| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "The check-in is from 3 p.m., right?" |
| Η άφιξη είναι από τις 3 μ.μ. σωστά; (I áfixi íne apó tis 3 m.m. sostá?) |
| Η άφιξη είναι από τις 3 μ.μ. σωστά; (I áfixi íne apó tis 3 m.m. sostá?) |
| This sentence follows the pattern here: |
| Noun + είναι + από + Time |
| Noun + íne + apó + time |
| [Noun] is from [time] |
| This pattern is used in Greek to express when something begins, such as check-in times, museum hours, or business operations. |
| The noun at the beginning is the subject. |
| The verb είναι (íne) means "is," and από (apó) means "from." |
| When you say a specific time using the hour (like 5 p.m., 10 a.m.), you always use τις (tis) before the number, because you're referring implicitly to ώρες (óres) — meaning "hours" — which is feminine plural. |
| Use this structure when giving starting times for events, services, or public access. |
| Let's see how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Η άφιξη είναι από τις 3 μ.μ. σωστά; (I áfixi íne apó tis 3 m.m. sostá?) |
| "The check-in is from 3 p.m., right?" |
| Let's break it down: |
| Η άφιξη (I áfixi), the subject, meaning "arrival." |
| This is a feminine noun with the article η (i). |
| Είναι (íne), the third person singular form of είμαι (íne), meaning "is." |
| Από (apó), a preposition meaning "from." |
| Τις 3 μ.μ. (tis trí m.m.), meaning "3 p.m." |
| Greek uses the article τις (tis) with clock times because "hours" is understood to be feminine plural. |
| Σωστά; (Sostá?), meaning "right?" |
| This is a polite way to check or confirm information. |
| Altogether: |
| "The check-in is from 3 p.m., right?" |
| You may also see another variation used to express availability until a certain time: |
| Noun + είναι + adjective + μέχρι + Time |
| Noun + íne + adjective + méhri + Time |
| "The [Noun] is [adjective] until [Time]" |
| In this case, μέχρι (méchri) means "until," and for the adjective, ανοιχτό (anikhtó) or κλειστό (klestó) "open" or "closed" is often used here. |
| Η πισίνα είναι ανοιχτή μέχρι τα μεσάνυχτα. (I pisína íne anihtí méhri ta mesánihta.) |
| "The pool is open until midnight." |
| Let's see how it follows the pattern: |
| Η πισίνα (I pisína), the subject, meaning "the pool." |
| This is a feminine noun, introduced by the article η (i), which is used for feminine singular nouns. |
| Είναι ανοιχτή (íne anichtí), meaning "is open." |
| The verb είναι (íne) is the third person singular form of the verb είμαι (íme), meaning "to be." |
| The adjective ανοιχτή (anichtí) is in the feminine form to agree with the feminine noun πισίνα (pisína). |
| Μέχρι (méhri), a preposition meaning "until." |
| It introduces the time expression that marks the end of availability. |
| Τα μεσάνυχτα (ta mesánihta), meaning "midnight." |
| The noun μεσάνυχτα (mesánihta) is a neuter plural time expression. That's why it uses the article τα (ta), instead of τις (tis), which is used for specific clock times like "τις 3 μ.μ." |
| When referring to general time periods instead of precise clock times, Greek uses the structure: |
| τα (ta) + [neuter plural time word], |
| such as τα μεσάνυχτα (ta mesánihta) for "midnight" or τα ξημερώματα (ta ximerómata) for "early morning." |
| This change in article reflects that these expressions function as broad time blocks, not specific hours. |
| In Greek, we use two different little words before times: τις and τα. We say τις with clock times, for example, τις 3 μ.μ. "3 p.m." You can think of it as always attaching τις when you mention a number on the clock. With special time words, we use τα, for example, τα μεσάνυχτα "midnight" or τα ξημερώματα "early morning." These are not exact clock numbers but periods of the day. An easy way to remember is this: if you see a number, say τις; if it's a word like "midnight," say τα. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Το μουσείο είναι από τις 10 π.μ. (To mousío íne apó tis déka pro mesimvrías.) |
| "The museum is from 10 a.m." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Το μουσείο (To mousío), |
| the subject, meaning "the museum." |
| This is a neuter noun with the article το. |
| Είναι (íne), the third person singular of the verb είμαι, meaning "is." |
| Από (apó), |
| a preposition meaning "from." |
| Τις 10 π.μ. (tis déka p.m.), |
| meaning "10 a.m." |
| Here, τις (tis) is the feminine plural article used before clock times in Greek. |
| π.μ. stands for προ μεσημβρίας, meaning "before noon." |
| Altogether, the sentence means: |
| "The museum is from 10 a.m." |
| This matches the pattern: |
| Noun + είναι + από + Time |
| Here's another example |
| Η βιβλιοθήκη είναι ανοιχτή μέχρι τις 6 μ.μ. (I vivliothíki íne anichtí méchri tis éxi metá mesimvrían.) |
| "The library is open until 6 p.m." |
| Η βιβλιοθήκη είναι ανοιχτή μέχρι τις 6 μ.μ. (I vivliothíki íne anichtí méchri tis éxi metá mesimvrían.) |
| "The library is open until 6 p.m." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Το κατάστημα είναι κλειστό μέχρι τις 9 π.μ. (To katástima íne kleistó méchri tis enniá pro mesimvrías.) |
| "The shop is closed until 9 a.m." |
| Το κατάστημα είναι κλειστό μέχρι τις 9 π.μ. (To katástima íne kleistó méchri tis enniá pro mesimvrías.) |
| "The shop is closed until 9 a.m." |
| Now you know how to confirm hotel policies in Greek. |
| ...and now let's move on to the practice. |
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