Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Question words in Modern Greek Posted by Ourania on Jul 2, 2014
Question words are placed at the beginning of the sentence. Sometimes their use is confusing because some of them are declined, i.e. they have singular and plural, genders and cases. Note that we use the Greek question mark: ; 1. Ποιος, ποια, ποιο (pios, pia, pio): who, which Ποιος είναι αυτός ο άντρας; (pios ine…
Borrowing from earlier times Posted by Ourania on Jun 25, 2014
There are a lot of phrases, sayings and even single words that we use every day that come right from ancient Greek. We usually use them exactly in the form we have found them in ancient texts or exactly as they were used to be used in the ancient times. That’s why they sometimes seem…
Animal expressions in Greek Posted by Ourania on Jun 16, 2014
Animals can be sweet, furry, wild and so on. Can humans be “bear”, fox” or “baboon”? In this post there’s a list of the most common animal expressions and idioms used when referring to a person. You might also want to check the list of Fish and Seafood idioms. Αετός (aetos)= eagle It can be…
Greek abbreviations Posted by Ourania on Jun 11, 2014
Sometimes, learners of the Greek language, but even native speakers as well, have difficulty understanding what all these abbreviations that we find in books, notes and reference tables stand for. Here’s a great opportunity to see some of the most commonly used ones as well as to analyze what they mean or how they are…
Survival phrases in Greek (part two) Posted by Ourania on Jun 3, 2014
It’s summertime in Greece and people make holiday plans. If you are going to go to Greece for the holidays and would like to say some basic phrases in Greek, check the entry called “Survival phrases in Greek”. If for a reason you have to or want to say more things in Greek…
Animal sounds in Greek Posted by Ourania on May 28, 2014
People speak different languages and have different accents. What about animals? Do Irish cats sound the same as Serbian cats? The sound that animals make is not affected by the country they live in. However, humans use their own onomatopoeias (ονοματοποιίες, sounds) to describe an animal sound. This is a list of some Greek onomatopoeias…
American Movie Quotes in Greek Posted by Ourania on May 5, 2014
In 2005, the American Film Institute (AFI) made a list of the 100 top movie quotes. Below, there’s a translation of the 10 top quotes in Greek. 1. Ειλικρινά, αγαπητή μου δε δίνω δεκάρα- Όσα παίρνει ο άνεμος (Eelikrina agapeetee mou de dino dekara- Osa pairnee o anemos) Frankly my dear, I don’t give a…