Learn how to use the vocative case in Modern Greek
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hello, and welcome back to GreekPod101.com, Beginner Season 1, Lesson 9 – The British Call This Greek Place a ‘Pub’. This is Fay. |
| Chrissi: And Chrissi. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at the vocative case of nouns. |
| Fay: The conversation takes place in a bar in Athens. |
| Chrissi: It’s among three co-workers: Petra, our main character; Dimitris Triantafyllou and Vaggelis Thomaidis. |
| Fay: Since the characters are co-workers and on a night out, the conversation is informal. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
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| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πολύ κόσμο έχει αυτό το μπαρ, ε Δημήτρα; |
| Δημήτρα Τριανταφύλλου: Ναι, είναι πολύ διάσημο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Χμμμμμ. Τι θα πιούμε; Μπύρα; Τι λες Ευαγγελία; |
| Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Γιατί όχι; Έχουν πολλές εισαγόμενες μάρκες. |
| Fay: Now let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πολύ κόσμο έχει αυτό το μπαρ, ε Δημήτρα; |
| Δημήτρα Τριανταφύλλου: Ναι, είναι πολύ διάσημο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Χμμμμμ. Τι θα πιούμε; Μπύρα; Τι λες Ευαγγελία; |
| Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Γιατί όχι; Έχουν πολλές εισαγόμενες μάρκες. |
| Fay: Now with the English translation. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πολύ κόσμο έχει αυτό το μπαρ, ε Δημήτρα; |
| Fay: This bar is very crowded, isn't it, Dimitra? |
| Δημήτρα Τριανταφύλλου: Ναι, είναι πολύ διάσημο. |
| Fay: Yes, it is very famous. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Χμμμμμ. Τι θα πιούμε; Μπύρα; Τι λες Ευαγγελία; |
| Fay: Hmmm. What are we drinking? Beer? What do you say, Evaggelia? |
| Ευαγγελία Θωμαΐδη: Γιατί όχι; Έχουν πολλές εισαγόμενες μάρκες. |
| Fay: Why not? They have many imported brands. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: So pubs are very popular in Greece? |
| Chrissi: Yes, especially for younger people. We don’t call them “pubs,” though. We call them “bars.” |
| Fay: But they are closer to the English pub, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. One of their main characteristics is that many people go there for the music. |
| Fay: Live music? |
| Chrissi: No, mostly CDs. But each such bar specializes in some genre, so its crowd is mostly people into this particular style. |
| Fay: And this is where Greeks go to drink? |
| Chrissi: Yes. And only to drink, since these places don’t serve food. |
| Fay: What, nothing? |
| Chrissi: Maybe some nuts or potato chips, but that’s it. |
| Fay: These places are for hardcore drinkers! |
| Chrissi: Nah, you get all kinds of people there. |
| Fay: So I can go for a chat with a friend or a guy? |
| Chrissi: Sure—that’s what we usually do. |
| Fay: I’ll remember that. Shall we move to our vocabulary? |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: First, we have… |
| Chrissi: μπαρ [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Bar. |
| Chrissi: μπαρ [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μπαρ [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πολύς, πολλή, πολύ [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Much. |
| Chrissi: πολύς, πολλή, πολύ [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πολύς, πολλή, πολύ [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: κόσμος [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: World, people. |
| Chrissi: κόσμος [slowly - broken down by syllable]. κόσμος [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πίνω [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: To drink. |
| Chrissi: πίνω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πίνω [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: διάσημο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Famous. |
| Chrissi: διάσημο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. διάσημο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: μπύρα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Beer. |
| Chrissi: μπύρα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μπύρα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: εισαγόμενες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Imported. |
| Chrissi: εισαγόμενες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. εισαγόμενες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: μάρκα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Brand name. |
| Chrissi: μάρκα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μάρκα [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this lesson. “Cosmos”? That’s an English word. |
| Chrissi: Actually, it was Greek first. It can also mean “ornament”; this is where the word “cosmetics” comes from. |
| Fay: What does it originally mean? |
| Chrissi: Literally, it means “world.” But in everyday Greek it also means “people,” especially many people at once. |
| Fay: Like a crowd. |
| Chrissi: Yes—although we do have a separate phrase for “crowd,” too! When we use the word κόσμος (kosmos) to mean “people,” we usually put πολύς (polys) in front of it. "Polys kosmos". |
| Fay: Which means “many people” or “big crowd.” |
| Chrissi: Exactly! |
| Fay: What is this πολύς (polys)? |
| Chrissi: It’s a very useful adjective meaning “many,” “much,” or “a lot.” We will discuss it in a future lesson because it is very irregular. |
| Fay: OK. I noticed that in the beginning of our dialogue, there is a single "e" all by itself. |
| Chrissi: Yeah—Ε, Δημήτρη (E, Dimitri). This is a very common (although very informal) way to address someone or ask their opinion. You can think of it as “Hey, John” or “Don’t you agree, John?”. |
| Fay: So if I want to say “Hot weather, don’t you agree, Grigori?”? |
| Chrissi: Ζεστός καιρός, ε Γρηγόρη; (Zestos kairos, e Grigori?). Repeat that to make sure you got it! |
| Fay: And if I want to say “Hey, Grigori look at this”? |
| Chrissi: Ε, Γρηγόρη. Κοίτα αυτό (E, Grigori. Koita auto). |
| Fay: The word “bar” also came up in the dialogue, didn’t it? |
| Chrissi: Right. |
| Fay: This isn’t a Greek word, is it? |
| Chrissi: No, it isn’t. Because it’s a foreign word, it doesn’t decline the way a regular Greek noun would. |
| Fay: Is it used the same in Greek as in English? |
| Chrissi: Yes. As a matter of fact, many foreign words are used this way in everyday Greek. |
| Fay: Such as? |
| Chrissi: The names of sports, like “hockey,” “volleyball,” “basketball,” and “handball”; technology terms like “tablet,” “PC,” and “smartphone”; and many more. |
| Fay: OK. We should move on now to our main Grammar Point. |
| Chrissi: Of course! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: In this lesson, our main grammar point looks pretty easy. |
| Chrissi: It is. It has kind of a scary name, though—the vocative case! |
| Fay: What does that mean? |
| Chrissi: It is the form nouns (and other declinable parts of speech) take when we want to address them. |
| Fay: So how would you use the vocative to call, say, a police officer? |
| Chrissi: Well, “police officer” is αστυφύλακας (astyfylakas), so I would say αστυφύλακα (astyfylaka). Or rather Κύριε αστυφύλακα (Kyrie astyfylaka) “Mr. Officer”. In that phrase, κύριε (kyrie) is the vocative form of the word κύριος (kyrios), meaning “mister” or “sir.” |
| Fay: So the noun αστυφύλακας (astyfylakas) became αστυφύλακα (astyfylaka). |
| Chrissi: Yes. We dropped the final "-s". |
| Fay: And that’s how you make the vocative? |
| Chrissi: Not always, unfortunately. Depending on the ending, masculine nouns can form the vocative in three different ways. We explain that in detail in our PDF, so it’s better to take a look in there. |
| Fay: In a nutshell? |
| Chrissi: If the masculine noun ends in "-os", that ending changes to "-e"; if it ends in "-is", the ending becomes "-i"; and if it ends in "-as", the ending becomes "-a". |
| Fay: Whew, I see what you mean. That’s a lot to remember. |
| Chrissi: Yes. That’s why we made the PDF to help you keep it straight. |
| Fay: What happens to feminine and neuter nouns? |
| Chrissi: Oh, those are easy! Their vocative forms are the same as their nominative forms. |
| Fay: So if I want to call Maria? |
| Chrissi: You just say “Maria”! |
| Fay: And if I want to call Eleni? |
| Chrissi: Just “Eleni”! |
| Fay: So the only tricky nouns are the masculine ones. |
| Chrissi: Yes. But even they are not so hard. The endings "-is" and "-as" just drop their final "-s". The only weird change is from "-os" to "-e". |
| Fay: Can you give an example of each? |
| Chrissi: Sure. Ο γιατρός (O giatros) “the doctor” becomes γιατρέ (giatre) “doctor”; ο μάγειρας (o mageiras) “the cook” becomes μάγειρα (mageira) “cook”; and ναύτης (nautis) “the sailor” becomes ναύτη (nauti) “sailor”. |
| Fay: And that’s all? |
| Chrissi: Pretty much. There are some exceptions, of course, but if you remember how these three endings change, you can put almost any noun in the vocative case. |
| Fay: That sounds like enough for now! Make sure to check our PDF for more examples and a thorough explanation of vocative case-forming rules. Take care! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!) |
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