Learn how to use adjectives in Modern Greek
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hello, and welcome to GreekPod101.com, Beginner Season 1, Lesson 3 – Keeping It in the Greek Family. I’m Fay. I’m joined in the studio by… |
| Chrissi: Hi, Chrissi here. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at adjectives and how they are used in Modern Greek. |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at the home of Peter's Greek hosts. |
| Chrissi: It’s among the main character, Petra Gordon, her Greek friend, Danai Papadopoulo, and Danai’s sister, Kostantina Papadopoulos. |
| Fay: Since the characters are friends, the conversation is in informal language. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα. |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα; |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16. |
| Fay: Now, the slow version. |
| Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα. |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα; |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16. |
| Fay: Now, let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου |
| Fay: Petra, this is my sister Kostantina who lives with us and my children—Giorgos, Yannis, and Eleni. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα. |
| Fay: Hi. I'm Petra. |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας! |
| Fay: Welcome to Athens and to our home! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα; |
| Fay: Oh, your kids are almost grown-ups! How old are they now? |
| Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16. |
| Fay: Danai's older son is 18, the younger is 15 and her daughter is 16. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: So is it typical for an average Greek family to have three children? |
| Chrissi: I’d say it’s rather rare. Most Greek families these days have only one child; usually both parents work, so there’s a problem with childcare. |
| Fay: And how do families deal with it? |
| Chrissi: Mostly with the help of the grandparents—if they live close and are able to help. |
| Fay: Is it customary for Greeks to live close to their parents even after they get married? |
| Chrissi: Well, many do, yes. Family ties are still very strong in Greece! And not only among the basic family members; there are also strong ties with the extended family as well, even if they don’t actually live close by. |
| Fay: So when you make friends with a Greek… |
| Chrissi: …you make friends with many, many more! Shall we go on to our vocabulary? |
| Fay: Of course! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First, we have… |
| Chrissi: αυτή [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: This. |
| Chrissi: αυτή [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αυτή [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next. |
| Chrissi: μου [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: My. |
| Chrissi: μου [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μου [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next. |
| Chrissi: παιδί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Child. |
| Chrissi: παιδί [slowly - broken down by syllable]. παιδί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: γιός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Son. |
| Chrissi: γιός [slowly - broken down by syllable]. γιός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: κόρη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Daughter. |
| Chrissi: κόρη [slowly - broken down by syllable]. κόρη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: Καλώς ήρθες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Welcome. |
| Chrissi: Καλώς ήρθες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Καλώς ήρθες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: σπίτι [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Home, house. |
| Chrissi: σπίτι [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πίτι [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πόσο |
| Fay: How much? |
| Chrissi: πόσο |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: τώρα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Now. |
| Chrissi: τώρα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. τώρα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: αδερφή [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Sister. |
| Chrissi: αδερφή [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αδερφή [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: μεγάλος [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Big, elder. |
| Chrissi: μεγάλος [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μεγάλος [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases in this lesson. So what’s happening there with μεγάλος (megalos) and μικρός (mikros)? These are adjectives, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. And we will talk about adjectives later. For the moment, let’s say that these particular adjectives have two meanings in modern Greek. |
| Fay: Which are? |
| Chrissi: First, they mean "big" and "small," as in μεγάλος δρόμος (megalos dromos) and μικρός δρόμος (mikros dromos). |
| Fay: Which mean “big street” and “small street.” |
| Chrissi: Right! Or in μεγάλος πύργος (megalos pirgos) and μικρός πύργος (mikros pirgos), “big tower” and “small tower.” |
| Fay: But in our dialogue they are used in a somewhat different way. |
| Chrissi: Yes. We say ο μεγάλος γιος (o megalos gios) and ο μικρός γιος (o mikros gios) to mean “the older son” and “the younger son.” Actually, they mean “the old son” and “the young son.” |
| Fay: So in Greek the adjectives μεγάλος (megalos) and μικρός (mikros)—that is, “big” and “small”—can also mean “younger” and “older” when we are speaking about two people’s ages, right? |
| Chrissi: Exactly. |
| Fay: OK, we made that clear. Beyond that, there was also something you wanted to say about the word σπίτι (spiti), wasn’t there? |
| Chrissi: Yes. In our dialogue, one character says Καλώς ήρθες στο σπίτι μας (Kalos irthes sto spiti mas). |
| Fay: Which means “welcome to our home,” doesn’t it? |
| Chrissi: Yes. But it could also mean “Welcome to our house”; you see, in Greek we don’t have a separate word for “home” and “house” like in English. |
| Fay: So how do you know which is which? |
| Chrissi: From the context. If we hear someone say Έχω ένα σπίτι στην Αθήνα (Echo ena spiti stin Athina), which means “I have a spiti in Athens,” this σπίτι (spiti) could only mean “house,” right? |
| Fay: Right. And if we want to say “I’m going home”? |
| Chrissi: This would be Πάω στο σπίτι (Pao sto spiti)—again we use σπίτι (spiti), but from the context it’s clear we’re talking about “home.” |
| Fay: This makes sense. So shall we move on to adjectives? |
| Chrissi: Sure! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: The focus of this lesson is adjectives. |
| Chrissi: Yes. Can you think of a language without adjectives? |
| Fay: Certainly not. It would be too boring! How are adjectives used in Greek? |
| Chrissi: Pretty much the same way as in English. We put them between the article and the noun, and they help us describe some quality of the noun. |
| Fay: So the order would be article-adjective-noun, yes? |
| Chrissi: Yes. For example, we can say ο κόκκινος μαρκαδόρος (o kokkinos markadoros). Try to repeat that. |
| Fay: Ο κόκκινος μαρκαδόρος (O kokkinos markadoros). This means “the red marker,” right? |
| Chrissi: Right! Or we can say "o leukos toichos". Would you like to repeat that? |
| Fay: Ο λευκός τοίχος (O leukos toichos). The white wall. How would we say “the right way”? |
| Chrissi: Ο σωστός δρόμος (O sostos dromos). All you people listening at home, try this too: ο σωστός δρόμος (o sostos dromos). |
| Fay: I see you always use the article ο (o), right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. This is the singular nominative of the masculine article; we want to keep things simple, so in this lesson we will focus on that. |
| Fay: Because adjectives are gendered—and numbered, right? |
| Chrissi: Exactly. But if we can grasp the singular nominative, we will have gone a long way to understanding how adjectives work. The order doesn’t change in the other cases or genders, or in the plural number. |
| Fay: Great! What else do we need to know about adjectives for now? |
| Chrissi: We could also mention that if there is a verb, the verb goes before the article. |
| Fay: Can you give an example? |
| Chrissi: Yes. Εγώ είμαι Έλληνας πολίτης (Ego eimai Ellinas politis), “I am a Greek citizen.” |
| Fay: Let’s repeat that. |
| Chrissi: Sure. Εγώ είμαι Έλληνας πολίτης (Ego eimai Ellinas politis). Or you could say Εγώ είμαι Αμερικανός πολίτης (Ego eimai Amerikanos politis), “I am an American citizen.” |
| Fay: You don’t use the indefinite article in Greek, though. |
| Chrissi: In this case, no. But we will speak about that in a future lesson! In our examples, the order is εγώ (ego)... |
| Fay: “I,” the personal pronoun. |
| Chrissi: Είμαι (Eimai). |
| Fay: “Am,” the verb. |
| Chrissi: Αμερικανός (Amerikanos). |
| Fay: “American,” the adjective. |
| Chrissi: And πολίτης (politis). |
| Fay: “Citizen,” the noun. |
| Chrissi: Right! |
| Fay: Or to go to a previous example about the right street, how can we say “This is the right street”? |
| Chrissi: Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos). Again—pronoun, verb, article, adjective, noun. Repeat it after me. Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos). |
| Fay: Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos). Not that hard! |
| Chrissi: No, it isn’t! |
| Fay: So let’s stop here for now. Remember the right order [the same as in English] and be sure to check the PDFs for more examples on the use of adjectives. Bye-bye for now! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!) |
Comments
Hide