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Lesson Transcript

Geia, legomai Chrissi. Hi everybody! I’m Chrissi.
Welcome to GreekPod101.com’s “Ελληνικά σε 3 λεπτά”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Greek.
In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about nationality. This is the second part of our lesson on the verb eimai, which is "to be".
This verb is also used to talk about location, to say things like "I am in the street" or "He is in the room", so it's very useful!
When you want to know where something or someone is, you use the verb eimai in Greek.
For example, when someone asks you on the phone Pou eisai? That means "Where are you?" in an informal way.
Let's break it down.
Pou means "Where"
Eisai? is "are.” This is the “to be” verb eimai conjugated for esy, that is, “you”. Let’s say it again!
Pou eisai?
[slowly] Pou eisai?
Answering this question is very easy! You just say Είμαι and you add the place where you are. We have used eimai before –do you remember it? It is the first person singular of the verb “to be”. As for the place, you can say, for example, Eimai sto dromo which is "I am in the street"
[slowly] Eimai sto dromo
Now let’s see a few other possible answers with I.
"I am at the office" would be Eimai sto grafeio.
"I am in a meeting" would be Eimai se mia synantisi.
"I am in a store" would be Eimai se ena magazi.
"I am at home" would be Eimai sto spiti.
Another useful expression with the verb eimai is when you introduce yourself – like in English, eimai can be used to describe what you do; for example a student, a teacher, a salesman or a musician.
“I am a student” would be Eimai foititis
“I am a teacher” would be Eimai daskalos
“I am a salesman” would be Eimai politis
“I am a musician” would be Eimai mousikos
This will work for almost all professions or occupations that can be described with a noun.
This verb eimai changes a lot depending on the pronoun it’s pointing to and its tense. Its most useful tense is the present tense, and we have already seen a few examples of this. Let’s see them all together now.
“I am” Ego eimai
“You are” Esy eisai
“He is, she is, it is” Autos einai, auti einai, auto einai
“We are” Emeis eimaste
“You are” Eseis eiste
“They are” Autoi einai, autes einai, auta einai
Let’s say them one more time-
Ego eimai
Esy eisai
Autos einai, auti einai, auto einai
Emeis eimaste
Eseis eiste
Autoi einai, autes einai, auta einai
Now it’s time for Chrissi’s Insights.
The verb eimai can also be used for when you are lost on the street, for example. Just say Den ksero pou einai to ksenodocheio mou, mporeite na me voithisete parakalo? which means “I don’t know where my hotel is, can you help me please?”
[slowly] Den ksero pou einai to ksenodocheio mou, mporeite na me voithisete parakalo?
In this lesson we learned how to talk about your location thanks to the verb eimai. Next time, we will combine what we have learned so far to see how you can talk about your age, or to ask about someone else’s age. Do you want to know how to ask that? I'll be waiting for you with the answer in the next lesson!
Tha ta ksanapoume sto epomeno mathima!

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