Tag Archives: Greek grammar
Imperative Mood in Greek Posted by Ourania on May 18, 2016
In oral speech the Imperative is used frequently in order to express a command, a request or prohibition. This post is an introduction to the Imperative Mood with examples on its use. 1. Συνεχής (Continuous) Πρόσεχε τον εαυτό σου. / Take care of yourself. Μη δίνεις το τηλέφωνό σου σε αγνώστους. / Don’t…
Use of Greek: the Genitive Case Posted by Ourania on Feb 9, 2016
A few months ago, I wrote a post about the accusative case (αιτιατική). In this post there are examples on the use of the genitive case (γενική). The genitive case can be used to show: Possession: Αυτό είναι το βιβλίο του Νικου. This is Nikos’ book. The subject of an action (subjective genitive): Όλοι μιλούσαν…
Examples on the use of Greek verbs Posted by Ourania on Feb 1, 2016
The use of the conjunctions να (to), ότι and πως (that) confuses the learners. Some verbs are followed only by να, some others are followed only by ότι or πως and some others can be followed by the three conjunctions. In this post there is a list of some common verbs and examples of their…
Use of the Greek articles Posted by Ourania on Jan 27, 2016
One of the challenges beginners and intermediate students face is the right use of the definite and the indefinite articles. When it comes to articles, Greek is very particular. For example, the definite article is always used with people names, in the nominative, genitive and accusative cases: ο Πέτρος. / Το βιβλίο του Πέτρου. /…
About feminine nouns Posted by Ourania on Nov 30, 2015
Most feminine nouns which end in –η form the plural in –ες: η κόρη, οι κόρες (daughter, daughters), η φίλη, οι φίλες (friend, friends), η ανάγκη, οι ανάγκες (need, needs) etc. However, some of them have their own declination. They form two groups: 1. They are stressed on the penultimate syllable. Examples: Αυτό το κλειδί…
Scary grammar Posted by Ourania on Oct 21, 2015
It’s Halloween soon. If you don’t find witches, black cats and jack o’ lanterns scary enough, this post is about one of the most frightening aspects of Greek: matching adjectives, articles and pronouns to their nouns. The adjectives taught at Level A1 are the ones ending in –ος (masculine), –η or –α (feminine) and –ο…
Examples of the accusative case Posted by Ourania on Sep 30, 2015
Greek is not one of the easiest languages to learn and most learners quit their efforts before they reach an intermediate level. In Greek, words such as articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs are not invariable but they change according to their function in the sentence. One of the issues that Greek teachers have to…