INTRODUCTION

Fay: Hello, and welcome to GreekPod101.com, Beginner Season 1, Lesson 3 – Keeping It in the Greek Family. I’m Fay. I’m joined in the studio by…

Chrissi: Hi, Chrissi here.

Fay: What are we learning in this lesson?

Chrissi: We are looking at adjectives and how they are used in Modern Greek.

Fay: The conversation takes place at the home of Peter's Greek hosts.

Chrissi: It’s among the main character, Petra Gordon, her Greek friend, Danai Papadopoulo, and Danai’s sister, Kostantina Papadopoulos.

Fay: Since the characters are friends, the conversation is in informal language.

Chrissi: Let’s listen.

Lesson conversation

Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα.

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας!

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα;

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16.

Fay: Now, the slow version.

Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα.

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας!

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα;

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16.

Fay: Now, let’s listen to the conversation with English translation.

Δανάη Παπαδόπουλος: Πέτρα, αυτή είναι η αδελφή μου, η Κωσταντίνα που ζει μαζί μας και τα παιδιά μου – Γιώργος, Γιάννης και Ελένη.

Fay: Petra, this is my sister Kostantina who lives with us and my children—Giorgos, Yannis, and Eleni.

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Γεια. Είμαι η Πέτρα.

Fay: Hi. I'm Petra.

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Καλώς ήρθες στην Αθήνα και στο σπίτι μας!

Fay: Welcome to Athens and to our home!

Πέτρα Γκόρντον: A, τα παιδιά είναι σχεδόν ενήλικες! Πόσο είναι τώρα;

Fay: Oh, your kids are almost grown-ups! How old are they now?

Κωσταντίνα Παπαδοπούλου: Ο μεγάλος γιος της Δανάης είναι 18, ο μικρός είναι 15 και η κόρη της είναι 16.

Fay: Danai's older son is 18, the younger is 15 and her daughter is 16.

Vocabulary

η αδελφή

sister

μου

my

που

who (relative pronoun)

ζει

she lives

μαζί

with

μας

us

τα παιδιά

children

Καλώς

well

ήρθες

σπίτι

home

σχεδόν

ενήλικες

Πόσο είναι τώρα;

How old are they now?

ο μεγάλος

big

γιος

son

ο μικρός

small

η κόρη

daughter

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Fay: So is it typical for an average Greek family to have three children?

Chrissi: I’d say it’s rather rare. Most Greek families these days have only one child; usually both parents work, so there’s a problem with childcare.

Fay: And how do families deal with it?

Chrissi: Mostly with the help of the grandparents—if they live close and are able to help.

Fay: Is it customary for Greeks to live close to their parents even after they get married?

Chrissi: Well, many do, yes. Family ties are still very strong in Greece! And not only among the basic family members; there are also strong ties with the extended family as well, even if they don’t actually live close by.

Fay: So when you make friends with a Greek…

Chrissi: …you make friends with many, many more! Shall we go on to our vocabulary?

Fay: Of course!

VOCAB LIST

Fay: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First, we have…

Chrissi: αυτή [natural native speed].

Fay: This.

Chrissi: αυτή [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αυτή [natural native speed].

Fay: Next.

Chrissi: μου [natural native speed].

Fay: My.

Chrissi:

μου [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μου [natural native speed].

Fay: Next.

Chrissi: παιδί [natural native speed].

Fay: Child.

Chrissi: παιδί [slowly - broken down by syllable]. παιδί [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: γιός [natural native speed].

Fay: Son.

Chrissi: γιός [slowly - broken down by syllable]. γιός [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: κόρη [natural native speed].

Fay: Daughter.

Chrissi: κόρη [slowly - broken down by syllable]. κόρη [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: Καλώς ήρθες [natural native speed].

Fay: Welcome.

Chrissi: Καλώς ήρθες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Καλώς ήρθες [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: σπίτι [natural native speed].

Fay: Home, house.

Chrissi: σπίτι [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πίτι [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: πόσο

Fay: How much?

Chrissi: πόσο

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: τώρα [natural native speed].

Fay: Now.

Chrissi: τώρα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. τώρα [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: αδερφή [natural native speed].

Fay: Sister.

Chrissi: αδερφή [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αδερφή [natural native speed].

Fay: Next…

Chrissi: μεγάλος [natural native speed].

Fay: Big, elder.

Chrissi: μεγάλος [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μεγάλος [natural native speed].

KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES

Fay: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases in this lesson. So what’s happening there with μεγάλος (megalos) and μικρός (mikros)? These are adjectives, right?

Chrissi: Yes. And we will talk about adjectives later. For the moment, let’s say that these particular adjectives have two meanings in modern Greek.

Fay: Which are?

Chrissi:

First, they mean "big" and "small," as in μεγάλος δρόμος (megalos dromos) and μικρός δρόμος (mikros dromos).

Fay: Which mean “big street” and “small street.”

Chrissi: Right! Or in μεγάλος πύργος (megalos pirgos) and μικρός πύργος (mikros pirgos), “big tower” and “small tower.”

Fay: But in our dialogue they are used in a somewhat different way.

Chrissi: Yes. We say ο μεγάλος γιος (o megalos gios) and ο μικρός γιος (o mikros gios) to mean “the older son” and “the younger son.” Actually, they mean “the old son” and “the young son.”

Fay: So in Greek the adjectives μεγάλος (megalos) and μικρός (mikros)—that is, “big” and “small”—can also mean “younger” and “older” when we are speaking about two people’s ages, right?

Chrissi: Exactly.

Fay: OK, we made that clear. Beyond that, there was also something you wanted to say about the word σπίτι (spiti), wasn’t there?

Chrissi: Yes. In our dialogue, one character says Καλώς ήρθες στο σπίτι μας (Kalos irthes sto spiti mas).

Fay: Which means “welcome to our home,” doesn’t it?

Chrissi: Yes. But it could also mean “Welcome to our house”; you see, in Greek we don’t have a separate word for “home” and “house” like in English.

Fay: So how do you know which is which?

Chrissi: From the context. If we hear someone say Έχω ένα σπίτι στην Αθήνα (Echo ena spiti stin Athina), which means “I have a spiti in Athens,” this σπίτι (spiti) could only mean “house,” right?

Fay: Right. And if we want to say “I’m going home”?

Chrissi: This would be Πάω στο σπίτι (Pao sto spiti)—again we use σπίτι (spiti), but from the context it’s clear we’re talking about “home.”

Fay: This makes sense. So shall we move on to adjectives?

Chrissi: Sure!

Lesson focus

Fay: The focus of this lesson is adjectives.

Chrissi: Yes. Can you think of a language without adjectives?

Fay: Certainly not. It would be too boring! How are adjectives used in Greek?

Chrissi: Pretty much the same way as in English. We put them between the article and the noun, and they help us describe some quality of the noun.

Fay: So the order would be article-adjective-noun, yes?

Chrissi: Yes. For example, we can say ο κόκκινος μαρκαδόρος (o kokkinos markadoros). Try to repeat that.

Fay: Ο κόκκινος μαρκαδόρος (O kokkinos markadoros). This means “the red marker,” right?

Chrissi: Right! Or we can say "o leukos toichos". Would you like to repeat that?

Fay: Ο λευκός τοίχος (O leukos toichos). The white wall. How would we say “the right way”?

Chrissi: Ο σωστός δρόμος (O sostos dromos). All you people listening at home, try this too: ο σωστός δρόμος (o sostos dromos).

Fay: I see you always use the article ο (o), right?

Chrissi: Yes. This is the singular nominative of the masculine article; we want to keep things simple, so in this lesson we will focus on that.

Fay: Because adjectives are gendered—and numbered, right?

Chrissi: Exactly. But if we can grasp the singular nominative, we will have gone a long way to understanding how adjectives work. The order doesn’t change in the other cases or genders, or in the plural number.

Fay: Great! What else do we need to know about adjectives for now?

Chrissi: We could also mention that if there is a verb, the verb goes before the article.

Fay: Can you give an example?

Chrissi: Yes. Εγώ είμαι Έλληνας πολίτης (Ego eimai Ellinas politis), “I am a Greek citizen.”

Fay: Let’s repeat that.

Chrissi: Sure. Εγώ είμαι Έλληνας πολίτης (Ego eimai Ellinas politis). Or you could say Εγώ είμαι Αμερικανός πολίτης (Ego eimai Amerikanos politis), “I am an American citizen.”

Fay: You don’t use the indefinite article in Greek, though.

Chrissi: In this case, no. But we will speak about that in a future lesson! In our examples, the order is εγώ (ego)...

Fay: “I,” the personal pronoun.

Chrissi: Εμαι (Eimai).

Fay: “Am,” the verb.

Chrissi: Αμερικανός (Amerikanos).

Fay: “American,” the adjective.

Chrissi: And πολίτης (politis).

Fay: “Citizen,” the noun.

Chrissi: Right!

Fay: Or to go to a previous example about the right street, how can we say “This is the right street”?

Chrissi: Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos). Again—pronoun, verb, article, adjective, noun. Repeat it after me. Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos).

Fay: Αυτός είναι ο σωστός δρόμος (Autos einai o sostos dromos). Not that hard!

Chrissi: No, it isn’t!

Fay: So let’s stop here for now. Remember the right order [the same as in English] and be sure to check the PDFs for more examples on the use of adjectives. Bye-bye for now!

Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!)