Learn about verb formation elements, specifically the stem, the character, and the ending of verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 2, There’s Nothing Greek Tea Can’t Cure! I’m Brandon. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, we'll focus on verb formation elements and specifically on the stem, the character, and the ending of verbs. |
| Stefania: This conversation takes place at the house where Erató and Natalía live, and the conversation is between the two of them. |
| Brandon: The characters are sisters, so they'll be using informal Greek. Let's listen to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Ερατώ (Καθαρίζει τη φωνή της) Νομίζω την κούρασα σήμερα τη φωνή μου στην πρόβα. |
| Ναταλία Θέλεις να σου φτιάξω ένα τσάι; |
| Ερατώ Ναι, ρε συ Ναταλία, νομίζω πρέπει να πιω κάτι ζεστό. Δεν θέλω να κλείσει η φωνή μου πριν από τη συναυλία. |
| Ναταλία Να σου φτιάξω από αυτό το καινούριο μαροκινό τσάι που πήρε η μαμά ή θες κάτι άλλο; |
| Ερατώ Μπα, φτιάξε μου καλύτερα τσάι του βουνού και βάλε και ένα κουταλάκι μέλι αν μπορείς, σε παρακαλώ. |
| Ναταλία Καλά, δώσε μου μόνο δύο λεπτά. Πρέπει να βάλω φαΐ στη γάτα πρώτα. |
| Ερατώ Να σου πω, τελικά βγήκε καλό το ντουέτο σου με τον Σάκη. |
| Ναταλία Νομίζεις; Για να είμαι ειλικρινής έχω λίγο τρακ. |
| Ερατώ Έλα τώρα! Μια χαρά θα τα πάτε! |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Ερατώ (Καθαρίζει τη φωνή της) Νομίζω την κούρασα σήμερα τη φωνή μου στην πρόβα. |
| Brandon: (Clears her voice) I think I strained my voice today at the rehearsal. |
| Ναταλία Θέλεις να σου φτιάξω ένα τσάι; |
| Brandon: Do you want me to make you tea? |
| Ερατώ Ναι, ρε συ Ναταλία, νομίζω πρέπει να πιω κάτι ζεστό. Δεν θέλω να κλείσει η φωνή μου πριν από τη συναυλία. |
| Brandon: Yes, Natalia, I think I have to drink something warm. I don't want to lose my voice before the concert. |
| Ναταλία Να σου φτιάξω από αυτό το καινούριο μαροκινό τσάι που πήρε η μαμά ή θες κάτι άλλο; |
| Brandon: Should I make you this new Moroccan tea that mom bought or do you want something else? |
| Ερατώ Μπα, φτιάξε μου καλύτερα τσάι του βουνού και βάλε και ένα κουταλάκι μέλι αν μπορείς, σε παρακαλώ. |
| Brandon: Nah, better make me some mountain tea and add a spoonful of honey if you can, please. |
| Ναταλία Καλά, δώσε μου μόνο δύο λεπτά. Πρέπει να βάλω φαΐ στη γάτα πρώτα. |
| Brandon: Okay, just give me two minutes. I need to put out some food for the cat first. |
| Ερατώ Να σου πω, τελικά βγήκε καλό το ντουέτο σου με τον Σάκη. |
| Brandon: You know what, your duet with Sakis turned out to be good in the end. |
| Ναταλία Νομίζεις; Για να είμαι ειλικρινής έχω λίγο τρακ. |
| Brandon: You think? To be honest I'm a bit nervous. |
| Ερατώ Έλα τώρα! Μια χαρά θα τα πάτε! |
| Brandon: Come on! You guys will do great! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Mmm, I bet Greek mountain tea tastes good! |
| Stefania: Oh, it does! It's very aromatic, not bitter at all, and it has many benefits for the body. |
| Brandon: And our character wants to drink it to soothe her voice? |
| Stefania: Yes. Greek mountain tea in combination with honey, another amazing natural ingredient, would do her good. |
| Brandon: I was at a Greek market once, and I was amazed with the variety of herbs available! |
| Stefania: It’s true, in Greece there is a large variety of herbs and people use them a lot – they even grow them on balconies and in their yards, because they make food tastier AND they have medicinal powers. We've gained a lot of knowledge about their properties from Hippocrates. |
| Brandon: The father of medicine! |
| Stefania: Exactly. |
| Brandon: 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: κουράζω [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to tire, to bore |
| Stefania: κουράζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κουράζω [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: πρόβα [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: rehearsal |
| Stefania: πρόβα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: πρόβα [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: κλείνω [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to close, to shut, to book, to dismiss a case in court |
| Stefania: κλείνω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κλείνω [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: συναυλία [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: concert, pleasant sounds coming from different sources |
| Stefania: συναυλία [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: συναυλία [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: μαροκινός [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Moroccan |
| Stefania: μαροκινός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: μαροκινός [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: τσάι του βουνού [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Greek mountain tea |
| Stefania: τσάι του βουνού [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: τσάι του βουνού [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: κουταλάκι [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: teaspoon, small spoon, small spoonful of |
| Stefania: κουταλάκι [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κουταλάκι [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: πρώτα [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: first, firstly, foremost, before |
| Stefania: πρώτα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: πρώτα [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Stefania: τρακ [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: stage fright, nervousness |
| Stefania: τρακ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: τρακ [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| Stefania: χαρά [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: joy |
| Stefania: χαρά [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: χαρά [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What do we have first? |
| Stefania: We have the verb "κουράζω", which means "to tire" or "to bore". |
| Brandon: So in other words, to cause fatigue? |
| Stefania: Yes. To myself or to others. And this fatigue could be mental as well. |
| Brandon: Can we have an example? |
| Stefania: Yes. Here’s a sample sentence, "Η ταινία αυτή μας κούρασε προς το τέλος." |
| Brandon: It means "This movie bored us towards the end." |
| Stefania: Now, our next word is "κουταλάκι". |
| Brandon: Doesn't that mean "small spoon"? |
| Stefania: Yes. It's a diminutive from the noun "κουτάλι", spoon. "κουταλάκι" means either "small spoon" or "teaspoon". |
| Brandon: Remember listeners, we've studied diminutives in our Lower Intermediate series, so you might want to review those too. |
| Stefania: There are two things I want to say about "κουταλάκι". First, when we put a word that refers to what's inside the spoon right after it, we translate this as "spoonful of". |
| Brandon: For example? |
| Stefania: "ένα κουταλάκι μέλι" means "a spoonful of honey". |
| Brandon: And what's the second thing? |
| Stefania: Sometimes Greeks say κουτάλι, "spoon," even when they refer to a teaspoon. If you're not sure, you can ask – "Της σούπας ή του γλυκού;", a rough translation of "A tablespoon or a teaspoon?" |
| Brandon: And what's our last word? |
| Stefania: "Χαρά", meaning “joy”. We use this word very often in idioms that don't get translated exactly or literally in English. For example, παιδική χαρά, means "playground" and not "children's joy" as the literal translation would be. |
| Brandon: Listeners, there are more examples with this word, in our lesson notes, so check them out. For now, let's move onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn about verb formation elements and specifically about the stem, the character, and the ending of verbs. |
| Stefania: "Zooming in" to the architecture of verbs will help you understand the conjugation rules better. We'll also see some terms that we'll be using often from now on. |
| Brandon: The first element we'll look at is the "stem". |
| Stefania: That's the part that never changes when we conjugate a verb. An example from the dialogue is, "κουράζ-ω, κουράζ-εις, κουράζ-ει…". |
| Brandon: "I tire, you tire, he tires…". |
| Stefania: "κουράζ-" is the stem and each verb has two stems that you need to remember - the present stem and the aorist stem. |
| Brandon: Why are these so important? |
| Stefania: Because if you know these two stems, you can form a verb correctly in all tenses. |
| Brandon: Now, THAT's a useful tip! |
| Stefania: Yup! The aorist stem, however, has two different versions – one for the active voice and one for the passive voice. But deponent verbs, which have only passive voice, obviously don't have an active voice aorist stem! |
| Brandon: Well, that makes sense! |
| Stefania: From the present stem we form the progressive tenses of both voices. |
| Brandon: So, the present, past progressive, and the future progressive tense? |
| Stefania: Yes. From the active voice aorist stem we form the active voice momentary tenses and infinitive which is used to form the perfective tenses. |
| Brandon: These are the perfect, past perfect, and the future perfect. The momentary tenses are the simple past, or aorist, and the simple future. |
| Stefania: From the passive voice aorist stem we form the same momentary tenses and infinitive, but for passive voice. |
| Brandon: Listeners, please review our lesson notes for some examples. |
| Stefania: Finally, the vowel or double-vowel combination that is in the syllable right before the ending is called a "stem vowel". |
| Brandon: OK. What's our second element? |
| Stefania: The "character", the last letter or double letter of the stem. In the case of "κουράζ-ω" the character is the letter "ζ" (Z). |
| Brandon: I guess there is a present character and an aorist character, right? |
| Stefania: Yes. And here too, the aorist character is different in active and in passive voice and deponent verbs have only passive voice aorist character. |
| Brandon: Ok, and what's our last element? |
| Stefania: The ending. That tricky part that always changes in a verb when we conjugate it. |
| Brandon: Well, that wasn't so hard! |
Outro |
| Brandon: And that’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Stefania: Listeners, can you understand Greek TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Brandon: How about friends and loved ones’ conversations in Greek? |
| Stefania: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Brandon: Line-by-line audio. |
| Stefania: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Greek fast! |
| Brandon: It’s simple really. |
| Stefania: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Brandon: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Greek. |
| Stefania: Rapidly understand natural Greek with this powerful tool. |
| Brandon: Find this feature on the lesson page in the Lesson Materials section at GreekPod101.com. |
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