Learn homonyms and paronyms
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 14, A Job Well Done in Greece. I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about homonyms and paronyms in Greek. The conversation takes place at the office of the daily Greek newspaper. |
| Stefania: It is between the senior editor Kostas Giannoulatos and his supervisor Dionysis Ioakimidis. |
| Becky: The characters know each other well, but since there is a difference in their status in the company, the conversation contains both formal and informal Greek. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Διονύσης:Λοιπόν, έχουμε τελειώσει με το αυριανό φύλλο; |
| Κώστας:Ναι, το κλείσαμε πριν από μισή ώρα. Μόλις πείτε το ΟΚ, φεύγει για το τυπογραφείο. |
| Διονύσης:Του έριξα μια ματιά. Πρόσεξα κάτι ψιλά λαθάκια και τα επεσήμανα στη διόρθωση. |
| Κώστας:Ωραία. Οπότε μπορώ να το στείλω; |
| Διονύσης:Ναι. Η στήλη με τα πολιτικά βγήκε πολύ καλή σήμερα. |
| Κώστας:Ναι, την είδα το πρωί. Καταγράφει πολύ καλά τις διαφορές μεταξύ των υποψηφίων. |
| Διονύσης:Ακριβώς! Και κανείς δεν μπορεί να πει ότι παίρνουμε θέση υπέρ του δημάρχου. |
| Κώστας:Μα ο κόσμος έτσι κι αλλιώς ξέρει ότι τον υποστηρίζουμε. |
| Διονύσης:Υποστηρίζουμε κάποιες θέσεις του, όχι οτιδήποτε λέει. Με ενδιαφέρει αυτό να είναι ξεκάθαρο! |
| Κώστας:Είναι, νομίζω. |
| Διονύσης:Ωραία. Οπότε είμαστε εντάξει και για σήμερα. Καλά πήγαμε. |
| Κώστας:Πράγματι! Κατεβαίνω στο τυπογραφείο για να το στείλω και ξαναμιλάμε πριν φύγετε. |
| Dionysis: So, are we done with tomorrow's paper? |
| Kostas: Yes, we wrapped it up half an hour ago. As soon as you say it's OK, it will go to the printing press. |
| Dionysis: I went through it. I noticed a few minor errors and pointed them out during proofing. |
| Kostas: Nice. So, can Ι send it? |
| Dionysis: Yes. Today's politics column turned out to be very good. |
| Kostas: Yes, I saw it in the morning. It lists the differences between the candidates very well. |
| Dionysis: Exactly! And no one can say that our position is in favor of the mayor. |
| Kostas: But the people know that we support him already. |
| Dionysis: We support some of his views, not everything he says. I want this to be clear! |
| Kostas: It is, I think. |
| Dionysis: Nice. So we are OK for today, too. We did well. |
| Kostas: Indeed. I'll go down to send it to the printing room, and we'll talk again before you leave. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: I see we took a peek behind the scenes in the Greek media! |
| Stefania: Well, politics and media are very tightly connected. |
| Becky: Is that the case in Greece too? |
| Stefania: I would have to say yes. But isn’t it everywhere? |
| Becky: You’re right. So depending what newspaper you read, you get a different perspective, right? |
| Stefania: Yes. Sometimes the information you get might be a little bit different from reality. The media tends to over exaggerate things sometimes and present it in a more dramatic way. |
| Becky: So what can I do if I’m in Greece and I want to know what’s going on? |
| Stefania: Read more than one newspaper. You can also watch many TV channels too. So you can get a more rounded opinion. |
| Becky: I see. And this will help? |
| Stefania: Either that or you will just stop following the news. Many Greeks do that actually! |
| Becky: I see. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: φύλλο [natural native speed] |
| Becky: leaf, sheet, newspaper |
| Stefania: φύλλο [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: φύλλο [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ψιλός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: thin, minor, fine |
| Stefania: ψιλός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ψιλός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: λαθάκι [natural native speed] |
| Becky: minor error |
| Stefania: λαθάκι [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: λαθάκι [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: επισημαίνω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to point out |
| Stefania: επισημαίνω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: επισημαίνω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: στήλη [natural native speed] |
| Becky: column |
| Stefania: στήλη [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: στήλη [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: διαφορά [natural native speed] |
| Becky: difference |
| Stefania: διαφορά [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: διαφορά [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: υποψήφιος [natural native speed] |
| Becky: candidate |
| Stefania: υποψήφιος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: υποψήφιος [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: υποστηρίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to support |
| Stefania: υποστηρίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: υποστηρίζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: νομίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to think, to be of the opinion that, to reckon |
| Stefania: νομίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: νομίζω [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s the first word? |
| Stefania: “υποψήφιος” meaning “candidate”. |
| Becky: And this is a noun, right? |
| Stefania: Actually it can be a noun and an adjective. Depends on how we use it. In our dialogue, we use it as a noun. |
| Becky: Really? Does that happen a lot in Greek? |
| Stefania: Yes, it does. Not with all adjectives of course! |
| Becky: Can we have an example of it used as an adjective? |
| Stefania: Yes. In our sample sentence we have “Οι υποψήφιες κοπέλες για τον τίτλο «Μις Κόσμος» είναι δέκα.” |
| Becky: Meaning? |
| Stefania: “The candidate girls for the title of “Miss World” are ten”. |
| Becky: And as a noun? |
| Stefania: The sentence from our dialogue: “Καταγράφει πολύ καλά τις διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο υποψηφίων.” |
| Becky: Wow! A long one. And this means “It lists the differences between the two candidates very well.”, right? |
| Stefania: Yes. You see, in this one, we just say “των δύο υποψηφίων” and nothing else follows, but in the sample sentence we have “Οι υποψήφιες κοπέλες”, so “υποψήφιες” is the adjective of the noun “κοπέλες” that follows. |
| Becky: Got it! Next is… |
| Stefania: The verb “υποστηρίζω” |
| Becky: Meaning to “support” |
| Stefania: Yes. It is a compound word. Its base originates from the verb “στηρίζω” which also means “to support” or to “prop something up”. The verb “στηρίζω” is used more often in its literal sense, while “υποστηρίζω” is more often used in a metaphorical way. |
| Becky: For example? |
| Stefania: “οι κολώνες στηρίζουν τη στέγη” meaning “the columns are holding up the roof”. |
| Becky: Here you can see the literal sense. A more metaphorical example is our sample sentence… |
| Stefania: “Υποστηρίζουμε την ομάδα της πόλης μας”. |
| Becky: “We support our city’s team”. However there are also cases where the two verbs are interchangeable. |
| Stefania: For example “Οι γονείς μου με στηρίζουν οικονομικά” meaning “My parents support me financially”. |
| Becky: OK. One more? |
| Stefania: The verb “νομίζω”. |
| Becky: Which means, “I think”. |
| Stefania: Sort of. It is used to express an opinion or an estimation such as “I reckon”. |
| Becky: So it is not like “I will think about this and let you know”. |
| Stefania: No! That would be “σκέφτομαι”. |
| Becky: OK. Now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about homonyms and paronyms. |
| Stefania: Yes. By the way, these are Greek words too, you know. |
| Becky: Really? What do they mean? |
| Stefania: “Homonyms” are words that sound exactly the same, but have different meanings |
| Becky: Like the number “eight” and the verb “ate” in English? |
| Stefania: Exactly! Homonyms in Greek are words that happen to be spelled exactly the same but have a different meaning. |
| Becky: And what are paronyms? |
| Stefania: “Paronyms” are words that sound very similar and also have different meanings. |
| Becky: An English example would perhaps be “adopt” and “adapt”, right? |
| Stefania: Yes! |
| Becky: Are these phenomena frequently found in Greek? |
| Stefania: Yes. |
| Becky: Oh, we also need to mention that words that look exactly the same, but have their accent marks on different syllables are also considered paronyms and not homonyms. This sounds a bit confusing! Can we have an example? |
| Stefania: Certainly. The word for good is “καλός”, OK? |
| Becky: OK. |
| Stefania: It is spelled with “όμικρον” at the end. However the word “κάλος” is also spelled the same, but it means “callus”. |
| Becky: I see. They definitely sound similar! |
| Stefania: Yes. |
| Becky: Can we find some homonyms and paronyms in our dialogue? |
| Stefania: Yes. Let’s take “ψιλά λαθάκια”. |
| Becky: Which means “minor errors”. |
| Stefania: Right. “ψιλά” here is spelled with “γιώτα” but if you say “ψηλά δέντρα”, meaning “tall trees”, you will notice that although this “ψηλά” sounds the same as the previous one, it is spelled with “ήτα”. |
| Becky: Are these words homonyms or paronyms? Let’s see if you have been paying attention! So we have “psilá” and “psilá”... they sound exactly the same to me, but are written with different “i” (ee)... so they are homonyms right? |
| Stefania: Exactly! So, as you can see in written Greek, the correct spelling is very important in order to give the right message. “ψιλά” with “γιώτα”, apart from “minor”, a rather idiomatic translation, can also mean “thin”. So if you mistakenly write “ψιλά δέντρα” with “γιώτα”, people would think you are saying “thin trees” and not “tall trees”. |
| Becky: I see. So listeners, always mind your spelling! |
| Stefania: Yes, please! |
| Becky: OK. Now, how about some paronyms? |
| Stefania: In our dialogue, one of the sentences goes like this: “Κανείς δεν μπορεί να πει”. |
| Becky: Yes, which means “No one can say”. |
| Stefania: Right. Let’s keep that “Κανείς” in mind and let’s consider the phrase “Τι κάνεις;” which means “how are you?” or “What are you doing?” |
| Becky: Oh, I see what is going on here! They sound kinda similar. It’s just the accented syllable that changes. |
| Stefania: Yes! That’s it! So we have “κανείς” and “κάνεις”. Spelled exactly the same, but since they sound similar, they are paronyms. |
| Becky: Now listeners, we have all of these examples in our lesson notes, and we have also included a few more examples for you to go over to get this mastered! |
| Becky: So listeners, please download them and read them! Is there any other way to help our listeners learn homonyms and paronyms? |
| Stefania: It’s not really a matter of studying lists with homonyms and paronyms. I’d say that it comes with time and by visually learning how words are spelled correctly. Just learning how words sound is half the job and might lead to confusion, like in the case of “ψιλά λαθάκια” and “ψηλά δέντρα” that we just saw. The context is also a great help. That is my tip. |
| Becky: Can you always tell the meaning of words that remind you of similar sounding ones from the context too? |
| Stefania: Yes, for example, if you hear the word “στήλη”, just that sound, can either mean “column” or it can be the 3rd person singular of the verb “to send” in the future tense. So you need some more information to figure out what the sound “στήλη” is. And context will always give you the clues you need! |
| Becky: I see. So, always look for context! |
| Stefania: Exactly! |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Well, that’s it for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and see you next time. |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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