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New Year’s Day is always sweet: Greek vasilopita Posted by Ourania on Dec 23, 2013
Have you ever spent New Year’s Day in a Greek house? If you have, you are already familiar with vasilopita (βασιλόπιτα, vasilopita) a sweet pie that Greeks eat in New Year’s Day. Its basic ingredients are flour (αλεύρι,alevri) sugar (ζάχαρη, zahari) eggs (αβγά, avga) and milk (γάλα, gala). The number of the new year is…
As cold as ice: standard expressions and idioms Posted by Ourania on Dec 18, 2013
There are seven days until Christmas and in Athens the temperature is nine degrees Celcius., i.e. it’s freezing cold. The weather has been people’s favorite topic of conversation in the last days. There are many standard phrases about cold that most learners are familiar with: 1. Κάνει κρύο (kani krio)= it’s cold. 2. Κρυώνω (kriono)=…
Passive Voice in Modern Greek (Indicative Mood) Posted by Ourania on Dec 9, 2013
The Passive Voice is not as commonly used in Greek as it is in other languages. It is used when it is important to emphasize on the action done, or when it is unknown who or what is doing the action. Ο λογαριασμός πληρώνεται από τον ιδιοκτήτη. O logariasmos plironetai apo ton idioktiti. The bill…
Slang words for stingy or penniless in Greek Posted by Ourania on Dec 4, 2013
The Greeks enjoy having long conversations. Their favorite topics are politics, football, food and hobbies. For the last few years, a new topic has been added: money. Some of the new words that are introduced in our daily conversations are “bailout”, “public debt” and “debt restructuring”. Fortunately, this is not an economy blog, so…
“What’s going on?”:uses of the verb ginomai Posted by Ourania on Nov 26, 2013
One of the most common verbs that causes problems to Greek learners is γίνομαι (ginomai). It means “to become”. If you haven’t come across it yet, you are very likely to hear it as soon as you go to Greece, and if you have already been there, you have definitely heard people using it regularly…
Possessive Pronouns in Modern Greek Posted by Ourania on Nov 18, 2013
The possessive pronouns have the same form as the weak forms of the personal pronouns in the genitive case (γενική, geniki). They are used to express possession. Ενικός (enikos, singular) Πληθυντικός (plithintikos, plural) μου mou my μας mas our σου sou your σας sas your του tou his τους tous their (masc.) της tis her…
Expressions with the verb kleino Posted by Ourania on Nov 13, 2013
Most Greek learners are already familiar with the verb κλείνω (kleino). Below there are some examples of the meanings and the uses of κλείνω. 1. To close (transitive, i.e. followed by an object) H gata eklise ta matia tis alla den koimate. The cat has closed her eyes but she’s not sleeping. 2. To…