Learn about grammatical gender in the Greek language
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Intro |
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| Michael: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Chrissi: And how can noun gender be recognized? |
| Michael: At GreekPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following dialogue, Karen Lee is at a flower shop and is looking to buy some flowers. She says to the clerk, |
| "A red tulip and a white Lily." |
| Κάρεν Λι: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| Dialogue |
| Κάρεν Λι: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| Ευαγγελία Ευδοξιάδη: Μόνο μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο; (Móno mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Κάρεν Λι: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| Michael: "A red tulip and a white lily." |
| Ευαγγελία Ευδοξιάδη: Μόνο μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο; (Móno mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno?) |
| Michael: "Only a red tulip and a white lily?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Have you noticed that the noun phrases |
| Chrissi: μία κόκκινη τουλίπα (mía kókini tulípa) |
| Michael: and |
| Chrissi: έναν άσπρο κρίνο (énan áspro kríno) |
| Michael: are preceded by different indefinite articles? This is because, in Greek, every noun has a gender. As a result, Greek articles must agree with the nouns they are used with as they, too, are gendered. Greek distinguishes not only between masculine and feminine gender, as in the previous dialogue, but also uses a neutral gender. We can tell the gender of a noun by the article that precedes it, but whenever articles are not used, we can still tell a noun's gender by its ending in most cases. The most common masculine nouns end in |
| Chrissi: -ος, -ας, -ης, -έας, -ές, or -ούς (-os, -as, -is, -éas, -és, or -oús) |
| Michael: while the most common feminine nouns end in |
| Chrissi: -α, -η with ήτα, or -ού (-a, -i with íta, or -oú). |
| Michael: And lastly, the most common neutral endings are |
| Chrissi: -ο, -ι with γιώτα, -μα, and -ιμο (-o, -i with gióta, -ma, and -imo). |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sentences we heard in this lesson. I will say the English translation, and then you will have a few seconds to say the Greek out loud. Chrissi will then model the correct answer. Listen to her and repeat, with the focus on your pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say, "A red tulip and a white lily." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen to Chrissi again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο. (Mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno.) |
| Michael: Let's move on to our second sentence. Do you remember how to say "Only a red tulip and a white lily?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Μόνο μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο; (Móno mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno?) |
| Michael: Did you get it right this time? Listen to Chrissi and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Μόνο μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο; (Móno mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Μόνο μία κόκκινη τουλίπα και έναν άσπρο κρίνο; (Móno mía kókini tulípa ke énan áspro kríno?) |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Before we end this lesson, an important thing to remember is that the gender of a noun that refers to a person or an animal doesn't always represent the true gender of that person or animal. For example, the Greek noun for "girl," |
| Chrissi: κορίτσι (korítsi), |
| Michael: is a neuter noun, not a feminine noun. Thus, we say |
| Chrissi: το κορίτσι (to korítsi) and ένα κορίτσι (éna korítsi), |
| Michael: meaning "the girl" and "a girl." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Ya hará!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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