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TAC 2013 Team Sparta’s Greek Team Thread | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 81 of 231 21 December 2012 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
No, I do not remember where I saw it. It had something to do with the period in which a word was introduced into Russian and the result that had on whether it ended up being pronounced with a v or a b in Russian. I'll get back to you when I find it again :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5831 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 82 of 231 22 December 2012 at 2:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
In European Portuguese the article is used in front of names, unless it is a very formal context. Although not quite the same, they are also used with senhor/senhora to create the formal second person. However they are dropped when addressing someone as senhor/a X. For example 'Senhor Silva, o senhor sabe onde está o Pedro?' Mr Silva, do you know where Pedro is? The first senhor = Mr (no article), the second senhor (with article) = formal you, Pedro is used with the definite article o. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5831 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 83 of 231 22 December 2012 at 2:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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By the way you also use the articles with the demonstrative pronouns and possessive adjectives.
αυτό το βιβλίο this book εκείνος ο άνθρωπος that man Η μητέρα μου my mother (lit: the mother of me) το βιβλίο σου your book (lit: the book of you) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5831 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 84 of 231 22 December 2012 at 4:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've decided to make a list of Greek words that are similar to those in other languages familiar to fellow Spartans, to give the beginners a head start in building their vocabulary. Obviously I'm not including all the thousands of words that have come into European languages from Greek. But I thought it would be reassuring for you to know that there are some familiar cognates amongst the thousands of yet alien words you will be faced with. Hope you find it useful. If nothing else you can use the list to practice reading the alphabet.
η νύχτα night (apparently night in English used to be pronounced neekht) γιατί why/because At first sight not an obvious cognate, however it is made up of the words για for and τι what, so is comparable to Spanish por qué/porque, Italian perchè etc αντίο goodbye (not sure how commonly it is used) εγώ I το πρόβλημα problem (pronounced with a V not B. Notice the stress) το Πάσχα Easter τα Χριστούγεννα Christmas (maybe not a true cognate but since it's nearly Christmas. Notice it's plural) το όνομα name (think of nominative) Με λένε Πέτρο I am called Petros. (Not dissimilar to Spanish me llamo, however in terms of grammar more similar to the Russian Меня зовут they call me. One complication is that you use the VOCATIVE case in this structure. In practice this usually means removing the s from the masculine name. Πέτρος Πέτρο. This isn't the only way of giving your name) το σαλόνι sitting room το γραφείο office η κουζίνα kitchen (not cousin) το μπάνιο bathroom κάνω μπάνιο I have a bath. (κάνω = I do, compare IT faccio il bagno. Btw Modern Greek doesn't have any infinitives. Verbs are cited in the first person singular) το πάρκο park ο τάπητας carpet (comp FR le tapis) η κουρτίνα curtain το κρεβάτι bed (comp RU кровать) το τετράδιο exercise book (comp RU тетрадь) ο φούρνος oven το τραπέζι table (think of trapezium) η πόρτα door ο κλιματισμός air conditioning το ασανσέρ lift (FR ascenseur) το χολ hall(way) το σκαλοπάτια stairs (think of IT le scale) το γκαράζ garage η πισίνα pool ο πατέρας father (comp LAT pater) η μητέρα mother (comp LAT mater) ο θείος /η θεία uncle/aunt (comp SP el tío/la tía. ος is the typical masculine ending in Greek) το θέατρο theatre (pronounced as English th in theatre, not t) μου αρέσει η σοκολάτα I like chocolate (The 'cognate' here is the grammar rather than the word. μου αρέσει works exactly like SP me gusta/IT mi piace. ie x pleases me. Often shortened to μ'αρέσει) μου αρέσουν οι μπανάνες I like bananas (compare SP me gustan IT mi piacciono. Often shortened to μ'αρέσουν) το μαγαζί shop (FR le magasin) το περιοδικό magazine (unlike SP el periódico it doesn't mean newspaper) το κέντρο centre (soft c becomes k in Greek) το πορτοφόλι wallet (FR le portefeuille) πόσο κοστίζει; How much does it cost? το μπουκάλι bottle το πακέτο packet το πουκάμισο shirt (One of my favourite words) το παντελόνι trousers/pants το σανδάλι sandal η μπλούζα blouse το κοστούμι suit (FR le costume) το παλτό coat (RU пальто, orig FR) το γάντι glove (FR le gant) η κάλτσα sock (IT la calza stocking) το καπέλο hat (IT il capello) το πουλόβερ jumper η γραβάτα tie το πιάτο plate/dish το ζάχαρη sugar (comp RU сахар) το βούτυρο butter το ρύζι rice το κοτόπουλο chicken (not a cognate, just one of my favourite words) το φρούτο fruit η σαλάτα salad η πατάτα potato το καρότο carrot το μήλο apple (comp IT la mela) το πορτοκαλί orange (fruit) (supposedly word is based on the word Portugal. Arabic, Persian and other languages also use this cognate) το λεμόνι lemon η μπανάνα banana το κεράσι cérise (comp FR cérise, soft c always becomes k in Greek) ο ανανάς pineapple η φράουλα strawberry (comp IT la fragola) η μπίρα beer η γάτα cat η ώρα hour τι ώρα είναι; What time is it? (The rules for telling the time are almost identical as in Spanish.) κάνει κρύο it's cold (very similar to SP, κάνει = hace, frío = κρύο replace f with k!) κάνει ζεστή it's hot (think of zest, nothing to do with hot, but easy to remember when you know κάνει κρύο ) το τρένο train το αεροπλάνο plane η παραλία beach (fairly similar to SP la playa) κάνω ηλιοθεραπεία I do sun therapy! ie I sunbathe. (Great phrase) (το ηλίο = sun, think of helium. κάνω is like faire/hacer/fare in that it's used with lots of nouns to create verbs) κάνω ντους I shower (another of those κάνω phrases) η Ιταλία Italy η Γαλλία France (comp Gaul) η Ισπανία Spain η Γερμανία Germany η ιστορία history CAUTION Notice that the stress in Greek in this last group of words is different than in the Spanish and Italian equivalents. η ιταΛΙα iTALia Well, that's already a very long list. I'll add to it another time maybe. Hopefully I haven't made any mistakes. Edited by stelingo on 22 December 2012 at 4:14am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4609 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 85 of 231 22 December 2012 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What a great list, stelingo! Thank you for that.
It's always a pleasant surprise to find a Greek word that is similar to a word in another language I know. I'll just add this one to the list: κουνιάδος which is a husband's brother (but not a sister's husband!) κουνιάδα = husband's sister Similar to the Spanish "cuñado" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6141 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 86 of 231 22 December 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I just want to make a couple notes on some of the words in stelingo's list.
Not very common at all. You do hear it sometimes, but people generally stick with γεια (σου/σας) and τα λέμε.
This was the only mistake I noticed in the list, so be careful with this one. The word for orange, the fruit, is actually πορτοκάλι (note the stress). What you wrote is the neuter singular of the adjective πορτοκαλής, which means the color orange.
Another thing to be careful of, or at least to be aware of, when studying Greek is that the language has undergone a few spelling reforms in the past decades and some words have been simplified. I originally studied the older orthography, so this word stood out to me at first as incorrect, because it used to be spelled as μπύρα. Similarly, αυγό (egg) is now spelled as αβγό, and so forth. Edited by ellasevia on 22 December 2012 at 1:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 87 of 231 22 December 2012 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Have I mentioned that I love you guys, and being on the Greek team? :-)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5864 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 88 of 231 22 December 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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