{"id":1064,"date":"2013-08-06T15:59:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T15:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2014-06-11T19:36:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T19:36:08","slug":"survival-phrases-in-greek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/survival-phrases-in-greek\/","title":{"rendered":"Survival phrases in Greek"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1470\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2491\/3822505650_1e47a9fd89_m.jpg\" aria-label=\"3822505650 1e47a9fd89 M\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1470\" class=\"wp-image-1470 size-full\"  alt=\"3822505650_1e47a9fd89_m\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/3822505650_1e47a9fd89_m.jpg\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1470\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BluEyedA73 on Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In Greece most people speak English, so language is not really a barrier. If you&#8217;d\u00a0 like to use simple\u00a0 Greek words though, now and then, feel free to do so. We really appreciate it when a foreigner is trying to talk to us to our language, and if we laugh, it&#8217;s not because you&#8217;re funny, it&#8217;s because you&#8217;re cute.<\/p>\n<p>This is a list of some simple words and phrases, which are easy to remember, I hope.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>\u0393\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5, \u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c2<\/strong>. (<em>Yiassou, yiassas<\/em>). They both mean &#8220;hello&#8221; and &#8220;good bye&#8221;. <strong>\u0393\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5<\/strong> is informal. <strong>\u0393\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03b1<\/strong>\u03c2 is the plural form of \u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5 and it\u2019s formal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u039d\u03b1\u03b9<\/strong> (<em>nai<\/em>, yes)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u038c\u03c7\u03b9<\/strong> (<em>ohi<\/em>, no)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u0395\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ce<\/strong> (<em>Efharisto<\/em>, thanks)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03ce<\/strong> (<em>Parakalo<\/em>).It has many definitions:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>You\u2019re welcome<\/li>\n<li>Please<\/li>\n<li>I beg your pardon (if used in a question)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>\u03a3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03c5\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03ac \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5<\/strong> (<em>stin iyia sou<\/em>, to your health, singular and informal)\/ <strong>\u03a3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03c5\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03ac \u03c3\u03b1\u03c2<\/strong> (<em>stin iyia sas<\/em>, to your health, plural and formal). It\u2019s a toast used when drinking alcoholic drinks. The most common form is \u00ab<strong>\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c2<\/strong>\u00bb (<em>yia mas<\/em>, which means to our health). In informal social events, people say <strong>\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c2<\/strong> and clink glasses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u03a3\u03c5\u03b3\u03b3\u03bd\u03ce\u03bc\u03b7<\/strong> (signomi). The <strong>g<\/strong> sound is very soft, like wh in \u201cwhat\u201d. It means excuse me or sorry and it\u2019s used when we want to apologize or to get through a crowd of people in the metro station, for instance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>\u0394\u03b5 \u03bc\u03b9\u03bb\u03ac\u03c9 \u03b5\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac<\/strong>. (<em>The milao ellinika<\/em>, I don\u2019t speak Greek.) Even if it\u2019s clear that you don\u2019t speak Greek, people might keep talking\u00a0 to you in Greek.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u0394\u03b5\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac\u03bb\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1<\/strong>. <strong>\u0386\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u00a0 \u03bc\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03ce<\/strong>. (<em>Then katalava. Alli mia for a parakalo.<\/em>I didn\u2019t get it,one more time, please). Use it when your interlocutor speaks fast or when you don&#8217;t understand what people say.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u0395\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2<\/strong> (<em>Efharistos<\/em>, with pleasure). It\u2019s a polite way to accept an invitation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u039c\u03b9\u03b1 \u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac, \u03b5\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ce<\/strong>. (<em>Mia alli fora, efharisto<\/em>. Some other time, thanks). You can use this phrase if you want to deny politely an invitation. If it doesn\u2019t work it\u2019s not because of your pronunciation, it\u2019s just because some people don\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer. In this case, feel free to be more direct ans to say <strong>\u03cc\u03c7\u03b9, \u03b5\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ce<\/strong> (<em>ohi<\/em>, <em>efharisto<\/em>. No thanks).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please, note that the sentences \u00ab<strong>\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7 \u03bc\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac <\/strong>(alli mia fora)\u00bb \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u00ab<strong>\u03bc\u03af\u03b1 \u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac <\/strong>(mia alli fora)\u00bb do not have the same meaning:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u0386\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7 \u03bc\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac<\/strong> means one more time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>M\u03af\u03b1 \u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03ac<\/strong> means some other time.<\/p>\n<p>If you mix them, you won\u2019t be in serious trouble but people who are not used to talk to foreigners might be confused.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"240\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/08\/3822505650_1e47a9fd89_m.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>In Greece most people speak English, so language is not really a barrier. If you&#8217;d\u00a0 like to use simple\u00a0 Greek words though, now and then, feel free to do so. We really appreciate it when a foreigner is trying to talk to us to our language, and if we laugh, it&#8217;s not because you&#8217;re funny&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/survival-phrases-in-greek\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[274452],"tags":[2909,2195,11974,292932,11223,292929,7590,13022,292945],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocablary","tag-good-bye","tag-hello","tag-no","tag-please","tag-sorry","tag-survival-phrases-in-greek","tag-thank-you","tag-yes","tag-youre-welcome"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}