Learn how to use Greek adjective derivatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 11, A Greek Human Story. I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about word formation in Greek, with a focus on adjective derivatives. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place at the office of the daily newspaper. It is between Antonia and the politics editor Eleni Kalogirou. |
| Becky: The characters know each other well, so they’ll be using informal Greek. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Ελένη: Χαμογελαστή σε βλέπω! Πώς πήγε; |
| Αντωνία: Καλά! Ο Βασίλης τράβηξε κάτι συμπαθητικές φωτογραφίες, μιλήσαμε με τον κοσμηματοπώλη και με κάτι περαστικούς γείτονες... καταλάβαμε τι έγινε. Νομίζω ότι θα βγει καλό! |
| Ελένη: Ωραία. Αλλά μην ξεχνάς ότι δεν πρέπει να είναι γεμάτο απόψεις. Χρειάζεσαι στοιχεία! |
| Αντωνία: 'Ομως είναι πιο ανθρώπινο αν ακούγονται και οι απόψεις του κόσμου. |
| Ελένη: Υπάρχει όμως και το αφεντικό, που θέλει λίγο πιο αποστασιοποιημένο γράψιμο. |
| Αντωνία: Η αιώνια διαφωνία... Όμως τώρα δεν έχουμε και πολλά στοιχεία έτσι κι αλλιώς. 'Ο,τι είχαμε, τα βάλαμε στο σημερινό φύλλο. |
| Ελένη: Ίσως το αυριανό μπορεί να ασχολείται λίγο περισσότερο με τους ανθρώπους. Πιο κοντινό σε κομμάτι περιοδικού. |
| Αντωνία: Και μην ξεχνάς ότι είναι και οικογενειακή επιχείρηση το μαγαζί, οπότε είναι πιο ταιριαστό έτσι, νομίζω. |
| Ελένη: ΟΚ. Ξεκίνα το! Αλλά αν χρειαστεί να το ξαναγράψεις, θα είναι διπλός κόπος! |
| Αντωνία: Δεν βαριέσαι... θα υποστώ τις συνέπειες σιωπηλή! |
| Ελένη: Το υπόσχεσαι; |
| Eleni: I see you're smiling! How did it go? |
| Antonia: Good! Vasilis took some nice pictures, we spoke to the jeweler and with some neighbors passing by... we figured out what happened. I think it will turn out well. |
| Eleni: Nice. But don't forget that it shouldn't be full of opinions. You need facts! |
| Antonia: But it becomes more human if people's opinions are heard. |
| Eleni: But there is also the boss, who wants a more detached writing style. |
| Antonia: The eternal debate... But now we don't have a lot of facts anyways. What we had, we put in today's paper. |
| Eleni: Μaybe tomorrow's paper can deal a bit more with the people. Closer to a magazine article. |
| Antonia: And don't forget this is a family business, so it is best suited like that, I think. |
| Eleni: OK. Go ahead! But in case you need to rewrite it, it will be double the work. |
| Antonia: Whatever... I'll bear the consequences in silence! |
| Eleni: Promise? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Somewhere in our dialogue magazines were mentioned. Do Greeks like magazines? |
| Stefania: They love them actually! |
| Becky: Really? What kinds are popular? |
| Stefania: All kinds. Maybe the weekly “news magazine” format hasn’t really caught up in Greece but other than that, people read lots of magazines. |
| Becky: That’s interesting. But don’t people use the Internet for that? |
| Stefania: Not really. Most Greek magazines aren’t on the Internet. |
| Becky: I see. What about online-only magazines? |
| Stefania: There are a few. It is a rising trend. Actually, you can find some very good news magazines online. |
| Becky: OK. I’ll check them out! |
| Stefania: And entertainment aside, it’s a great way to improve your Greek. |
| Becky: That’s a good tip for our listeners too! |
| Stefania: Certainly! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: χαμογελαστός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: smiling |
| Stefania: χαμογελαστός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: χαμογελαστός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: στοιχείο [natural native speed] |
| Becky: element, fact |
| Stefania: στοιχείο [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: στοιχείο [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ανθρώπινος [natural native speed] |
| Becky: human |
| Stefania: ανθρώπινος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ανθρώπινος [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: συμπαθητικός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: nice/likable/sympathetic |
| Stefania: συμπαθητικός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: συμπαθητικός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: περαστικός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: a person passing by |
| Stefania: περαστικός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: περαστικός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: αποστασιοποιημένος [natural native speed] |
| Becky: detached |
| Stefania: αποστασιοποιημένος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: αποστασιοποιημένος [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: σημερινός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: today’s/of today |
| Stefania: σημερινός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: σημερινός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: αυριανός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: tomorrow’s/of tomorrow |
| Stefania: αυριανός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: αυριανός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: κοντινός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: close, near |
| Stefania: κοντινός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κοντινός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ταιριαστός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: appropriate/ fitting/matching |
| Stefania: ταιριαστός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ταιριαστός [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Stefania: First, let’s see a sample sentence. “Ο γείτονάς μου είναι πολύ συμπαθητικός άνθρωπος.” |
| Becky: It means “My neighbor is a very nice person.” |
| Stefania: Here, we have translated “άνθρωπος” as “person” Now, the proper Greek word for “person” is “άτομο” which is incidentally also the proper Greek word for… “atom”! |
| Becky: Now, the real meaning of this word is “human”, but in this case, it wouldn’t fit nicely in the translation. The other option would be to use the word “man” but then we would have a small problem. |
| Stefania: You see, in Greek “άνθρωπος” can also be used for females, so using “man” as in English would not always quite fit. And that is why we translated “άνθρωπος” as “person”. |
| Becky: Got it! What’s next? |
| Stefania: One of our sample sentences is “Ένας περαστικός γύρισε και με κοίταξε.” |
| Becky: Meaning “A man passing by turned around and looked at me”. |
| Stefania: Right. Now, in this sentence, the verb “γυρίζω” literally means “turn around” or simply “turn”. |
| Becky: Is there also a different use of that verb? |
| Stefania: Yes, we can use “γυρίζω” metaphorically. |
| Becky: Yes, in situations when we are describing a dialogue we had with another person to someone. This is similar to the English expression: |
| “...and then he/she turned around and said...” |
| Stefani In Greek that would be: “... και τότε γύρισε και είπε...”. |
| Becky: So, no actual turning there! Got it. Next? |
| Stefania: In the sample sentence “Ο Μάκης είναι κοντινός μου συγγενής.”... |
| English ...which means “Mákis is a close relative of mine”... |
| Stefania: ...we use the adjective “κοντινός” meaning literally something “close” or “near” in terms of space. The difference is that here we use it metaphorically, just like in English. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about adjective derivatives. |
| Stefania: Yes! And finish with suffixes! |
| Becky: So, what are “adjective derivatives”? |
| Stefania: As the name suggests, they are adjectives created by other words. Nouns, verbs, other adjectives and so on. |
| Becky: Are they created like the other derivatives? |
| Stefania: Yes: We combine a root word, or its stem, and add a suffix. |
| Becky: Does the suffix carry a particular significance? |
| Stefania: Yes. It usually means that the adjective has some relationship with the root word, or that it has the basic property of what the root word denotes. |
| Becky: Can we have some examples? |
| Stefania: Sure. The verb “smile” in Greek is “χαμογελάω” or “χαμογελώ”, right? |
| Becky: Right! |
| Stefania: So, by adding the suffix “-τός” to the stem “χαμογελασ-“ we get “χαμογελαστός”, which means “smiling”. |
| Becky: Hey! Hold on a moment! If the verb is “hamoyelá-o” why is the stem “hamoyelas-“? Where did that “s” come from? |
| Stefania: Nice catch! You see in many, but not all, adjectives that derive from verbs, we don’t use the stem of the present tense, but the stem of the aorist tense. |
| Becky: So we need to know the past tense of each verb. Hmm… |
| Stefania: Sure, but we have discussed verbs in other series of Greekpod101.com. Our listeners know about present tense and past tense! |
| Becky: So maybe this would be a good time to do a review! Remember: all the lesson notes are there! |
| Stefania: Indeed. But let’s get back to our adjective derivatives. |
| Becky: OK. How about another example. This time from a noun? |
| Stefania: In our dialogue, we have “oικογενειακός”. |
| Becky: This has something to do with family, right? |
| Stefania: Very good! Because “family” is “οικογένεια”. So, adding the suffix “-ιακός” to it, we get “oικογενειακός” which means “something or someone related with family”. For example, a family business. |
| Becky: And that would be? |
| Stefania: “οικογενειακή επιχείρηση”. Let’s repeat that: “οι-κο-γε-νεια-κή - ε-πι-χεί-ρη-ση” |
| Becky: Another example? |
| Stefania: Again from our dialogue: “σημερινός” and “αυριανός”. |
| Becky: That is “today’s” and “tomorrow’s” right? |
| Stefania: Yes. They come from the respective adverbs “σήμερα” meaning “today” and “αύριο” meaning “tomorrow”. Let’s repeat these too: “σή-με-ρα” and “ση-με-ρι-νός”, “αύ-ριο” and “αυ-ρια-νός”. |
| Becky: Good. So we can get adjective derivatives from all kinds of words. |
| Stefania: Right! And listeners can find more about them in our lesson notes. |
| Becky: Is there a table of all the various suffixes? |
| Stefania: Yes! And some more detailed examples as well. |
| Becky: So, we are done with suffixes! I think it’s a good time to do a review now - listeners, why not go back through the last few lessons to make sure you’ve got these down? |
Outro |
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| Becky: And that’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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