Learn useful words and phrases for beginners
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| Hi! |
| Welcome to Introduction to Greek. |
| My name is Alisha and I'm joined by... |
| Hi everyone! I'm Chrissi |
| In this lesson, we'll focus on teaching you the most useful Greek words and phrases for absolute beginners! |
| Make sure you're repeating the words out loud after I say the examples! |
| Are you ready? Let's get started! |
| Expressing Thanks and Forgiveness |
| The best phrase to learn when studying a new language is one that expresses gratitude and appreciation. If you had to learn only a single phrase, this would be it! |
| We taught you this phrase in the very first lesson. Do you remember what it was? |
| Ευχαριστώ. |
| (Efharistó.) |
| It means "Thank you." |
| Keep repeating after Chrissi until you get it! |
| Ευχαριστώ. |
| Your turn! |
| Ευχαριστώ. |
| Ευχαριστώ. |
| Do you remember this mark here? We talked about it in lesson 2. It's the accent mark, and it indicates that this syllable is stressed. A stressed syllable is pronounced slightly longer and at a higher pitch than the rest of the syllables in a word. Listen again to how Chrissi is pronouncing this word and repeat. |
| Ευχαριστώ. |
| OK. The next phrase we'll teach you is perhaps the second most useful of all phrases. It's to apologize or to excuse yourself. |
| We taught you this phrase in lesson 2, do you remember what it was? |
| Συγγνώμη. |
| (Signómi.) |
| And it means "Excuse me," or "I'm sorry." |
| Use this phrase when you want to grab a waiter's attention, or when you're hustling through the busy streets of Athens! |
| Συγγνώμη. |
| Your turn! |
| Συγγνώμη. |
| Imagine you're on the street, and you want to stop someone to ask them for directions. What do you say? |
| Συγγνώμη. |
| OK. One last time... |
| Συγγνώμη. |
| Now you can say "thank you," "excuse me," and "I'm sorry" in Greek. Let's move on. |
| Where is...? |
| Asking where something is is an incredibly important and useful phrase to learn. You're going to need this when asking where the toilet, the metro station, or where the hotel is. |
| To ask where something is, you need to add an article in one of the three genders plus the name of the place or location after this phrase here: |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| (Pú íne...?) |
| “Where is…?” |
| For example, you want to ask "Where is the toilet?" You need to use the feminine article because the word "toilet," which the article defines, is feminine in Greek. |
| Πού είναι η τουαλέτα; |
| (Pú íne i tualéta?) |
| “Where is the toilet?” |
| When you first start learning Greek, don't worry too much about mixing up the gender of articles. This is something you learn with time and a lot of study. Plus, Greeks will understand your question well enough no matter what. |
| Next, for the metro station, it'll be... |
| Πού είναι ο σταθμός του μετρό; |
| (Pú íne o stathmós tu metró?) |
| “Where is the metro station?” |
| And so on. |
| You can ask where something is by simply starting with... |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| (Pú íne...?) |
| Πού means "where." είναι translates to "is." Remember that what looks like an English semicolon is actually a question mark in Greek. |
| Altogether, it's... |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| Your turn! |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| OK. Now let's teach you some vocabulary so that you can use it in the sentence. |
| Here are some of the most common words you'll need to learn alongside their articles: |
| η τουαλέτα |
| (i tualéta) |
| "the toilet" |
| Πού είναι η τουαλέτα; |
| (Pú íne i tualéta?) |
| “Where is the toilet?” |
| Next... |
| ο σταθμός του μετρό |
| (o stathmós tu metró) |
| "the metro station" |
| Πού είναι ο σταθμός του μετρό; |
| (Pú íne o stathmós tu metró?) |
| “Where is the metro station?” |
| If you ask someone this question, they'll direct you to the closest metro station. |
| If you'd like to ask where a specific metro station is, like the Acropolis metro station for example, simply place the station name after "metro station." |
| ο σταθμός του μετρό |
| ο σταθμός του μετρό «Ακρόπολη» |
| Πού είναι ο σταθμός του μετρό «Ακρόπολη»; |
| (o stathmós tu metró) |
| (o stathmós tu metró "Akrópoli") |
| (Pú íne o stathmós tu metró "Akrópoli"?) |
| “the metro station” |
| “the Acropolis metro station” |
| “Where is the Acropolis metro station?” |
| Next... |
| το ξενοδοχείο |
| (to xenodohío) |
| "the hotel" |
| Πού είναι το ξενοδοχείο; |
| (Pú íne to xenodohío?) |
| “Where is the hotel?” |
| For a specific hotel, do the same thing as a metro station. Just place the name after "hotel." |
| το ξενοδοχείο |
| το ξενοδοχείο «Χίλτον» |
| Πού είναι το ξενοδοχείο «Χίλτον»; |
| (to xenodohío) |
| (to xenodohío "Hílton") |
| (Pú íne to xenodohío "Hílton"?) |
| “the hotel” |
| “the Hilton hotel” |
| “Where is the Hilton hotel?” |
| Next... |
| το σουπερμάρκετ |
| (to supermárket) |
| "the supermarket" |
| Πού είναι το σουπερμάρκετ; |
| (Pú íne to supermárket?) |
| “Where is the the supermarket?” |
| You can substitute almost anything and simply put... |
| Πού είναι... ; |
| (Pú íne...?) |
| at the beginning of your sentence to ask where something is in Greek. |
| In this final lesson, you learned how to say "thank you," "excuse me," "I'm sorry," and how to ask where something is in Greek. |
| And in this series, we introduced you to the basics of Greek pronunciation, grammar, writing, and more. |
| Let's conclude with some parting advice from Chrissi, and listen to some of her tips on how to learn Greek from a native Greek perspective. |
| Parting Advice - Insider Knowledge |
| First of all, if you want to improve your pronunciation and communication skills, try not to fit all Greek sounds into those of the English alphabet. One effective way to initially master Greek pronunciation is to watch and study contemporary Greek videos. That's because we often use expressions and hand gestures in daily conversations that aren't necessarily introduced in grammar text books. |
| Secondly, don't rely on romanization too much. The biggest mistake that I often see is learners using English letters instead of the Greek alphabet. Although romanization is helpful, it might not represent the exact sounds of Greek, since for some consonant sounds we only have a rough equivalent in English. |
| One such example is the word γάτα, meaning "cat." This is usually romanized with an initial "g" letter (gáta), but it's not pronounced γκάτα. The first consonant is softer. Γάτα. |
| Watching contemporary videos, such as our videos here at GreekPod101, will ensure that you're learning real, applicable Greek in the fastest and most effective way. |
| You've reached the end of this course “Introduction to Greek.” But it's only the beginning of your journey to Greek fluency! Where do you go from here? Try our Innovative Greek series where we teach you beginner vocab and even more useful phrases! Or check out any of our other video series. We have many different categories for you to choose from. |
| Good luck as you continue learning Greek, and I'll see you in another video! Bye! |
| Γεια χαρά! |
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