Learn how to use cases in nouns, particularly the genitive case, in Modern Greek
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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 Beginner Season 1, Lesson 8 - Any Greek Calls? Thanks for joining us for this Beginner series. I’m Fay. |
| Chrissi: This is Chrissy. |
| Fay: What are we learning in this lesson? |
| Chrissi: We are looking at the cases of nouns, especially the genitive case. |
| Fay: The conversation takes place at Petra Gordon’s office in Athens. |
| Chrissi: It’s between the main character, Petra and the office secretary. |
| Fay: Since the characters are co-workers of different rank, the conversation is in polite language. |
| Chrissi: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πήρε κανείς τηλέφωνο την ώρα του φαγητού; |
| Γραμματέας: Πήραν από το γραφείο του πελάτη που είδατε το πρωί. Είναι για κάτι σχετικό με κάποια λεπτομέρεια της προσφοράς μας. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Άφησαν κάποιο τηλέφωνο; |
| Γραμματέας: Όχι, είπαν να καλέσετε στο τηλεφωνικό κέντρο της εταιρείας. |
| Fay: Now the slow version. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πήρε κανείς τηλέφωνο την ώρα του φαγητού; |
| Γραμματέας: Πήραν από το γραφείο του πελάτη που είδατε το πρωί. Είναι για κάτι σχετικό με κάποια λεπτομέρεια της προσφοράς μας. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Άφησαν κάποιο τηλέφωνο; |
| Γραμματέας: Όχι, είπαν να καλέσετε στο τηλεφωνικό κέντρο της εταιρείας. |
| Fay: Now with the translation. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Πήρε κανείς τηλέφωνο την ώρα του φαγητού; |
| Fay: Did anyone call during lunch? |
| Γραμματέας: Πήραν από το γραφείο του πελάτη που είδατε το πρωί. Είναι για κάτι σχετικό με κάποια λεπτομέρεια της προσφοράς μας. |
| Fay: They called from this morning's client's office. It's about some detail from our offer. |
| Πέτρα Γκόρντον: Άφησαν κάποιο τηλέφωνο; |
| Fay: Did they leave a number? |
| Γραμματέας: Όχι, είπαν να καλέσετε στο τηλεφωνικό κέντρο της εταιρείας. |
| Fay: No, they said you should use the company's telephone center. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fay: From the dialogue it seems Greeks take big lunch breaks. Is this true? |
| Chrissi: Well, we are exaggerating a little! It would be more accurate to say that in many offices, there is not much work done after lunch, though. |
| Fay: Why is that? |
| Chrissi: Up until maybe 20 years ago, working in an office in Greece mostly meant working in the public sector. And the public sector kept different business hours; still does, actually. |
| Fay: What are their hours? |
| Chrissi: Seven-thirty A.M. to 3:00 P.M. This means that Greek office culture is build around the assumption that 3:00 is punching out time. |
| Fay: Even in the private sector? |
| Chrissi: Yes, it is quite common. |
| Fay: But they still stay in the office until 5:00 P.M., right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. And sometimes until later. Being productive during those hours is another story, though! |
| Fay: Let’s be productive—and go to our vocabulary! |
| Chrissi: Right! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fay: First, we have… |
| Chrissi: τηλέφωνο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Telephone. |
| Chrissi: τηλέφωνο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. τηλέφωνο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: πελάτης [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Client, customer. |
| Chrissi: πελάτης [slowly - broken down by syllable]. πελάτης [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: γραφείο [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Office. |
| Chrissi: γραφείο [slowly - broken down by syllable]. γραφείο [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: λεπτομέρεια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Detail. |
| Chrissi: λεπτομέρεια [slowly - broken down by syllable]. λεπτομέρεια [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: προσφορά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Offer. |
| Chrissi: προσφορά [slowly - broken down by syllable]. προσφορά [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: αριθμός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Number. |
| Chrissi: αριθμός [slowly - broken down by syllable]. αριθμός [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: εταιρεία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Company. |
| Chrissi: εταιρεία [slowly - broken down by syllable]. εταιρεία [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: Next… |
| Chrissi: παίρνω [natural native speed]. |
| Fay: To take; call on the telephone. |
| Chrissi: παίρνω [slowly - broken down by syllable]. παίρνω [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Fay: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s the word for “telephone number” in Greek? |
| Chrissi: We use two words. The most “proper” one is αριθμός (arithmos), but we also use νούμερο (noumero). So “telephone number” would be αριθμός τηλεφώνου (arithmos tilefonou) or νούμερο τηλεφώνου (noumero tilefonou). Try to repeat these two—they are very useful! Αριθμός τηλεφώνου (Arithmos tilefonou) or νούμερο τηλεφώνου (noumero tilefonou). |
| Fay: And how do we ask “What is your telephone number?”? That’s a handy phrase! |
| Chrissi: We usually say Ποιο είναι το τηλέφωνό σου; (Poio einai to tilefono sou?), which literally translates to “Which is your telephone?”. If you want to be more polite, you can say Θα μου δώσετε το τηλέφωνό σας; (Tha mou dosete to tilefono sas?), which means “Will you give me your phone number?”. |
| Fay: Can we hear those again? First the informal one. |
| Chrissi: Ποιο είναι το τηλέφωνό σου; (Poio einai to tilefono sou?). |
| Fay: And the more polite one? |
| Chrissi: Θα μου δώσετε το τηλέφωνό σας; (Tha mou dosete to tilefono sas?) |
| Fay: OK. And how do we say “I call” someone? |
| Chrissi: We use the verb παίρνω (pairno), which actually means “take.” |
| Fay: So “I’ll call you” is...? |
| Chrissi: Θα σε πάρω τηλέφωνο (Tha se paro tilefono). Literally “I will take you telephone.” |
| Fay: Sounds a little strange when you translate it like that! |
| Chrissi: Might help you remember it, though! |
| Fay: And how do we say “Call me”? |
| Chrissi: Πάρε τηλέφωνο (Pare me tilefono). Try repeating that. Πάρε με τηλέφωνο (Pare me tilefono). |
| Fay: This is informal, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. The polite version would be Πάρτε με τηλέφωνο (Parte me tilefono) or, even more formal, Καλέστε με (Kaleste me). |
| Fay: Καλέστε; (Kaleste)? This is another verb? |
| Chrissi: Yes. Καλό (Kalo) is a Greek word that comes from the English “call.” But we don’t use it very much; it sounds too formal. |
| Fay: I see. Finally, what does γραφείο (grafeio) mean? |
| Chrissi: Γραφείο (Grafeio) means both “office” and “desk.” Beyond that, many Greeks who work in an office use it broadly to mean “work.” |
| Fay: For example? |
| Chrissi: Πάω στο γραφείο (Pao sto grafeio) literally means “I go to the office,” but it can also mean “I go to work.” |
| Fay: Great! Shall we move on to our main Grammar Point? |
| Chrissi: Sure! |
Lesson focus |
| Fay: So what do we have for this lesson? |
| Chrissi: A concept that might seem a little strange to English speakers. |
| Fay: Cases, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. You see, in Greek, articles, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and participles are all declinable. |
| Fay: Which means they change according to their use in a sentence. |
| Chrissi: Exactly! The different forms they take are called “cases.” In Greek we call them πτώσεις (ptoseis). |
| Fay: How many cases are there in Greek? |
| Chrissi: Four—nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative. |
| Fay: And how do we know when to use each? |
| Chrissi: The simplest way to remember that is to associating them with certain questions. For example, the nominative case answers the question “Who?”. |
| Fay: For example? |
| Chrissi: Ποιος είναι αυτός; (Poios einai autos?) “Who is he?”. Είναι ο Γιάννης (Einai o Yannis) “He is Yannis”. |
| Fay: OK. And the genitive? |
| Chrissi: It answers the question “Whose?”. Ποιανού είναι αυτό το αυτοκίνητο; (Poianou einai auto to autokinito?) “Whose car is this?”. Είναι της Μαρίας (Einai tis Marias) “It is Maria’s”. |
| Fay: And the other two cases, accusative and vocative? |
| Chrissi: Let’s stay on the genitive for now. You can read more in the PDF! |
| Fay: OK. How can we tell whether a noun is in the nominative or genitive case? |
| Chrissi: Besides context, the articles are different: the masculine "o" and the neuter "to" become "tou", and the feminine "i" becomes "tis". |
| Fay: These are for the singular number, right? |
| Chrissi: Yes. In this lesson we will deal only with singular. |
| Fay: Good. Can you give some examples of nouns in the nominative and genitive cases? |
| Chrissi: Yes. Ο υπολογιστής, του υπολογιστή (O ypologistis, tou ypologisti) “the computer,” “the computer’s”. Η καρέκλα, της καρέκλας (I karekla, tis kareklas) “the chair,” “the chair’s”. Το παράθυρο, του παραθύρου/παράθυρου (To parathiro, tou parathirou) “the window,” “the window’s”. |
| Fay: I notice there are some changes to the noun itself, too. |
| Chrissi: Yes, there are. You can also find those in our PDF. |
| Fay: So our listeners had better download it as soon as possible! |
| Chrissi: Yes! |
| Fay: What about the indefinite article? |
| Chrissi: The masculine ένας (enas) and the neuter ένα (ena) in the nominative case become ενός (enos) in the genitive, and the feminine μία (mia) in the nominative becomes μίας (mias) in the genitive. |
| Fay: Hmm. That’s quite a lot of changes! |
| Chrissi: Yes, but we have put them in a convenient table in the PDF. |
| Fay: OK, let’s stop for now. To recap, the genitive case is the one used to answer the question “Whose?”, pretty much like the “apostrophe -s” combination in English. |
| Chrissi: Right! If you remember this and the way the articles change, you’ll know all you need to about the genitive case—at least for now. |
| Fay: So let’s leave it at that, and we’ll be back for more later. Bye! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Geia chara!) |
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