Tag Archives: Greek grammar
About Greek numbers Posted by Ourania on Jul 22, 2015
The Greek numbers are not too hard to learn. However, beginners find it hard to use them. The reason is that the numbers one, three and four are not invariable and are declined. They have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), cases , singular and plural. Number one has only singular and numbers three and…
Playing hide and seek with the final n Posted by Ourania on Feb 19, 2015
One of the most confusing topics is the maintenance of the final ν of some articles, pronouns and particles, mostly because the grammar books contain different rules about it. Below, there’s a list of the cases where the final ν is maintained or omitted. These rules apply mostly when speaking. In written speech the article…
Make it small with Greek diminutives Posted by Ourania on Feb 5, 2015
Diminutives (υποκοριστικά) are words that connote a smaller size. Their use is also related to affection and intimacy but also to contempt. There are many suffixes that form diminutives are, but the most common are –άκι, –ίτσα, –ούλης, –ούλα, -άκης. They are very commonly used with food and drink (το ούζο – το ουζάκι,ouzo, η…
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…
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…
Less is More: Adverbs of Quantity (greek) Posted by Ourania on Sep 30, 2014
Γεια σας! Today’s topic is the use of the adverbs of quantity, such as very, more, less, almost etc. Below there’s a list with the most common adverbs and some examples of their use. The English phrases are sometimes translated directly and I hope they make sense. πολύ λίγο αρκετά σχεδόν καθόλου ελάχιστα…
Deconstructing Greek Posted by Ourania on Sep 24, 2014
Most language learners ask their teacher how long will it take them to learn X language and most teachers reply “it depends”. According to Tim Ferriss’ article How to Learn (But Not Master ) Any Language in 1 Hour (Plus: A Favor) deconstructing a language helps the learners have a better idea on how…