Learn about contract verbs in modern Greek
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 10, Booking a Hotel Room on a Famous Greek Island. I’m Brandon. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use contract verbs in modern Greek. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place on the phone at the house where Erato and Natalia live. It's between Erato and a hotel employee. |
| Brandon: The characters don't know each other, so they'll be using formal Greek. OK, let's listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Υπάλληλος: Hotel Γαλήνη... |
| Ερατώ: Ναι, μ' ακούτε; Θα ήθελα να κάνω μια κράτηση, σας παρακαλώ. |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. Για πόσα άτομα; |
| Ερατώ: Για τρία. Χρειαζόμαστε ένα δίκλινο δωμάτιο με ξεχωριστά κρεβάτια, και ένα μονόκλινο. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Για πότε ακριβώς; |
| Ερατώ: Λέγαμε για την επόμενη Παρασκευή το απόγευμα, μέχρι και την Κυριακή το μεσημέρι. Δηλαδή για δύο βραδιές. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μια στιγμή δώστε μου... Ναι, υπάρχουν διαθέσιμα δωμάτια. Το όνομά σας, παρακαλώ; |
| Ερατώ: Γεωργίου Ερατώ. Να σας ρωτήσω και κάτι άλλο; Μπορούμε να πληρώσουμε με μετρητά κατά την άφιξη; |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Υπάλληλος: Hotel Γαλήνη... |
| Ερατώ: Ναι, μ' ακούτε; Θα ήθελα να κάνω μια κράτηση, σας παρακαλώ. |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. Για πόσα άτομα; |
| Ερατώ: Για τρία. Χρειαζόμαστε ένα δίκλινο δωμάτιο με ξεχωριστά κρεβάτια, και ένα μονόκλινο. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Για πότε ακριβώς; |
| Ερατώ: Λέγαμε για την επόμενη Παρασκευή το απόγευμα, μέχρι και την Κυριακή το μεσημέρι. Δηλαδή για δύο βραδιές. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μια στιγμή δώστε μου... Ναι, υπάρχουν διαθέσιμα δωμάτια. Το όνομά σας, παρακαλώ; |
| Ερατώ: Γεωργίου Ερατώ. Να σας ρωτήσω και κάτι άλλο; Μπορούμε να πληρώσουμε με μετρητά κατά την άφιξη; |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Υπάλληλος: Hotel Γαλήνη... |
| Brandon: Galini Hotel... |
| Ερατώ: Ναι, μ' ακούτε; Θα ήθελα να κάνω μια κράτηση, σας παρακαλώ. |
| Brandon: Yes, can you hear me? I would like to make a reservation, please. |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. Για πόσα άτομα; |
| Brandon: Certainly. For how many people? |
| Ερατώ: Για τρία. Χρειαζόμαστε ένα δίκλινο δωμάτιο με ξεχωριστά κρεβάτια, και ένα μονόκλινο. |
| Brandon: For three. We need a double room with twin beds and a single. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μάλιστα. Για πότε ακριβώς; |
| Brandon: Yes. For when exactly? |
| Ερατώ: Λέγαμε για την επόμενη Παρασκευή το απόγευμα, μέχρι και την Κυριακή το μεσημέρι. Δηλαδή για δύο βραδιές. |
| Brandon: We were thinking for next Friday afternoon, till Sunday noon. So for two nights. |
| Υπάλληλος: Μια στιγμή δώστε μου... Ναι, υπάρχουν διαθέσιμα δωμάτια. Το όνομά σας, παρακαλώ; |
| Brandon: Just give me a minute... Yes, there are rooms available. What's your name, please? |
| Ερατώ: Γεωργίου Ερατώ. Να σας ρωτήσω και κάτι άλλο; Μπορούμε να πληρώσουμε με μετρητά κατά την άφιξη; |
| Brandon: Georgiou Erato. Can I ask you something else? Can we pay by cash upon arrival? |
| Υπάλληλος: Βεβαίως. |
| Brandon: Certainly. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Stefania, is it common to be able to pay at a Greek hotel when you arrive? |
| Stefania: Well, for most hotels you need to book through the internet and use a credit card, but there are many small family businesses that don’t have those services. These types of hotels are mostly popular among Greeks. |
| Brandon: So how do you find those kinds of places? |
| Stefania: In busy destinations there will always be people holding signs that say "rooms to let" in English outside of bus stations or where ferries disembark. You can find these kinds of places by asking the locals when you arrive somewhere. |
| Brandon: That sounds risky! |
| Stefania: I know, but the deals are usually good. Greeks don't like to pay a lot for accommodation because all we need is a simple and clean room to sleep in. |
| Brandon: So what about boutique hotels and resorts? |
| Stefania: They’re mostly for tourists or for people who can afford that kind of luxury. |
| Brandon: Those are some good tips. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| Vocab list |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Stefania: γαλήνη [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: serenity |
| Stefania: γαλήνη [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: γαλήνη [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: κάνω κράτηση [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to reserve, to book |
| Stefania: κάνω κράτηση [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κάνω κράτηση [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: χρειάζομαι [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to need, to require |
| Stefania: χρειάζομαι [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: χρειάζομαι [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: δίκλινος [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: twin room |
| Stefania: δίκλινος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δίκλινος [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: ξεχωριστός [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: separate, special, different, distinct, stand-alone |
| Stefania: ξεχωριστός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ξεχωριστός [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: μονόκλινος [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: single room |
| Stefania: μονόκλινος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: μονόκλινος [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: δηλαδή [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: that is to say, in other words, to wit, so |
| Stefania: δηλαδή [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δηλαδή [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: στιγμή [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: moment, instant, point, dot |
| Stefania: στιγμή [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: στιγμή [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Stefania: διαθέσιμος [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: available |
| Stefania: διαθέσιμος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: διαθέσιμος [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| Stefania: άφιξη [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: arrival |
| Stefania: άφιξη [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: άφιξη [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Stefania: In the dialogue we saw the adjectives "δίκλινος" and "μονόκλινος" which referred to the word "δωμάτιο," meaning "room". |
| Brandon: So they mean "twin room" and "single room". |
| Stefania: Yes. In Greek you can also use them as stand-alone neuter nouns, so το δίκλινο, το μονόκλινο. In this case, you don't need the noun "room" next to them because their etymology carries the concept of "room". |
| Brandon: OK. What's next? |
| Stefania: Next we have "δηλαδή," which we don't inflect, and it means "that is to say" or "to wit". |
| Brandon: So you use it when you want to explain something in more detail. |
| Stefania: Exactly. Sometimes we translate it as "so" when it's placed in a new sentence, like in our dialogue. We also translate it as “so” when it’s used in a question where the speaker wants to ask for more details. |
| Brandon: For example? |
| Stefania: "Δηλαδή τι θέλεις να πεις;" |
| Brandon: Which means "So what are you trying to say?" |
| Stefania: Also, if δηλαδή is used before ότι, meaning "that," we don't translate it. For example: "Tους είπε ένα μικρό ψέμα, ότι δηλαδή αυτός ήταν που τους ειδοποίησε." |
| Brandon: Which in English means, "She told them a small lie, that he was the one that notified them." |
| Stefania: Exactly. Last we have the feminine noun στιγμή, whose meaning always depends on the context. It can refer to three different things. Firstly, a short moment in time in general. |
| Brandon: Secondly, it can mean the small dot to the right of a notehead in a piece of music, that lengthens the note's duration by half. And thirdly, it can mean the size of letters as points in typography. |
| Stefania: When you talk about time, you can translate it as "moment," "second," or "instant". |
| Brandon: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use contract verbs in modern Greek. These are verbs that have some of their forms shortened. This happens only to some of the verbs whose stem character is a vowel sound. |
| Stefania: So in modern Greek, there are some verbs that get contracted. This happens because of syncope, a process where one of two vowel sounds next to each other gets lost. These verbs are called "ιδιόκλιτα ρήματα" these days, which means that their conjugation is peculiar. |
| Brandon: So they are irregular, in a way? |
| Stefania: That’s right. Let's take the verb "ακούω," which means "to listen / to hear." |
| Brandon: Its full conjugation is in our lesson notes, so be sure to check them, listeners. Looking at verb endings carefully, you can see that contraction only occurs in specific places. It occurs in the active voice of the 2nd person singular, as well as all the plurals of the present and future progressive tense of the indicative. |
| Stefania: It also occurs in the present subjunctive, and in the present imperative of some verbs. |
| Brandon: So what are the vowels that get lost here? |
| Stefania: In the indicative and subjunctive, the singular form "ακού-εις" lost the "ει" and became "ακούς." In plural we lost the "ου" and "ε" from the endings and we have the forms: ακούμε, ακούτε, ακούν(ε). |
| Brandon: What about the present tense imperative? |
| Stefania: In that case, we lost the "ε" from the endings, so we have άκου and ακούτε. |
| Brandon: What about that extra consonant in the past progressive? |
| Stefania: You add an extra γ between the stem and the ending in the past progressive, and also whenever an -ε follows the character vowel. |
| Brandon: So usually in the imperative, you add it to conserve both vowels, AND to avoid having two adjacent vowels in different syllables, which would create dissonance. |
| Stefania: This dissonance is called "hiatus" in grammar. |
| Brandon: It happens when two vowel sounds occur in adjacent syllables, with no consonant in between. |
| Stefania: Finally, we also have verbs that get contracted because somewhere along the way they lost the character γ from their stem. |
| Brandon: This resulted in their stem ending in a vowel. |
| Stefania: These are λέ(γ)ω meaning "to say", τρώ(γ)ω meaning "to eat", φυλά(γ)ω meaning "to save/keep/guard", and πάω meaning "to go". |
| Brandon: Listeners, we have conjugated "léo" for you in the lesson notes, so make sure to check that one too. |
| Stefania: You will see lots of irregularities in contract verbs, but like we said at the beginning... |
| Brandon: … contract verbs are irregular in a way. So you just have to learn them the way they are. |
| Stefania: Exactly! |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson, everyone! Make sure to check the lesson notes, and if you have any questions or comments, leave us a message at GreekPod101.com. |
| Stefania: We’re happy to help! |
| Brandon: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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