Learn more about grammatical gender in Greek
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Intro |
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| Michael: Do adjectives have gender in Greek? |
| Chrissi: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At GreekPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mark Lee and his colleague, Christos Chalepas, are walking past a car salon. Mark Lee says, |
| "I want a new car. " |
| Μαρκ Λι: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Dialogue |
| Μαρκ Λι: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Χρήστος Χαλεπάς: Κι εγώ. Θέλω ένα κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο. (Ki egó. Thélo éna kókino aftokínito.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Μαρκ Λι: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Michael: "I want a new car. " |
| Χρήστος Χαλεπάς: Κι εγώ. Θέλω ένα κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο. (Ki egó. Thélo éna kókino aftokínito.) |
| Michael: "Me too. I want a red car. " |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you will be learning whether adjectives have gender in Greek and if noun gender affects adjectives. The answer for both questions is "yes," however, adjectives might appear to have gender but that gender is not inherent to them. |
| What I mean by this is that adjectives must agree with nouns in terms of gender. The noun carries the gender and the adjective must agree with the noun. So an adjective's gender varies according to the gender of the noun they are modifying. |
| So, we will look at some common declensions of Greek adjectives. There are certain patterns that are predictable if one knows the declension group of the adjective. For instance, if the adjective ends in |
| Chrissi: -ος (-os) |
| Michael: in the singular masculine gender, it will become |
| Chrissi: -οι (-i) |
| Michael: in the plural. Let's listen to some examples. This first one means "the good teacher" in the singular. It is an example of a masculine adjective. The adjective is "good," or: |
| Chrissi: καλός (kalós) |
| Michael: and here is the example: |
| Chrissi: ο καλός δάσκαλος. (o kalós dáskalos) |
| Michael: "The good teacher." Now, let's hear the same sentence, but, in the plural, so the adjective will become: |
| Chrissi: καλοί (kalí) |
| Michael: And now the example: |
| Chrissi: οι καλοί δάσκαλοι (i kalí dáskali) |
| Michael: "The good teachers." Finally, here's a similar phrase that illustrates the neuter gender, which means "the good kid." The adjective in this case is: |
| Chrissi: καλό (kaló) |
| Michael: and the phrase is: |
| Chrissi: το καλό παιδί (to kaló pedí). |
| Michael: Here, the noun for "child" is in the neuter gender, so the adjective needs to be in the neuter gender as well. Now, let's see another example, this time in the feminine gender. In this case, the feminine adjective ends in |
| Chrissi: -η (-i) |
| Michael: And the phrase means "the good mother." |
| Chrissi: η καλή μητέρα (i kalí mitéra) |
| Michael: We have examined the adjective "good" in Greek, which has three different forms in the singular: |
| Chrissi: καλός, καλή, καλό (kalós, kalí, kaló) |
| Michael: There are other adjectives that have the same ending patterns as the ones we saw. These adjectives form a group, and there are many different adjective groups in Greek. Another adjective group is the one that has the following endings: |
| Chrissi: -ος, -α, -ο (-os, -a, -o) |
| Michael: in the masculine, feminine, and neuter gender, respectively. Let's see an example in the masculine gender. |
| Chrissi: άδειος (ádios) |
| Michael: This means "empty." Now, let's see an example meaning "The space was empty." |
| Chrissi: Ο χώρος ήταν άδειος. (O hóros ítan ádios.) |
| Michael: A similar sentence, which means, "The classroom was empty," illustrates the feminine ending of the adjective in this category. The adjective sounds like this: |
| Chrissi: άδεια (ádia) |
| Michael: and the sentence is: |
| Chrissi: Η αίθουσα ήταν άδεια. (I éthusa ítan ádia.) |
| Michael: A sentence that illustrates the appropriate neuter ending is, "The box was empty." The neuter adjective here is: |
| Chrissi: άδειο (ádio) |
| Michael: and you can hear it in the sentence: |
| Chrissi: Το κουτί ήταν άδειο. (To kutí ítan ádio.) |
| Michael: The last set of gender-based adjective endings that we will look at is: |
| Chrissi: -ύς (-is) |
| Michael: for the masculine, |
| Chrissi: -ιά (-iá) |
| Michael: for the feminine, and |
| Chrissi: -ύ (-í) |
| Michael: for the neuter. This time, the adjective we will use is: |
| Chrissi: βαθύς (vathís) |
| Michael: This is the masculine version of the adjective and it means "deep." Let's look at an example of the same masculine ending being used in a sentence. This sentence means "The deep river." |
| Chrissi: Ο βαθύς ποταμός. (O vathís potamós.) |
| Michael: In this next sentence, which means "The deep lake," you can hear an example of the feminine ending of the adjective. |
| Chrissi: Η βαθιά λίμνη. ( I vathiá límni.) |
| Michael: The adjective in this sentence was the feminine: |
| Chrissi: βαθιά (vathiá) |
| Michael: And last, but not least, the neuter ending is illustrated by this sentence, meaning "The deep water well." |
| Chrissi: Το βαθύ πηγάδι. (To vathí pigádi.) |
| Michael: This time the adjective was: |
| Chrissi: βαθύ (vathí). |
| Michael: OK, here you have it. These are only some of the most common adjective groups that you will encounter in Greek. Knowing these will help you take a big step forward in your ability to use and understand Greek. |
| 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 "I want a new car?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα καινούριο αυτοκίνητο. (Thélo éna kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "Me too. I want a red car?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Κι εγώ. Θέλω ένα κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο. (Ki egó. Thélo éna kókino aftokínito.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Chrissi: Κι εγώ. Θέλω ένα κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο. (Ki egó. Thélo éna kókino aftokínito.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Chrissi: Κι εγώ. Θέλω ένα κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο. (Ki egó. Thélo éna kókino aftokínito.) |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: An important point to remember is that there is no way to deduce, from the meaning of a noun, what the gender of that noun is. Some learners of Greek find this quite frustrating. A noun like "wall," for instance," is masculine in Greek: |
| Chrissi: τοίχος (tíhos) |
| Michael: and a noun like "door" is feminine |
| Chrissi: πόρτα (pórta) |
| Michael: while a noun like "floor" is neuter: |
| Chrissi: πάτωμα (pátoma) |
| Michael: There is no way to tell, from these nouns, why they are masculine, feminine, or neuter. You will simply have to learn their meaning along with their gender. Also, keep in mind that the word "gender" in the context of Greek grammar does not carry the same emotive, semantic value as it does when referring to the gender of a person or other creature. Greek people do not think of a wall as masculine just because the grammatical gender of the noun is masculine. It is a purely grammatical attribute. |
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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