Learn about the masculine indefinite article/pronoun enas and find out how we use it in Modern Greek
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fay: Hello, and welcome to GreekPod101.com, Beginner Season 1, Lesson 2 - Take the Last Greek Train to Athens. This is Fay. |
| Chrissi: And I’m Chrissi. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We’ll be introducing the masculine indefinite article (enas). |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at the airport subway station. |
| Chrissi: It is between Peter Gordon, and a station clerk. |
| Fay: Since the characters don’t know each other, the conversation is in formal language. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Συγνώμη, κυρία, εδώ είναι δύο γραμμές αλλά μόνο μια πλατφόρμα; |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Είναι μια γραμμή για το Μετρό και μια για τον Προαστιακό Σιδηρόδρομο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Οπότε, μόνο μια πλατφόρμα και για τα δύο τρένα; |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Ναι. Ένας σταθμός, μια πλατφόρμα, δύο τρένα. |
| Fay: Now let’s listen to the slow version. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Συγνώμη, κυρία, εδώ είναι δύο γραμμές αλλά μόνο μια πλατφόρμα; |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Είναι μια γραμμή για το Μετρό και μια για τον Προαστιακό Σιδηρόδρομο. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Οπότε, μόνο μια πλατφόρμα και για τα δύο τρένα; |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Ναι. Ένας σταθμός, μια πλατφόρμα, δύο τρένα. |
| Fay: Now with the translation. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Συγνώμη, κυρία, εδώ είναι δύο γραμμές αλλά μόνο μια πλατφόρμα; |
| Fay: Excuse me, madam, here are two tracks but only one platform? |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Είναι μια γραμμή για το Μετρό και μια για τον Προαστιακό Σιδηρόδρομο. |
| Fay: There is one track for the Metro and one track for the Suburban Railroad. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Οπότε, μόνο μια πλατφόρμα και για τα δύο τρένα; |
| Fay: So only one platform for both trains? |
| Υπάλληλος σταθμού: Ναι. Ένας σταθμός, μια πλατφόρμα, δύο τρένα. |
| Fay: Yes. One station, one platform, two trains. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chrissi: So how’s transportation in Greece? Didn’t Athens use to have some problems in that area? |
| Fay: Oh, it still does! There are too many cars, taxis, supply vehicles and buses going around 24 hours a day. Not to mention that Athens was not built for the 6 million people it has now! |
| Chrissi: So what do you do? |
| Fay: Well, we plan ahead; we take into account all possible things that can happen and delay us. And, if it fits, we take the metro. |
| Chrissi: Right! The new metro built for the 2004 Olympics, isn’t it? |
| Fay: Yes. It is great. It’s not very big so you won’t get lost or anything and it will take you to all the important places and to many residential areas. |
| Chrissi: I’ll keep that in mind. Shall we move on to our vocabulary? |
| Fay: Sure! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: First, we have… |
| Chrissi: Συγνώμη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: I'm sorry, excuse me, I beg your pardon. |
| Chrissi: Συγνώμη [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Συγνώμη [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: κύρια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Madam. |
| Chrissi: κύρια [slowly - broken down by syllable]. κύρια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: γραμμές [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Tracks, lines. |
| Chrissi: γραμμές [slowly - broken down by syllable]. γραμμές [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: αλλά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: But. |
| Chrissi: αλλά [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αλλά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: μόνο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Only. |
| Chrissi: μόνο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μόνο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: μια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: One. |
| Chrissi: μια [slowly - broken down by syllable]. μια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: πλατφόρμα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Platform. |
| Chrissi: πλατφόρμα [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πλατφόρμα [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: τρένο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Trains. |
| Chrissi: τρένο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. τρένο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: And the next… |
| Chrissi: σταθμός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Station. |
| Chrissi: σταθμός [slowly - broken down by syllable]. σταθμός [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases in this lesson. I see in our dialogue and our vocabulary that in Greek there are two words for “one.” |
| Chrissi: Actually, there are three—for the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. |
| Fay: Because Greek uses genders. |
| Chrissi: Yes—extensively! But don’t worry. For the moment, we will focus on the masculine and leave the other two genders for future lessons. |
| Fay: Also, why those last two lines of the dialogue sound somehow strange? |
| Chrissi: Oh, you mean μόνο μία πλατφόρμα για δύο τρένα (mono mia platforma gia dyo trena) and ένας σταθμός, μία πλατφόρμα, δύο τρένα (enas stathmos, mia platforma, dyo trena), right? |
| Fay: Yes. These mean “one platform for two trains” and “one station, one platform, two trains.” Correct? |
| Chrissi: Exactly! Well, they sound a little strange because we tried to keep the verbs out so we wouldn’t confuse the people listening. |
| Fay: But they are normal Greek phrases? |
| Chrissi: Of course they are! You can use them and nobody will say they are not correct. |
| Fay: So in Greek you can omit the verbs arbitrarily? |
| Chrissi: Well, not arbitrarily. But as in most languages, there are parts of a sentence that can be omitted if they are understood from the context. |
| Fay: Another thing—how you translate συγγνώμη (sygnomi)? |
| Chrissi: You can translate it as “I’m sorry," “Excuse me,” or “Pardon me”; it’s the most basic, and at the same time the most flexible, word to apologize in Greek. |
| Fay: So our listeners would do well to remember it, right? |
| Chrissi: Right. So listen and repeat - Συγγ-νώ-μη (Syg-no-mi). Συγγνώμη (Sygnomi). |
| Fay: Okay. Shall we go on to our main grammar point for this lesson? |
Lesson focus |
| Chrissi: Of course! And our main grammar point is… |
| Fay: So let’s define the indefinite article! |
| Chrissi: Greek has two articles. One for situations where we are talking about a specific person or thing… |
| Fay: That’s the definite article, like “the” in English. |
| Chrissi: Right! And one for when we are talking about an unspecified person or thing. |
| Fay: That’s the indefinite article. Like “a/an” in English. |
| Chrissi: Exactly. For now, we will focus at the masculine indefinite article, though. |
| Fay: Oh, there are also feminine and neuter? |
| Chrissi: Yes. As we said in our previous lesson, Greek makes extensive use of genders in many parts of speech. And one of these is articles. |
| Fay: Okay. So the masculine indefinite article is? |
| Chrissi: Enas. |
| Fay: Which means “a” or “an.” Can we say it again? Listeners, please repeat after Chrissi. |
| Chrissi: Enas. |
| Fay: Got it. But aren’t articles declinable in Greek? |
| Chrissi: Yes, they are. But for the moment, we will stick to the nominative case. |
| Fay: So enas is the nominative case of the masculine indefinite article, right? |
| Chrissi: Right! It’s also the masculine indefinite pronoun and the masculine numeral one. |
| Fay: So we learn three for the price of one! How do we know which is which? |
| Chrissi: Well, it doesn’t really matter. If you want to be technical about it—if it’s followed by a noun, it’s an article; if it’s followed by a verb, it’s a pronoun; and if you are counting, it’s a numeral. |
| Chrissi: Yes. And it would be ένας αστυνομικός (enas astynomikos). Repeat after me: έ-νας α-στυ-νο-μι-κός (e-nas a-sty-no-mi-kos). |
| Fay: How will we use it as a pronoun? |
| Chrissi: In our sample sentences, we have Ο ένας είναι ψηλός και ο άλλος κοντός (O enas einai psilos kai o allos einai kontos). |
| Fay: This means “The one is tall and the other is short.” |
| Chrissi: Exactly! So in this case, the word ένας (enas) replaces some noun—maybe the noun “man”—and is followed by the verb είναι (einai). |
| Fay: Which means “is.” |
| Chrissi: Right. So here, ένας (enas) is a pronoun. |
| Fay: And how do we use it as a numeral? |
| Chrissi: That’s easy! It’s when you count: ένας άνθρωπος (enas anthropos), δύο άνθρωποι (dyo anhtropoi), τρεις άνθρωποι (treis anthropoi), etc. |
| Fay: That would be “one man,” “two men,” “three men,” etc. Right? |
| Chrissi: Right! |
| Fay: So to put it all together, in Greek we have an indefinite article with three genders. The masculine gender is… |
| Chrissi: Ένας (Enas). |
| Fay: And this is also the indefinite pronoun and the numeral “one.” |
| Chrissi: Exactly! |
| Fay: OK. That will be it for now. Be sure to check our PDF to see more about the indefinite article and its function. Bye! |
| Chrissi: Γειάαααα! (Geiaaaaa!) |
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