrissi: When used with negatives, it means “any” or “at all.” It’s a quantity adverb.
Fay: Got it. Finally, how do we say “alone” in Greek?
Chrissi: Μόνος (Monos), or μόνος μου (monos mou) with the possessive form, μου (mou), meaning “my.”
Fay: An example?
Chrissi: Θα πάω μόνος μου σινεμά. (Tha pao monos mou sinema.) Try to repeat that.
Fay: “I will go to the cinema alone.”
Chrissi: Yes.
Fay: Let’s move on to our Grammar.

Lesson focus

Fay: In this lesson, our focus is on the past tense of the verb έχω (echo).
Chrissi: Yes. I know they require a lot of grammar…
Fay: …but it’s very important.
Chrissi: Yes. The past tense of the verb έχω (echo) "to have” will be something you use all the time.
Fay: What does that look like?
Chrissi: Είχα (Eicha) "I had”.
Fay: That’s the simple past, right?
Chrissi: Yes. It’s the tense we use when we want to speak about something that happened in the past and It is over now.
Fay: For example?
Chrissi: Εχτές, έκατσα σπίτι (Echtes, ekatsa spiti) "Yesterday I stayed at home”. Listeners, repeat that.
Fay: Another example?
Chrissi: Την παρασκευή πήγα στο κλαμπ (Tin Paraskeui piga sto club) "On Friday I went to the club”.
Fay: So that’s what the past tense looks like. Let’s see some examples with eicha.
Chrissi: I’ll give one for each person.
Fay: Great! Listeners, repeat these sentences after Chrissi. First-person singular—
Chrissi: “I was busy on the weekend.” Είχα δουλειά το Σαββατοκύριακο. (Eicha douleia to Savatokyriako.)
Fay: Second-person singular.
Chrissi: “You had to go to the supermarket.” Είχες να πας στο σούπερ μάρκετ (Eiches na pas sto super market.)
Fay: Third-person singular, masculine.
Chrissi: “Yesterday, the weather was good.” Εχτές είχε καλό καιρό (Echtes eiche kalo kairo.)
Fay: Third-person singular, feminine.
Chrissi: “My teacher had the flu.” Η δασκάλα μου είχε γρίπη. (I daskala mou eiche gripi.)
Fay: Third-person singular, neuter.
Chrissi: “The car had good brakes.” Το αυτοκίνητο είχε καλά φρένα. (To autokinito eiche kala frena.)
Fay: First-person plural.
Chrissi: “We had to go to a wedding.” Είχαμε να πάμε σε έναν γάμο (Eichame na pame se enan gamo)
Fay: Second-person plural.
Chrissi: “You had problems at work.” Είχατε προβλήματα στη δουλειά. (Eichate provlimata sti douleia.)
Fay: Third-person plural, masculine.
Chrissi: “The sailors had shore leave.” Οι ναύτες είχαν άδεια. (Oi nautes eichan adeia.)
Fay: Third-person plural, feminine.
Chrissi: “The nurses had very strict orders.” Οι νοσοκόμες είχαν πολύ αυστηρές οδηγίες. (Oi nosokomes eichan poly austires odigies.)
Fay: Third-person plural, neuter.
Chrissi: “The airplanes had comfortable seats.” Τα αεροπλάνα είχαν ένατ καθίσματα. (Ta aeroplana eichan aneta kathismata.)
Fay: Whew! We just conjugated eicha!
Chrissi: At least the declarative form.
Fay: But the negative and interrogative forms aren’t hard, are they?
Chrissi: No. For the negative, we just add δεν (den) right before the verb.
Fay: So εγώ είχα (ego eicha) "I had” becomes…
Chrissi: Εγώ δεν είχα (Ego den eicha) "I hadn’t”.
Fay: And the interrogative?
Chrissi: The simplest way to turn a statement into a question is to raise the pitch on the accented syllable.
Fay: So Εγώ είχα (Ego eicha) becomes…
Chrissi: Εγώ είχα; (Ego eicha?) In writing, you just add a question mark.
Fay: That pretty much covers είχα (eicha) "I had”.
Chrissi: At least its basic usage.
Fay: But we have some more interesting stuff in the PDF, right?
Chrissi: Yes. And many examples, so please, people, don’t forget to download it!
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Chrissi: Γεια χαρα! (Geia chara!)

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