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Once Upon a Time: An Introduction to the Past Continuous Tense Posted by Ourania on Jan 7, 2015
Γεια σας! This is the first post of 2015 and it’s about grammar. Παρατατικός (paratatikos, Past Continuous) is the tense of narrations and descriptions. It is used in order to describe an action that was being repeated in the past or that had a duration. Examples: Έπινα γάλα κάθε μέρα. (Epeena gala kathe mera). I…
A Greek New Year’s Eve Posted by Ourania on Dec 31, 2014
Χρόνια πολλά from frozen Athens! This post is about traditions and customs. New Year’s Eve (Παραμονή Πρωτοχρονιάς, paramonee protohronias) is a special day in Greece and each region has different traditions but some customs are common. In the morning, the children sing the New Year’s Eve carols (κάλαντα Πρωτοχρονιάς, kalanda protohronias) and get money…
Greek Christmas vocabulary Posted by Ourania on Dec 19, 2014
Χρόνια πολλά! It will be Christmas soon so this post is about Christmas vocabulary. If you want to send wishes to your friends and family in Greek, below there are some common phrases that we use: Καλά Χριστούγεννα (kala hristougena): Merry Christmas Σου εύχομαι καλά Χριστούγεννα (sou efhomai kala hristougena): I wish you Merry Christmas…
Greek neuter nouns ending in -ος Posted by Ourania on Dec 12, 2014
A few months ago there was a post about feminine nouns ending in –ος. This article is about neuter nouns which end in –ος. Some of these nouns can be found in English words: chaos (χάος), anthology (from άνθος, anthos: flower), analgesic (from άλγος, algos: pain), calisthenics (from κάλλος, kalos: beauty) etc. Some neuter nouns…
Decoding Greek: What Greek people say and what they really mean Posted by Ourania on Dec 4, 2014
Sometimes there is a big difference between what people say and what they actually mean. If one wants to communicate efficiently in a foreign language it is very important to be able to tell the difference between the literal and the actual meaning of a sentence in the target language. Although, we have the reputation…
Thanksgiving vocabulary in Greek Posted by Ourania on Nov 28, 2014
Γεια σας! Ελπίζω ότι όσοι από σας γιορτάζατε την Ημέρα των Ευχαριστιών να περάσατε καλά! (Hello! I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgivings Day had a nice time!) In Greece, it is celebrated only by expats. However, it’s a good opportunity for everyone, in spite of their nationality and religion, to think of all…
Time for Time Words in Greek! Posted by Ourania on Nov 20, 2014
The prepositions that come before time words are tricky and learners often use them incorrectly because they translate them directly from their language. The words that we use in Greek are some forms of the accusative case of the definite article or the preposition σε (se) contracted with the accusative case of…