Learn how to send a package in Greece
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Iro: Γεία σας, εγώ είμαι η Ηρώ. |
| Judith: Judith here. Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Sending a package. |
| Iro: Hi, my name is Iro and I am joined here by Judith. |
| Judith: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. |
| Iro: What are we learning today? |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to send a package. |
| Iro: This conversation takes place at the post office in Athens. |
| Judith: The conversation is between Rhea and the clerk. |
| Iro: The speakers are meeting in a professional capacity, therefore they will be speaking formal Greek. |
| Judith: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ρέα: Καλημέρα. |
| Υπάλληλος: Καλημέρα σας. |
| Ρέα: Θα ήθελα να στείλω αυτό εδώ το πακέτο. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Τι έχει μέσα; |
| Ρέα: Ένα δώρο για ένα γάμο. Είναι ένα ρολόι. |
| Υπάλληλος:Πού πηγαίνει; |
| Ρέα: Στην Κρήτη. Μπορείτε να μου πείτε πόσο κοστίζει; |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό... Είναι οκτώ ευρώ. |
| Ρέα: Ορίστε. |
| Υπάλληλος: Περιμένετε να σας δώσω τα ρέστα σας. Ορίστε. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Α, ήθελα να ρωτήσω πότε θα είναι στην Κρήτη. |
| Υπάλληλος: Σε μία εβδομάδα. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Γεια σας. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό δεσποινίς. Πρέπει να υπογράψετε εδώ. |
| Judith: Now one time slowly. |
| Ρέα: Καλημέρα. |
| Υπάλληλος: Καλημέρα σας. |
| Ρέα: Θα ήθελα να στείλω αυτό εδώ το πακέτο. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Τι έχει μέσα; |
| Ρέα: Ένα δώρο για ένα γάμο. Είναι ένα ρολόι. |
| Υπάλληλος:Πού πηγαίνει; |
| Ρέα: Στην Κρήτη. Μπορείτε να μου πείτε πόσο κοστίζει; |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό... Είναι οκτώ ευρώ. |
| Ρέα: Ορίστε. |
| Υπάλληλος: Περιμένετε να σας δώσω τα ρέστα σας. Ορίστε. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Α, ήθελα να ρωτήσω πότε θα είναι στην Κρήτη. |
| Υπάλληλος: Σε μία εβδομάδα. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Γεια σας. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό δεσποινίς. Πρέπει να υπογράψετε εδώ. |
| Judith: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Ρέα: Καλημέρα. |
| Rea: Good morning. |
| Υπάλληλος: Καλημέρα σας. |
| Employee: Good morning to you. |
| Ρέα: Θα ήθελα να στείλω αυτό εδώ το πακέτο. |
| Rea: I'd like to send this package. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Τι έχει μέσα; |
| Employee: Yes. What does it have inside? |
| Ρέα: Ένα δώρο για ένα γάμο. Είναι ένα ρολόι. |
| Rea: A gift for a wedding. It's a watch. |
| Υπάλληλος:Πού πηγαίνει; |
| Employee: Where is it going? |
| Ρέα: Στην Κρήτη. Μπορείτε να μου πείτε πόσο κοστίζει; |
| Rea: To Crete. Can you tell me how much it costs? |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό... Είναι οκτώ ευρώ. |
| Employee: Just a moment... [Half a minute...] It's eight euros. |
| Ρέα: Ορίστε. |
| Rea: Here you are. |
| Υπάλληλος: Περιμένετε να σας δώσω τα ρέστα σας. Ορίστε. |
| Employee: Wait for me to give you your change. Here you are. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Α, ήθελα να ρωτήσω πότε θα είναι στην Κρήτη. |
| Rea: Thank you. Ah, I wanted to ask when it will be in Crete. |
| Υπάλληλος: Σε μία εβδομάδα. |
| Employee: In one week. |
| Ρέα: Ευχαριστώ. Γεια σας. |
| Rea: Thank you. Good-bye. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μισό λεπτό δεσποινίς. Πρέπει να υπογράψετε εδώ. |
| Employee: Just a moment, Miss. You need to sign here. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Ok, so how do you actually say post office in Greek? |
| Iro: The Greek word for post office is Ταχυδρομείο. |
| Judith: And maybe you should talk a little bit about the difference between the Greek post offices and the American ones. For example, what are the opening hours? |
| Iro: Post offices are open Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2. |
| Judith: I can imagine that’s very difficult for working people because the post offices are not opening in the afternoon or evening and not on the weekends. How do you do that? I mean obviously you can send letters and packages, right? |
| Iro: Yes, of course. You can send letters and packages first class, second class, registered, unregistered and express. |
| Judith: And what else? |
| Iro: You can also send faxes. Send money all over the world or receive money, traveller’s cheques and money order. |
| Judith: That’s pretty nice. I thought that was banks are good for. And anything else? |
| Iro: Need to pay a utility bill, you will also go to the post office for that. |
| Judith: Wow. |
| Iro: And there you can buy cards for disposable cell phones. Finally, you can also rent postal boxes there. |
| Judith: That’s amazing. Sounds like post offices are really, really important in Greece. |
| Iro: Yes I’d say they are. If you need to send a letter or post cards from Greece I’s easy to pick out mailboxes on the streets. They are yellow with blues letters ΕΛΤΑ, Helenic post and the head of Hermes. |
| Judith: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first word we shall see is... |
| Iro: Πακέτο |
| Judith: “Package” or “packet”. |
| Iro: Πακέτο |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Μέσα |
| Judith: Inside. |
| Iro: Μέσα |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Δώρο |
| Judith: “Gift” or “present”. |
| Iro: Δώρο |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Κοστίζω |
| Judith: To cost. |
| Iro: Κοστίζω |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Ρέστα |
| Judith: Change. |
| Iro: Ρέστα |
| Judith: This word is plural, isn’t it? |
| Iro: Yeah. |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Πότε |
| Judith: When. |
| Iro: Πότε |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Εβδομάδα |
| Judith: Week. |
| Iro: Εβδομάδα |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Δεσποινίς |
| Judith: Miss. |
| Iro: Δεσποινίς |
| Judith: Next. |
| Iro: Υπογράφω |
| Judith: To sign. |
| Iro: Υπογράφω |
| Judith: Let’s have a closer look at usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Iro: The first phrase we will look at is Καλημέρα σας. |
| Judith: This is a more formal way of greeting someone instead of simply Καλημέρα. It’s like saying “good day to you, sir” or “good day to you, madam”. |
| Iro: Θα ήθελα means “I would like” or “I would want”. Simply ήθελα is I wanted – imperfect past tense. If you really must know θα ήθελα is conditional mood. All you have to do to get the conditional in Greek is add θα to the imperfect. For example, έτρωγα changes to “I would eat” θα έτρωγα. We’ll cover this later. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: The focus of this lesson is the Aorist stem. This lesson introduces one of the most annoying parts about Greek Aorist stem. This stem is not entirely predictable though it usually involves the addition of the “S” sound. |
| Iro: The letters τ,δ,θ,ζ and ν become σ. For example, ντύνω - ντύσω, γυρίζω - γυρίσω. The letters κ,γ,ζ,χ and χν become ξ. For example, βρέχει - βρέξει, δείχνω - δείξω, κοιτάζω - κοιτάξω. |
| Judith: So it’s essentially adding a σ afterwards except the Greek have a nicer way of spelling the combination K-S. |
| Iro: The letters π,β,φ and πτ become ψ, for example γράφω - γράψω, λείπω - λείψω. |
| Judith: Again, pretty simple. |
| Iro: If the word stem ends in a vowel, it is likely that S will be added. For example ακούω - ακούσω, ρωτώ - ρωτήσω, μιλάω - μιλήσω, συγχωρώ - συγχωρήσω. |
| Judith: How about irregular forms. I think we should say there are some that are slightly irregular like στέλνω. |
| Iro: Στέλνω - στείλω, δίνω - δόσω, πίνω - πιω |
| Judith: So with these you can still recognize them and maybe there is an “S” involved. But there are also some that are totally unrecognizable. |
| Iro: For example, λέω - πω, βλέπω - δω, τρώω - φάω. |
Outro |
| Judith: So you still have to learn this kind of change in case it’s irregular, but you can usually guess, and with a little bit of practise you can know it instinctively. In the next lesson we will look at what we can do with this Aorist stem. That just about does it for today. |
| Iro: Want a great way to build your Greek vocabulary. |
| Judith: Follow our Greek word of today at GreekPod101.com |
| Iro: See and hear the word for the day |
| Judith: Plus sample sentence and phrases. |
| Iro: Get these daily vocabulary alert on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at the GreekPod101.com blog. |
| Judith: And add this widget on you own website or blog. They’re available in 35 languages. |
| Iro: Get these instruction at GreekPod101.com/greekphrases. |
| Judith: So see you next week. |
| Iro: Γεία σας, τα λέμε την επόμενη φορά. |
28 Comments
HideHi Jan,
To put it simply, aorist is the simple past tense (see what I did there😄?).
So it's a tense that expresses a momentary action in the past, so it's non-continuous.
Greek has only one present tense, but momentary and continuous past and future.
I hope this helps,
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Please explain the term "aorist." I'm not familiar with it and would appreciate knowing what the equivalent term is in English. I understand that Greek has continuous present, past and future, which is somewhat confusing, but at least I understand the underlying concept. Not so with "aorist." Thank you!
Hi Yaroslav,
Thank you for your feedback.
The quizzes were meant to be a quick check after every 3 lessons approximately so the student can go back to review. But depending on the amount of grammar of each lesson, there could be a quiz after fewer or more lessons.
Level 2 includes 25 lessons from the Upper Beginner series and ends with another 25 lessons from the sentence structure series. You'll notice that these last lessons are more grammar heavy, so the quizzes come after 1 or 2 lessons as opposed to the Upper Beginner lessons which are more "light" in terms of grammar so the quizzes are more spaced out.
Nonetheless, I'll make sure to pass your feedback to the rest of the team.
Thank you!
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Hi Stefania.
To the below question regarding more quizzes: it would really be nice to have the quiz after each lesson not only for words, but also for grammar, for expressions etc. What is done in GreekPod is assessment after 4-5 lessons, which is actually not really sufficient.
Thank you.
Hi Hiro,
Yes! You can consider them like the way you wrote in Spanish. Very good :)
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Hi Stefania
Can you tell me the difference of these sentences?
Έχω να πάω σε τρία πάρτι. (Tengo que ir..)
Πρέπει να πάω σε τρία πάρτι. (Debo ir...)
Can I consider them in this way?
Thanks
Γεια σου Έντουαρντ,
παρακαλώ!
Στεφανία
Team GreekPod101.com
Γεια σου Στεφανία,
Ευχαριστώ πολύ για εξήγησες για "είμαστε εντάξει."
Thank your for explaining about "we're ok (keep the change)."
Έντουαρντ
Γεια σου Έντουαρντ,
Are you referring to the "keep the change" sentence? In that case you can say "είμαστε εντάξει" as in "we are OK" (the waiter and you).
If you say "είναι εντάξει" the waiter might perceive this as if the money you are giving him is just the right amount (ex. 12.65 euros) and therefore he doesn't need to bring any change back. Depending on the tone, he might perceive this as a question ("Is the money OK/enough?") so he might start counting the money in front of you to see if it's right. So better use the first sentence above :).
Regards,
Stefania
Team GreekPod101.com
Could you also simply say?: Είναι εντάξει.
Ευχαριστώ,
Εντουαρντ