Learn about word formation in Greek using an informal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 2, Living With Change in Greece. I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about word formation in Greek, specifically about root words and derivatives. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place at the office of the daily Greek newspaper. It’s between the main character Antonia, and the graphic designer Sofia Filippidou. |
| Becky: The two characters know each other well, so they’ll be using informal Greek. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Αντωνία: Καλημέρα Σοφία! |
| Σοφία: Καλημέρα Αντωνία! |
| Αντωνία: Μου είπε η Ελένη ότι έχεις το κομμάτι μου. |
| Σοφία: Ναι, το έστησα. Πήρα και τις φωτογραφίες από τον Βασίλη. Καλούτσικες ήταν. |
| Αντωνία: Μπορούμε να το δούμε λίγο; Αν δεν σου γίνομαι φόρτωμα. |
| Σοφία: Τι φόρτωμα καλέ; Βεβαίως να το δούμε! Δουλειά μου είναι! |
| Αντωνία: Ευχαριστώ! Κανονικά δεν θα στο ζήταγα, αλλά μου είπε η Ελένη ότι το αφεντικό έβαλε τον Γιάννη να το αλλάξει. |
| Σοφία: Πάλι; Χωρίς να σου πει τίποτα; |
| Αντωνία: Όχι βέβαια. |
| Σοφία: Δες το τυπωμένο. |
| Αντωνία: Ευχαριστώ. Πράγματι το έχει αλλάξει πολύ... |
| Σοφία: Καταλαβαίνω...είναι ενοχλητικό. |
| Αντωνία: Δεν είναι μόνο ενοχλητικό, είναι στενάχωρο... |
| Σοφία: Υπομονή... καινούρια είσαι ακόμα, οπότε αυτά συμβαίνουν. |
| Αντωνία: Ναι, το ξέρω. Αλλά... |
| Antonia: Good morning Sofia! |
| Sofia: Good morning Antonia! |
| Antonia: Eleni told me you have my article. |
| Sofia: Yes, I laid it out. I also took the pictures from Vasilis. They weren't bad. |
| Antonia: Can we have a look at it? If I'm not being a burden. |
| Sofia: Oh, come on! Of course, we can take a look at it! It's my job! |
| Antonia: Thank you! Normally I wouldn't ask you for that, but Eleni told me that the boss asked Giannis to change it. |
| Sofia: Again? Without telling you anything? |
| Antonia: Of course not. |
| Sofia: See the printed one. |
| Antonia: Thanks. He really has changed it a lot... |
| Sofia: I understand...it is annoying. |
| Antonia: It's not just annoying, it's sad... |
| Sofia: Patience...you're still new at this, so these things happen. |
| Antonia: Yeah, I know. But still... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Still at the newspaper, are we? |
| Stefania: Yes. But this time in a different office, where the paper is being laid out. |
| Becky: I see. And… |
| Stefania: And our main character, Antonia, tries to see how her editor has changed her article. |
| Becky: These things happen all the time, don’t they? |
| Stefania: Certainly. Especially with trainee reporters. It’s part of their training! |
| Becky: Newspaper editors in Greece are tough, huh? |
| Stefania: Not just in Greece I guess. Fortunately, the graphic designer Sofia, likes Antonia, and is more sympathetic to her. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: μπορώ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be able, can |
| Stefania: μπορώ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: μπορώ [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: βλέπω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to see |
| Stefania: βλέπω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: βλέπω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: φόρτωμα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: burden, loading |
| Stefania: φόρτωμα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: φόρτωμα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: αλλάζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to change |
| Stefania: αλλάζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: αλλάζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: τυπωμένος [natural native speed] |
| Becky: printed |
| Stefania: τυπωμένος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: τυπωμένος [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ενοχλητικός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: annoying |
| Stefania: ενοχλητικός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ενοχλητικός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: υπομονή [natural native speed] |
| Becky: patience |
| Stefania: υπομονή [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: υπομονή [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: στήνω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to set up, to lay out |
| Stefania: στήνω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: στήνω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: τίποτα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: nothing, anything |
| Stefania: τίποτα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: τίποτα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: καλούτσικος [natural native speed] |
| Becky: not bad, so so |
| Stefania: καλούτσικος [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: καλούτσικος [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: We have the noun “φόρτωμα”, which in our dialogue appears as “burden” in the expression “Αν δεν σου γίνομαι φόρτωμα.” |
| Becky: Meaning “If I’m not being a burden”? |
| Stefania: Right. In our sample sentence, though, it is translated as “loading”: “Το φόρτωμα του πλοίου τελείωσε”. |
| Becky: This means “The loading of the ship has finished”. |
| Stefania: Right. You see, the literal sense is “loading” while the “burden” rendering is a metaphor. The same happens with the verb for “load” which is “φορτώνω”. |
| Becky: Can we have an example? |
| Stefania: Yes. We say “φορτώνω το αυτοκίνητο” which means “I load the car” but we also say “του φορτώνω τα προβλήματά μου” which means “I burden him with my problems”. |
| Becky: I see. What’s next? |
| Stefania: In our sample sentence “Δεν θυμάμαι τίποτα.”, the word “τίποτα” is a non-declinable indefinite pronoun, which can either mean “anything” or “nothing”. So this particular sentence can be translated as “I don’t remember anything” or “I remember nothing”. |
| Becky: OK. Is there something special about this pronoun? |
| Stefania: Actually there is: in everyday conversation, this “τίποτα” can substitute “something”, especially in sentences where we make a casual suggestion. For example, we say “Πάμε να φάμε τίποτα;”, which literally translates as “Shall we go and eat something?” |
| Becky: Got it! Last? |
| Stefania: We have the noun “υπομονή”. It means “patience” and is used in the same way as in English. The main difference is that in Greek we use it with the verb “κάνω”, which means “to do”. So when we want to say “I’m being patient,” we say “κάνω υπομονή”. |
| Becky: I see. Okay, now it’s time to move onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about “derivative” words. These are the words that come from other words. |
| Stefania: So we have a basic word, which we call a “root” or an “origin”… |
| Becky: …and a derivative. What’s an example? |
| Stefania: Let’s take the word “work”. In Greek, it is “δουλειά”, which is a noun. |
| Becky: du-liá. Right! And this is a derivative? |
| Stefania: Yes! It comes from the verb “δουλεύω”, which means “to work” |
| Becky: So we have… |
| Stefania: “δουλεύω” and “δουλειά”. |
| Becky: I see. So the noun comes from the verb. |
| Stefania: Yes. But this isn’t always the case. For example, in the case of the noun “λάδι” meaning “oil” and the verb “λαδώνω” meaning “to oil”, it is the other way around. |
| Becky: So, in that case, the verb is derived from the noun? |
| Stefania: Yes. |
| Becky: Got it. Other examples? |
| Stefania: Oh, there are many –we will see them in the lessons that follow. This time we are just introducing the subject. |
| Becky: Is there a way to tell that a word is a derivative? |
| Stefania: Well, if a noun ends in “-ης”, “-ιστής”, “-ση”, “-σιμο”, “-μα”, “-ητό”, “-ειά”, “-άκι” there is a good chance it is a derivative. |
| Becky: Wow! They are so many! |
| Stefania: Actually, that’s not all of them! But like I said before, we will see them in more detail in the following lessons. |
| Becky: OK. There are a few derivatives in our dialogue in this lesson though, aren’t there? |
| Stefania: Yes, and we go into detail about them in the lesson notes, so be sure to check those out! |
| Becky: Of course! But can we see one or two of them now? |
| Stefania: Certainly. For example, we have “καλούτσικες ήταν”, which refers to the photographs. |
| Becky: This means “they weren't bad”, right? |
| Stefania: Right! And “καλούτσικος” is a very useful adjective for when you like something, but not so much. Repeat it after me “kalútsikos”. |
| Becky: Kalútsikos. OK. And this derives from? |
| Stefania: καλός, also an adjective. |
| Becky: This means “good”. |
| Stefania: Another derivative in our dialogue is “ενοχλητικός” which means “annoying”. |
| Becky: What’s the word it derives from? |
| Stefania: The root word is “ενοχλώ”, meaning “to annoy”. So we have “ενοχλώ” and “ενοχλητικός”. |
| Becky: I see. Well, it seems there is enough “duliá” in this lesson! |
| Stefania: There certainly is. So all you listeners, check our notes. You will find more examples there! |
| Becky: Work on them and come back for the next lesson, where we explore more about how words in Greek are formed! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Stefania: Listeners, can you understand Greek TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Becky: 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. |
| Becky: Line-by-line audio. |
| Stefania: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Greek fast! |
| Becky: It’s simple really. |
| Stefania: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Becky: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Greek. |
| Stefania: Rapidly understand natural Greek with this powerful tool. |
| Becky: Find this feature on the lesson page in the Lesson Materials section at GreekPod101.com. |
Outro |
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| Becky: That’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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