Learn the basic facts concerning grammatical cases in Greek
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Intro |
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| Michael: How many grammatical cases are there in Greek? |
| Chrissi: And how do they work? |
| Michael: At GreekPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation: Ben Lee and Stefanos Sapountzidis are looking through Ben's family pictures. Ben points to a lady in the picture and says, |
| "This is my mother." |
| Μπεν Λι: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| Dialogue |
| Μπεν Λι: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| Στέφανος Σα πουντζίδης: Αυτοί είναι οι γονείς της μητέρας σου; (Aftí íne i gonís tis mitéras su?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Μπεν Λι: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| Michael: "This is my mother." |
| Στέφανος Σαπουντζίδης: Αυτοί είναι οι γονείς της μητέρας σου; (Aftí íne i gonís tis mitéras su?) |
| Michael: "Are these your mother's parents?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: The grammatical case, or |
| Chrissi: πτώση (ptósi), |
| Michael: is the first characteristic of declension. The other two characteristics are: gender |
| Chriss: γένος (yénos), |
| Michael: and number |
| Chrissi: αριθμός (arithmós). |
| Michael: There are four cases in Greek: |
| Chrissi: The nominative, ονομαστική (onomastikí), the genitive, γενική (yenikí), the accusative, αιτιατική (etiatikí), and the vocative case, κλιτική (klitikí.) |
| Michael: So how do they work? |
| Chrissi: The nominative case is the base case, the one that is used for all declinable words in dictionaries. |
| Michael: So it indicates the dictionary form of declinable words. It is also the case that it is always used in a subject and, as a rule, also in a predicate. |
| Chrissi: For example, εγώ είμαι δασκάλα (egó eímai daskála), “I am a teacher,” has the subject εγώ (egó) and the predicate δασκάλα (daskála) in the nominative form. |
| Michael: More rarely, the nominative can also be used after certain prepositions. For example: |
| Chrissi: Από νοσοκόμος έγινε γιατρός. (Apó nosokómos éyine yatrós.) "From a nurse, he became a doctor." |
| Michael: Next, the genitive case has many uses, but the most important one is when it's used as a direct or indirect object. In other cases, it may function as a nominal determiner indicating things such as ownership among others. |
| Chrissi: For example, το καπέλο του Νίκου (to kapélo tu Níku), “Nico's hat.” |
| Michael: Finally, the genitive case may follow after some prepositions and adverbs or it may even function as an adverb itself. Next, we have the accusative case. Its most common use is as a direct object and less commonly as an indirect object. It can also be used as a nominal determiner to indicate things such as time, location, reason, purpose, and other things. |
| Chrissi: For example, την Πέμπτη (tin Pémpti) meaning "on Thursday." |
| Michael: Finally, most common prepositions are followed by an accusative and just like the genitive, the accusative may function as an adverb. |
| Chrissi: The last case is the vocative case and it's the case we use to address people—for example, when we call someone to get their attention. |
| Michael: These are some very short descriptions of what is a very large chapter of Greek grammar. For more information on each case and on declension in general, check out the Grammar Bank on GreekPod101.com or our video series "Absolute Beginner Questions Answered by Stefania." |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Chrissi, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "This is my mother?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Αυτή είναι η μητέρα μου. (Aftí íne i mitéra mu.) |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "Are these your mother's parents?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Αυτοί είναι οι γονείς της μητέρας σου; (Aftí íne i gonís tis mitéras su?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Αυτοί είναι οι γονείς της μητέρας σου; (Aftí íne i gonís tis mitéras su?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Αυτοί είναι οι γονείς της μητέρας σου; (Aftí íne i gonís tis mitéras su?) |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Did you know that, in ancient Greek, there used to be one more grammatical case? |
| Chrissi: Yes, the dative, or δοτική (dotikí). However, it fell out of use with time and now it is only used in specific scholarly expressions that have survived to this day. |
| Michael: This is a good thing for you, though, because now you only have four instead of five Greek cases to learn! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! (Ya hará!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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