Modern Greek/LegacyLesson 6b
< Modern GreekNumbers and Time
Numbers
The Greek words from 1 to 10 are presented along with English words derived from them:
| ένα | unary |
| δύο | duet |
| τρία | trio |
| τέσσερα | tesseract |
| πέντε | pentagon |
| έξι | hexagon |
| επτά | heptathlon |
| οκτώ | octopus |
| εννέα | ennead |
| δέκα | decathlon |
Audio recording: 
Modern_greek_2e.ogg
NOTE: This recording was made by a non-native speaker of Greek.
We would be grateful to any native speaker who could redo it.
The Greek word for one also serves as the indefinite article and changes case like this:
| ένας | one, masculine subject |
| έναν | one, masculine object |
| μία or μια | one, feminine subject |
| μία or μια | one, feminine object |
| ένα | one, neuter subject |
| ένα | one, neuter object |
(The genitive forms are covered in lesson 3.)
Example:
| Ενας σκύλος δαγκώνει έναν άνθρωπο. | A dog bites a man. |
Time
| Η ώρα είναι οκτώ. | The time is eight o'clock. |
| Είναι οκτώ. | It's eight o'clock. |
| Είναι οκτώ και δέκα. | It's ten past eight. |
Because ώρα is feminine, the feminine forms of the numbers are used for time:
| Είναι τέσσερις. | It's four o'clock. |
Vocabulary:
| παρά (short of) | in expressions of time, "to" |
| και (and) | in expressions of time, "past" |
| ακριβώς (exactly) | in expressions of time, "sharp" |
| μισή | half (feminine form, used with the feminine ώρα) |
| τέταρτο | quarter |
Examples:
| Είναι οκτώ παρά δέκα. | It's ten to eight. |
| Είναι οκτώ ακριβώς. | It's eight o'clock sharp. |
| Είναι οκτώ και μισή. | It's half past eight. |
| Είναι οκτώ και τέταρτο. | It's quarter past eight. |
Vocabulary relating to time
| το πρωί | the morning |
| το μεσημέρι | the noon |
| το απόγευμα | the afternoon |
| το βράδυ | the evening |
| η νύχτα | the night |
| το ρολόι | the clock (~Spanish "reloj") |
| νωρίς | early |
| αργά | late |
Usage of noon, afternoon etc.
Be careful, the words may have the same literal meaning, but they do not correspond to the same time! Morning is between 5am to 12pm. Noon for Greeks is approximately between 12pm to 4pm. The afternoon is approximately between 4 to 8pm. The evening is from 8pm to 12am and the night comes afterwards. However in actual speech "night" is rarely used when specifying the time. Usually both "evening" and "morning" are used for times between 1am and 2am. Afterwards it is always "morning". Although, if asked, people will refer to the time between 3am and 5am as "night", when specifying the time they will refer to it as "morning".
| Γιατί με ξυπνάς στις τρεις το πρωί; | Why are you waking me up at three o'clock in the morning? |
| Μείναμε στο εστιατόριο μέχρι τις δύο to βράδυ. | We stayed at the restaurant until two o'clock in the evening. |