Learn about the past tense of some common Greek verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hi, everyone. Beginner Season 1, Lesson 19 - This Greek Place Is Really Old. Fay here! |
| Chrissi: And I’m Chrissi. Welcome back to GreekPod101.com – the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Greek. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at the past tense of some common Greek verbs. |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at the Acropolis archaeological site. |
| Chrissi: It’s between Petra Gordon and her Greek host, Danai. |
| Fay: The characters are friends so the conversation is informal. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Την προηγούμενη φορά που ήμουν στην Ελλάδα, δεν ανέβηκα στην Ακρόπολη. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πήγες όμως στο Ηρώδειο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, είχε μια συναυλία κλασσικής μουσικής. Ήταν πολύ ωραία. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πέρασε πολύς καιρός από τότε... |
| Fay: Now let’s listen to the slow version. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Την προηγούμενη φορά που ήμουν στην Ελλάδα, δεν ανέβηκα στην Ακρόπολη. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πήγες όμως στο Ηρώδειο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, είχε μια συναυλία κλασσικής μουσικής. Ήταν πολύ ωραία. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πέρασε πολύς καιρός από τότε... |
| Fay: Now with the English translation. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Την προηγούμενη φορά που ήμουν στην Ελλάδα, δεν ανέβηκα στην Ακρόπολη. |
| Fay: The last time I was in Greece, I didn't climb up the Acropolis. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πήγες όμως στο Ηρώδειο. |
| Fay: But you did go to the Irodeio. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Ναι, είχε μια συναυλία κλασσικής μουσικής. Ήταν πολύ ωραία. |
| Fay: Yes, there was a classical music concert. It was very beautiful. |
| Δανάη Παπαδοπούλου: Πέρασε πολύς καιρός από τότε... |
| Fay: A long time has passed since then.. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: I knew it! Is there any chance to talk to a Greek and not discuss the Acropolis at some point? |
| Chrissi: First of all, since we are learning Greek here, let’s use the correct case, the accusative – not discuss the Acropolis. And second, well, we are proud of it, especially Athenians. Is that so bad? |
| Fay: No, I’m just joking. It is a wonderful building. |
| Chrissi: Correction number two – the Acropolis is not a building. The Parthenon is a building; the Acropolis is a hill on which it is built. |
| Fay: I didn’t know that! |
| Chrissi: Many Greeks don’t, either! |
| Fay: But they are still proud. |
| Chrissi: What’s not to be proud of? It’s wonderful, it’s old, and it’s the symbol of a civilization that made the western world’s history! |
| Fay: Okay, okay. So the bottom line is get to Greece and visit the Acropolis A.S.A.P. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: First, we have… |
| Chrissi: προηγούμενη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Previous. |
| Chrissi: προηγούμενη [slowly - broken down by syllable]. προηγούμενη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: φορά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Time (iteration). |
| Chrissi: φορά [slowly - broken down by syllable]. φορά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ανέβηκα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: I climbed. |
| Chrissi: ανέβηκα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ανέβηκα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: Ακρόπολη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Acropolis. |
| Chrissi: Ακρόπολη [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ακρόπολη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πήγες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: You went. |
| Chrissi: πήγες [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πήγες [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: Ηρώδειο(ν) [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Odeon of Herodes Atticus, near the Acropolis. |
| Chrissi: Ηρώδειο(ν) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Ηρώδειο(ν) [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: συναυλία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Concert, show. |
| Chrissi: συναυλία [slowly - broken down by syllable]. συναυλία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: μουσική [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Music. |
| Chrissi: μουσική [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μουσική [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: ωραία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Nice, lovely. |
| Chrissi: ωραία [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ωραία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πέρασε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Passed. |
| Chrissi: πέρασε [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πέρασε [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: καιρός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Time. |
| Chrissi: καιρός [slowly - broken down by syllable]. καιρός [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases in this lesson. I’m a little mixed up on “time.” How do you translate the word “time” in Greek? |
| Chrissi: You’re right to be confused; there are many kinds of time in Greek. Ώρα (Ora) is a time of day, as in Τι ώρα είναι; (Ti ora einai?) "What time is it?” |
| Φορά (fora) is an occurrence, as in Πρώτη φορά ταξιδεύω στο εξωτερικό (Proti fora taksideuo sto eksoteriko) "It’s my first time traveling abroad”. |
| Καιρός (kairos) is a duration, as in Έχει περάσει πολύς καιρός από τότε (Echei perasei polys kairos apo tote) "A long time has passed since then”); |
| and χρόνος (chronos) is the physical flow of time, as in Δεν μπορείς να γυρίσεις τον χρόνο πίσω (Den mporeis na guriseis ton chrono piso) "You can’t turn back time”. |
| Fay: Wow! But chronos also means “year.” |
| Chrissi: Yes. Ο χρόνος έχει 12 μήνες (O chronos echei 12 mines) "The year has 12 months”. |
| Fay: And καιρός (kairos) can also mean “weather.” |
| Chrissi: That it can. Σήμερα ο καιρός είναι βροχερός (Simera o kairos einai vrocheros) "Today the weather is rainy”. Listeners, try to repeat those phrases! |
| Fay: Wow. I guess I’ll get used to them eventually. |
| Chrissi: Yes, with time. Με τον καιρό! (Me ton kairo!) |
| Fay: Very funny. Speaking of time, how do you say “evening” in Greek? |
| Chrissi: To vrady. Repeat this, people—to vrady. |
| Fay: And how about “night”? |
| Chrissi: Η νύχτα. (I nychta.) |
| Fay: And what does βραδιά (vradia) mean? |
| Chrissi: It’s just another way to say βράδυ. (vrady). |
| Fay: Why did we translate vradia as “night” in our sample sentences? |
| Chrissi: Βραδιά (Vradia) is a loose word. It can mean anything from sundown until, I don’t know, early in the morning. |
| Fay: I see. Can we hear some examples of vradia at work? |
| Chrissi: Ωραία βραδιά σήμερα (Oraia vradia simera) "It’s a fine evening tonight”. See? Even in English, we can have both words in a single expression. |
| Fay: I’ll give you that. Another example? |
| Chrissi: Πέρασα μια ενδιαφέρουσα βραδιά εχτές (Perasa mia endiaferousa vradia echtes) "I had an interesting evening yesterday”. |
| Fay: I see. But in those sentences you could have used vrady, too. |
| Chrissi: Grammatically, yes. But vradia sounds more natural. |
| Fay: One last thing. Why do you use ανεβαίνω (anevaino) "climb up” when you visit the Acropoli? |
| Chrissi: Well, it is a hill! What would you use for the Eiffel Tower? |
| Fay: Good point! Shall we move on to our grammar? |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: The focus of this lesson is on the past tense of some common verbs in Greek. |
| Chrissi: Yes, but this time we don’t have much to say. |
| Fay: Really? |
| Chrissi: Actually, we have lots of things to say, but it’s better to read them in the PDF since they’re mostly details about verb endings and such. |
| Fay: Our main point is the simple past tense of first-conjugation verbs, though. |
| Chrissi: That’s right! Specifically, the simple past of first-conjugation verbs in the active voice. These always end with an unaccented -o. |
| Fay: If we aren’t going to get into those details right now, what are we going to talk about? |
| Chrissi: How about giving some examples that our listeners can listen and repeat immediately? |
| Fay: That’s a great idea. How do we say “I climb up and “I climbed up”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ ανεβαίνω (Ego anevaino) and Εγώ ανέβηκα (Ego anevika). |
| Fay: And how do we say “I climb down” and “I climbed down”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ κατεβαίνω (Ego katevaino) and Εγώ κατέβηκα (Ego katevika). |
| Fay: “I go” and “I went”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ πηγαίνω (Ego pigaino) and Εγώ πήγα (Ego piga). |
| Fay: “I open” and “I opened”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ ανοίγω (Ego anoigo) and Εγώ άνοιξα (Ego anoiksa). |
| Fay: “I close” and “I closed”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ κλείνω (Ego kleino) and Εγώ έκλεισα (Ego ekleisa). |
| Fay: “I eat” and “I ate”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ τρώω (Ego troo) and Εγώ έφαγα (Ego efaga). |
| Fay: “I drink” and “I drank”? |
| Chrissi: Εγώ πίνω (Ego pino) and Εγώ ήπια (Ego ipia). |
| Fay: I noticed lots of ways the verb can change from present to past, even though all these verbs are supposed to be in the same conjugation. |
| Chrissi: Yes. There are a lot of factors at work. Sometimes it’s because of morphology—whether there’s a consonant before the final -o, where the accent goes, stuff like that. |
| Fay: And other times? |
| Chrissi: Other times it’s because of lineage—which ancient Greek word the verb comes from. |
| Fay: Sounds like there won’t be any simple rules for that. |
| Chrissi: Unfortunately, no. But we have made some helpful remarks in our PDF, so listeners, don’t neglect to download it! |
| Fay: Shall we leave it at that for now? |
| Chrissi: Yes, but we should remind our listeners once again that what applies for affirmative statements applies for negative ones and questions as well. The only differences are that to make the negative... |
| Fay: We put the negative particle den between the pronoun and the verb. |
| Chrissi: Right. And to make a question, we raise the pitch of the verb’s accented syllable. Εγώ διάβασα (Ego diavasa) becomes Εγώ διάβασα; (Ego diavasa?) |
| Fay: Okay, that’s good enough for now. Get the PDF, study it, and join us next time for more! |
| Chrissi: Listeners, can you understand Greek TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Fay: How about friends and loved one’s conversations in Greek? |
| Chrissi: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Fay: Line-by-line audio. |
| Chrissi: Listen to the lesson conversations line-by-line and learn to understand natural Greek fast. |
| Fay: It’s simple, really! |
| Chrissi: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Fay: Listen again and again and tune your ear to natural Greek. |
| Chrissi: Rapidly understand natural Greek with this powerful tool. |
| Fay: Find this feature on the lesson page under premium member resources at GreekPod101.com. Bye! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!) |
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