Learn about the past tense of the Greek verb eimai, meaning "to be"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hello, everyone! Fay here! Beginner Season 1, Lesson 17 - Weren't You Just in Greece? |
| Chrissi: And I’m Chrissi. Thanks for joining us at GreekPod101.com for this Beginner lesson. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at the past tense of emai ("to be"). |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at Petra’s software company in Athens. |
| Chrissi: It’s between Petra and her co-worker Dimitris Triantafyllou. |
| Fay: The characters are friends, so the conversation is informal. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Πέτρα, δεν ήσουν στο σπίτι εχτές; |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Στο σπίτι ήμουν. Γιατί; |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Σε πήρα τηλέφωνο και δεν απαντούσε. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Όλοι στο σπίτι ήμασταν. Περίεργο... |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Καλά, δεν ήταν κάτι σημαντικό... |
| Fay: Now let’s listen to the slow version. |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Πέτρα, δεν ήσουν στο σπίτι εχτές; |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Στο σπίτι ήμουν. Γιατί; |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Σε πήρα τηλέφωνο και δεν απαντούσε. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Όλοι στο σπίτι ήμασταν. Περίεργο... |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Καλά, δεν ήταν κάτι σημαντικό... |
| Fay: Now with the English translation. |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Πέτρα, δεν ήσουν στο σπίτι εχτές; |
| Fay: Petra, weren't you at home yesterday? |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Στο σπίτι ήμουν. Γιατί; |
| Fay: I was at home. Why? |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Σε πήρα τηλέφωνο και δεν απαντούσε. |
| Fay: I called you but you didn't answer. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Όλοι στο σπίτι ήμασταν. Περίεργο... |
| Fay: We were all at home. Strange... |
| Δήμητρα Τριανταφύλλου: Καλά, δεν ήταν κάτι σημαντικό... |
| Fay: Anyway, it wasn't anything important. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: So you don’t have any special protocol for speaking on the phone in Greece, do you? |
| Chrissi: No, we are pretty casual; I’m talking about everyday situations, because in corporate communications, there are all kinds of “must’s and “must not’s.” |
| Fay: How do you normally answer your phone? |
| Chrissi: You say Παρακαλώ (parakalo) "please", λέγετε (legete) "talk", ορίστε (oriste) something like “in your orders", μάλιστα (malista) sort of like “of course”, or simply ναι (nai) "yes”. |
| Fay: “Ναι” ("yes”) doesn’t sound very polite. |
| Chrissi: Well, it is the most casual of all. I use parakalo, which I think of as the best balance between casual and polite. And it works in all situations! |
| Fay: Greeks don’t state their names when they call someone? |
| Chrissi: Not as a rule, no. This is mostly done in companies—or in the army. You know, a “state your name and rank” kind of thing. |
| Fay: Thanks for these tips. Shall we move on to our vocabulary? |
| Chrissi: Sure! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: First, we have… |
| Chrissi: ήσουν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: You were. |
| Chrissi: ήσουν [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ήσουν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: χτες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Yesterday. |
| Chrissi: χτες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. χτες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ήμουν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: I was. |
| Chrissi: ήμουν [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ήμουν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: γιατί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Why, because. |
| Chrissi: γιατί [slowly - broken down by syllable]. γιατί [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: απαντούσε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: He/she/it answered. |
| Chrissi: απαντούσε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. απαντούσε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ήμασταν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: We were. |
| Chrissi: ήμασταν [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ήμασταν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: περίεργος [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Strange. |
| Chrissi: περίεργος [slowly - broken down by syllable]. περίεργος [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: καλά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Well, anyway. |
| Chrissi: καλά [slowly - broken down by syllable]. καλά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ήταν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: It was. |
| Chrissi: ήταν [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ήταν [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: κάτι [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Something. |
| Chrissi: κάτι [slowly - broken down by syllable]. κάτι [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: σημαντικό [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Important. |
| Chrissi: σημαντικό [slowly - broken down by syllable]. σημαντικό [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases for this lesson. Is Καλά (Kala) is an adjective or an adverb? |
| Chrissi: Here we are using it as an adverb, and conjunctive adverb, to be precise. Not just what it sound like, an adverb used to connect sentences. In the sentence Καλά, δεν ήταν κάτι σημαντικό (Kala, den itan kati simantiko), καλά (kala) means “well”, “ah, okay” or “anyway”. |
| Fay: But can’t it also be an adjective. |
| Chrissi: Yes. Actually the adjective is καλός (kalos) for masculine, καλή (kali) for feminine, and καλό (kalo) for neuter. Καλά (Kala) is what the word looks like in plural number neuter gender in nominative or accusative case. |
| Fay: Wow! That’s complicated. |
| Chrissi: It’ll make sense when we talk about adjectives make sense. An example of καλά (kala) as an adjective would be τα καλά παιδιά (ta kala paidia) “the good children”, or καλά νέα (kala nea) “good news”, or καλά παπούτσια (kala papoutsia) “good shoes”. Try to repeat these, listeners. |
| Fay: All right. I’m also wondering about the word for “yesterday”. |
| Chrissi: Oh, yes. The word has four different variations, but they aren’t all that different. |
| Fay: Four variations? Yikes! What are they? |
| Chrissi: εχΘές (echTHes), εχΤές (echTes), χΘες (chTHes) and χΤες (chTes). |
| Fay: Are they interchangeable? |
| Chrissi: Sure. Although the ones starting with “e”, εχΘές (echTHes) and εχΤές (echTes), sound a little more formal. |
| Fay: Got it. I’m also wondering about periergos. |
| Chrissi: It means either “curious” as in είμαι περίεργος από τη φύση μου (eimai periergos apo ti fysi mou) –“I’m curious by nature” or “strange” as in έγινε κάτι περίεργο χτες (egine kati periergo chtes) –“something strange happened yesterday”. |
| Fay: What else? Oh, the phone that answers itself? |
| Chrissi: Yes. In Greek we can say Πήρα αλλά το τηλέφωνο δεν απαντούσε (Pira alla to tilefono den apantouse) “I called but the phone didn’t answer”. What do you say when the call doesn’t go through in English? |
| Fay: We say, “No one answered” or “no one picked it up.” |
| Chrissi: So in English, it’s a person not answering the phone. In Greek, though, we can say το τηλέφωνο δεν απαντάει (to tilefono den apantaei) “the telephone doesn’t go through. |
| Fay: Don’t you close the phone instead of hanging up? |
| Chrissi: Yes. For almost all electronic appliances we use the verb κλείνω (kleino) “to close”. Κλείνω το τηλέφωνο (Kleino to tilefono) “I hang up the phone”, κλείνω τον υπολογιστή (kleino ton ypologisti) “I shut down the computer”, κλείνω το ραδιόφωνο (kleino to radiofono) “I turn off the radio”, et cetera. |
| Fay: Okay. Shall we move on to our grammar? |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: In this lesson, our focus is the past tense. |
| Chrissi: Yes, specifically at the past tense of the verb είμαι (eimai), “to be”. |
| Fay: Which is… |
| Chrissi: … εγώ ήμουν (ego imoun). |
| Fay: “I was”. |
| Chrissi: Right. |
| Fay: This is the simple past tense, yes? |
| Chrissi: Yes. And it’s very important because the stem of the verb, that is, the part that doesn’t change with person, number, or usually with tense. In the same way that the present stem can be a base for another tenses, the past stem can be a base for still other tenses. |
| Fay: Wow. So you’re saying that every verb has not one but two stems? |
| Chrissi: Yes, indeed – the stem from the simple present and the stem from the simple past. |
| Fay: Wow. Well, that’s good to know. Let’s get back to εγώ ήμουν (ego imoun), “I was”? Listeners, repeat the sentences you will hear! |
| Chrissi: Let’s see. Εχτές ήμουν μόνος στο σπίτι (Echtes imoun monos sto spiti). “Yesterday I was home alone”. |
| Fay: Another example? |
| Chrissi: Το καλοκαίρι ήμασταν στην Πάρο (To kalokairi imastan stin Paro) “In the summer, we were in Paris.” |
| Fay: And another? |
| Chrissi: Ο τροχονόμος ήταν πολύ αυστηρός (O trochonomos itan poly austiros) “The traffic policeman was very strict.” |
| Fay: Another? |
| Chrissi: Το φαγητό ήταν πολύ νόστιμο (To fagito itan poly nostimo) “The food was very tasty.” |
| Fay: One more? |
| Chrissi: Το ξενοδοχείο ήταν κοντά στη θάλασσα (To kesnodocheio itan konta sti thalassa) “The hotel was near the sea.” |
| Fay: Did you get a chance to repeat those? The past tense showed up in all of them. |
| Chrissi: As in Ήταν όλες, χρήσιμες φράσεις (Itan oles, chrisimes fraseis)! |
| Fay: Yes. That also used the past tense of eimai. Now how about we give the full conjugation of this tense? |
| Chrissi: Sure. Listeners, listen and repeat! |
| Fay: Go. “I was.” |
| Chrissi: Εγώ ήμουν. (Ego imoun.) |
| Fay: You were. |
| Chrissi: Εσύ ήσουν. (Esy isoun.) |
| Fay: He was. |
| Chrissi: Αυτός ήταν. (Autos itan.) |
| Fay: She was. |
| Chrissi: Αυτή ήταν. (Auti itan.) |
| Fay: It was. |
| Chrissi: Αυτό ήταν. (Auto itan.) |
| Fay: We were. |
| Chrissi: Εμείς ήμασταν. (Emeis imastan.) |
| Fay: You were. |
| Chrissi: Εσείς ήσασταν. (Eseis isastan.) |
| Fay: They were –masculine. |
| Chrissi: Αυτοί ήταν. (Autoi itan.) |
| Fay: They were –feminine. |
| Chrissi: Αυτές ήταν. (Autes itan.) |
| Fay: They were –neuter. |
| Chrissi: Αυτά ήταν. (Auta itan.) |
| Fay: Okay, thanks. Anything else? Our listeners need to know about the past tense of eimai. |
| Chrissi: A small point. You can say either ήμουν (imoun) or ήμουνα (imouna), ήσουν (isoun) or ήσουνα (isouna) and ήταν (itan) or ήτανε (itane). you will see these small differences better in the PDF. |
| Fay: Does it make any difference? |
| Chrissi: Not really. Some people feel that ήμουνα (imouna), ήσουνα (isouna) and ήτανε (itane) sound a little vulgar –but that’s just a matter of taste. |
| Fay: Now I’m guessing it’s pretty easy to make a negative “I was not” or a question “was I?” |
| Chrissi: Sure is. To make a negatives, just add den before the verb. |
| Fay: So Εγώ ήμουν (Ego imoun) becomes… |
| Chrissi: Εγώ δεν ήμουν (Ego den imoun). |
| Fay: And the question? |
| Chrissi: Just start with a statement and add a question mark at the end or, if speaking, raise the pitch on the accented syllable. |
| Fay: Εγώ ήμουν (Ego imoun) becomes… |
| Chrissi: Εγώ ήμουν; (Ego imoun?) |
| Fay: And with that we close. Be sure to download the PDF. |
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| Fay: Bye! |
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