Learn about the present tense of some Greek verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hello, and welcome back to GreekPod101.com – the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Greek. This is Fay. Beginner Season 1, Lesson 16 - What, No Greek Breakfast? |
| Chrissi: And I’m Chrissi. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at the present tense of some Greek verbs. |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at the Papadopoulos home where Petra Gordon is staying in Athens. |
| Chrissi: It’s between Petra and her host Danai Papadopoulos. |
| Fay: The characters are friends, so the conversation is informal. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Φεύγουμε για δουλειά; |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δεν τρώμε κάτι πρώτα; |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Όλο το ξεχνάω. Στην Αμερική τρώτε το πρωί. Εδώ δεν τρώμε πρωινό! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Καλά, τρώω κάτι αργότερα, στο γραφείο. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Περίμενε λίγο. Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά καφέ πίνουμε! |
| Fay: Now let’s listen to the slow version. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Φεύγουμε για δουλειά; |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δεν τρώμε κάτι πρώτα; |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Όλο το ξεχνάω. Στην Αμερική τρώτε το πρωί. Εδώ δεν τρώμε πρωινό! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Καλά, τρώω κάτι αργότερα, στο γραφείο. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Περίμενε λίγο. Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά καφέ πίνουμε! |
| Fay: Now with the English translation. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Φεύγουμε για δουλειά; |
| Fay: Are we leaving for work? |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Δεν τρώμε κάτι πρώτα; |
| Fay: Don't we eat something first? |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Όλο το ξεχνάω. Στην Αμερική τρώτε το πρωί. Εδώ δεν τρώμε πρωινό! |
| Fay: I keep forgetting. In the U.S. you eat in the morning. Here we don't eat breakfast! |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Καλά, τρώω κάτι αργότερα, στο γραφείο. |
| Fay: Okay. I will eat something later, at the office. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Περίμενε λίγο. Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά καφέ πίνουμε! |
| Fay: Wait a little. We don't eat breakfast, but we do drink coffee! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: You really don’t eat breakfast in Greece? |
| Chrissi: As a rule, no. |
| Fay: But what happened to breakfast being the most important meal of the day? |
| Chrissi: We were never taught that as children. |
| Fay: And can you get through the day on an empty stomach? There is a Greek proverb saying something about this, isn’t it? |
| Chrissi: Yes, it is “Nistiko arkoudi den choreuei,” which literally translates, “A bear that hasn’t eaten can’t dance”! |
| Fay: That’s funny. So how do you manage? |
| Chrissi: Well, we usually eat something at around 10 or 11 A.M. To be honest, these days, more and more people eat something in the morning. |
| Fay: Something like? |
| Chrissi: Milk, some cereal, or maybe some toast with butter and jam or honey. |
| Fay: This does make some sense! |
| Chrissi: I guess so. Still, I find it somehow unnatural! |
| Fay: So shall we go on to our vocabulary? |
| Chrissi: Sure! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First we have… |
| Chrissi: φεύγουμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: We leave. |
| Chrissi: φεύγουμε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. φεύγουμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: Τρώω, τρώτε, δεν τρώμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: I eat, you eat, we don't eat. |
| Chrissi: Τρώω, τρώτε, δεν τρώμε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Τρώω, τρώτε, δεν τρώμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πρώτα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: First. |
| Chrissi: πρώτα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πρώτα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ξεχνάω [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: To forget. |
| Chrissi: ξεχνάω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ξεχνάω [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πρωί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Morning. |
| Chrissi: πρωί [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πρωί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πρωινό [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Breakfast. |
| Chrissi: πρωινό [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πρωινό [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: αργότερα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Later. |
| Chrissi: αργότερα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αργότερα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: περίμενε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Wait. |
| Chrissi: περίμενε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. περίμενε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: λίγο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: A little. |
| Chrissi: λίγο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. λίγο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πίνουμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: We drink. |
| Chrissi: πίνουμε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πίνουμε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: καφές [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Coffee. |
| Chrissi: καφές [slowly - broken down by syllable]. καφές [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this lesson. Let’s start with the word for “first.” |
| Chrissi: Πρώτα (Prota). It’s the adverb “first,” not the adjective. |
| Fay: An example? |
| Chrissi: Πρώτα θα πάμε σινεμά (Prota tha pame cinema). “First we go to the cinema,” implying we will do something else later. |
| Fay: Another example? |
| Chrissi: Πρώτα πλένω τα δόντια μου (Prota pleno ta dontia mou). “First, I brush my teeth.” |
| Fay: Okay. And the negative that isn’t negative! |
| Chrissi: Oh, yes. Δεν τρώμε κάτι πρώτα (Den trome kati prota). We use that in English, too. “Don’t we eat something first” or “Shouldn’t we eat something first”? |
| Fay: Another example? |
| Chrissi: Δεν πάμε καμιά βόλτα; (Den pame kamia volta?) means “Why don’t we go for a walk?”. Listeners, repeat this; it’s very natural Greek. Δεν πάμε καμιά βόλτα; (Den pame kamia volta?) |
| Fay: The negative form can be used as a polite suggestion, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
| Fay: Got it. Next is ligo. This one is an adjective, right? |
| Chrissi: Originally. But again, it is used as an adverb. It’s closer to the English “a little.” |
| Fay: As in...? |
| Chrissi: Λίγο νερό (Ligo nero) means “a little water.” Repeat this. Λίγο νερό (Ligo nero). |
| Fay: Another example? |
| Chrissi: Περίμενε λίγο (Perimene ligo), from our dialogue. It means “wait a little.” |
| Fay: Once more, please? |
| Chrissi: Περίμενε λίγο (Perimene ligo). |
| Fay: OK. But it can also be translated as “some” in “I want some coffee.” |
| Chrissi: Yes, as an idiom. There are times when we can translate ligo as “some.” |
| Fay: Okay. Last, I noticed that different things get emphasized when the order of words changes. |
| Chrissi: That’s right. Check out the order in this sentence. Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά καφέ πίνουμε (Den trome proino alla kafe pinoume). “We don’t eat breakfast, but we do drink coffee.” |
| Fay: What would that sentence normally be? |
| Chrissi: Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά πίνουμε καφέ (Den trome proino alla pinoume kafe). The verb πίνουμε (pinoume) “we drink” would normally go before the noun καφέ (kafe) “coffee”. |
| Fay: But in the dialogue we put πίνουμε (pinoume) after καφέ (kafe), at the end of the sentence. |
| Chrissi: Yes. And we also raised the pitch a little. |
| Fay: All together, it becomes...? |
| Chrissi: Δεν τρώμε πρωινό αλλά καφέ πίνουμε. (Den trome proino alla kafe pinoume.) |
| Fay: Great. On to our main Grammar Point! |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: In this lesson, our focus is on verbs, yes? |
| Chrissi: Yes, specifically about the present tense of verbs in the active voice – the indicative mood, and the first conjugation. |
| Fay: Too! Much! Grammar! |
| Chrissi: Not to worry—we’re looking only at one small category of verbs. And this category includes some of the most useful verbs in the language! |
| Fay: Such as? |
| Chrissi: Πάω (Pao) "to go", τρώω (troo) "to eat", πίνω (pino) "to drink", διαβάζω (diabazo) "to read", ακούω (akouo) "to hear", κάνω (kano) "to do", έχω (echo) "to have", δουλεύω (douleuo) "to work", βλέπω (vlepo) "to see", ακούω (akouo) "to hear”. All are first-conjugation verbs. |
| Fay: Do first-conjugation verbs all end in -o? |
| Chrissi: Yes. Specifically, unaccented -o. This is important because verbs ending in accented -o belong to the second conjugation! |
| Fay: And all the verbs we’ve seen so far have been in the active voice, right? |
| Chrissi: Right! |
| Fay: First conjugation, present tense, active voice. Is there anything else to say about them? |
| Chrissi: They are all in the indicative mood. |
| Fay: Meaning? |
| Chrissi: That they express a statement or a question, affirmative or negative, as a matter of fact. |
| Fay: Like “I eat.” |
| Chrissi: Εγώ τρώω (Ego troo), a statement of fact. |
| Fay: Or “Do you watch TV?”. |
| Chrissi: Εσύ βλέπεις τηλεόραση; (Esy vlepeis tileorasi?) Also a matter of fact. Either you watch or you don’t! |
| Fay: Anything else we need to mention? |
| Chrissi: One thing. While English has separate tenses for present perfect and present progressive, “I eat” and “I am eating,” Greek uses one tense for both of these—the enestota (present tense). |
| Fay: Really? Then how do you know when you are eating and when you just eat? |
| Chrissi: From context. For example, a generic Τρώω κρέας (Troo kreas) means “I eat meat, I’m not a vegetarian.” But Τώρα τρώω κρέας (Tora troo kreas) means “Now, right now, I am eating meat.” |
| Fay: So we need something besides the verb to tell us whether the verb is simple present or present progressive. |
| Chrissi: Yes, but that clue is usually provided. Greeks also need to know whether we’re talking about something happening right now or something that happens every day! |
| Fay: A few more examples before we go? |
| Chrissi: Yes. Listeners, please repeat these. Εγώ βλέπω τηλεόραση (Ego vlepo tileorasi) "I watch TV", Εσύ διαβάζεις ένα βιβλίο (Esy diabazeis ena vivlio) "You’re reading a book", Αυτός τρώει μακαρόνια (Autos troei makaronia) "He is eating spaghetti”, Αυτή ακούει μουσική (Auti akouei mousiki) "She is listening to music”, Αυτό το αυτοκίνητο πάει γρήγορα (Auto to autokinito paei grigora) "This car is going fast”. |
| Fay: Great. But those verbs were all singular. Could we also get some examples with plural verbs? |
| Chrissi: Sure. “We are going to school” Εμείς πάμε στο σχολείο (Emeis pame sto scholeio,) "You are taking pictures” Εσείς τραβάτε φωτογραφίες (Eseis travate fotografies), "They [masculine] are ringing the bell” Αυτοί χτυπάνε το κουδούνι (Autoi xtypane to koudouni), "They [feminine] play guitar” Αυτές παίζουν κιθάρα (Autes paizoun kithara), “They [neuter] cost a lot” Αυτά κοστίζουν πολύ (Auta kostizoun poly). |
| Fay: Okay, I think we’ve about covered this. Be sure to download our PDF for more detailed explanations. |
| Chrissi: And more examples! |
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| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!) |
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