Modern Greek/OldLesson3

Goal

In this lesson, we will learn how to introduce others. We will also learn how to talk about other people’s professions and nationalities. You need to know how to say which nationality you are and which profession you have. Further you should have a good familiarity with the nationalities, professions and adjectives introduced in the previous lesson.

Quick Tip

Remember to always read the Greek aloud so that you become used to producing the sounds.

Dialog

Αντώνης: Γεια σου!

Ανθή: Γεια σου!

Αντώνης: Πώς είσαι;

Ανθή: Είμαι καλά, εσύ πώς είσαι;

Αντώνης: Είμαι εντάξει, ευχαριστώ.

Ανθή: Αυτός είναι ο φίλος μου ο Γιάννης.

Αντώνης: Με λένε Αντώνη. Χαίρω πολύ Γιάννη! Αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου η Τατιάνα.

Γιάννης: Χαίρω πολύ!

Τατιάνα: Χαίρω πολύ επίσης. Ποιο είναι το επάγγελμά σου, Γιάννη;

Γιάννης: Είμαι γιατρός. Εσύ, ποιό είναι το επάγγελμά σου;

Τατιάνα: Είμαι δασκάλα. Από πού είστε ;

Ανθή: Είμαι Γαλλίδα και ο Γιάννης είναι Έλληνας. Εσείς από πού είστε;

Τατιάνα: Είμαστε από την Αγγλία.

Ανθή και Γιάννης: Γεια σας!

Αντώνης και Τατιάνα: Γεια σας!

Where are you from?

Notes

• As before we must use the feminine if we are female : Ελληνίδα, or the masculine if we are male : Έλληνας.
• You may have noticed that when από is used that την is used as well as the name of the country. The word την also means ‘the’ in Greek but it is used when the noun it is describing is an object.

Αγγλικά	Ελληνικά
	η Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες (listen)
	η Γαλλία (listen)
	η Γερμανία (listen)
	η Ολλανδία (listen)
	η Κίνα (listen)
	η Ισπανία (listen)
	η Ελλάδα (listen)

Examples

• Ο Γιαν είναι από την Γερμανία.
• Ο Πάκο είναι από την Ισπανία.
• Είστε από την Κίνα;
• Ναι είμαστε από την Κίνα.
• Η Κατερίνα είναι από την Γαλλία.

This is my brother

Notes

• If we look at the table, we see that the word for friend has both masculine and feminine forms. These must be used according to gender actually present. It is no good referring to a female friend with the masculine word. It does not make any sense and can cause confusion.
• Notice how the αυτός changes to αυτή when the gender of the person being introduced changes. They must always agree.

Examples

• Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου.
• Αυτός είναι ο φίλος ο Μάρκος.

Mini Dialogue

Tatiana is having a conversation with Paco.

Τατιάνα: Είσαι Γερμανός;

Πάκο: Όχι, δεν είμαι Γεπμανός. Είμαι Ισπανός και είσαι Αμερικανίδα;

Τατιάνα: Όχι, δεν είμαι Αμερικανίδος αλλά είμαι Αγγλίδα.

Πάκο:

Explanations

• You may have noticed the word μου placed after various nouns. It means my but in Greek it is always placed after the noun it is describing.
• We have introduced all the forms of είμαι. See the table below, is provided for reference. It is the most important verb to know.
• Notice the used of Όχι it is followed by full sentences. This is not always necessary but doing this provides emphasis much like it would in English.
• Let’s look at certain words like και, αλλά and ή. You may have rightly concluded that these are conjunctions. They correspond to ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘or’. They are employed in the same fashion as they are in English.
• We have introduced δεν which is used for negation. If we want to negate a sentence, we simply have to put δεν before the verb.

Pronunciation

The digraph - combination of letters – αυ can be pronounced αφ or αβ but in αυτός and αυτή it is always pronounced αφ. We also need to take note of several other digraphs.

• ει, οι is pronounced like η,ι and υ.
• αι is pronounced like ε.
• ου is pronounced like the oo in boot.
• γγ is pronounced like ng in ring.

Also recall that γ before ε and ι sounds like the y in yes.

Summary

• We are able to introduce others. (Αυτός είναι ο Γιάννης ή αυτή είναι η Ανθή.)
• We know how to ask someone where they are from. (Από πού είσαι; Από πού είναι;)
• We can say where we’re from (Είμαι από την ...).
• We now know how to ask what nationality someone has. (Ποιο είναι η υπηκοότητά σου;)
• We can tell people what we aren’t. (Δεν είμαι δάσκαλος.)

The next step

You should now do the exercise related to each section (found here), or if you're feeling very confident go to the next lesson, lesson 4. Alternatively, return to the contents.

Extension

If you'd like to learn more words that you can use without having to study another lesson, use this section in order to find them. Feel free to learn selectively, picking out words you consider useful for your situation or interesting. If you don't have the time, you can just skip this section. You will not be required to know any of these words in the next lessons. There words in below section have a variety of different endings. We don't have to worry about this yet, to form similar sentences to above just take the appropriate word from the table use είμαι, είσαι και είναι.

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