Learn about Greek word formation--specifically verb derivatives--from a conversation set in the office of a daily newspaper in Athens
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 5, Are You Working Through Lunch in Greece? I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about word formation in Greek, and we will focus specifically on verb derivatives. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place at the office of the daily Greek newspaper. It’s between the main character Antonia, and her coworkers. |
| Becky: The characters know each other well, but since there is a difference in their status within the company, both formal and informal Greek is used in the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Αντωνία:Μοσχοβολάει εδώ μέσα! Τι έγινε; |
| Δήμητρα:Ζέστανα το φαγητό μου. Κοντεύει τέσσερις η ώρα! |
| Ματίνα:Αντωνία, δοκίμασε την τυρόπιτα της Δήμητρας! Θα βουρκώσεις! |
| Αντωνία:Τόσο καλή είναι; |
| Δήμητρα:Υπερβολές της κυρίας Λεγάκη! Εγώ νομίζω ότι έχει ξεραθεί λίγο. |
| Ματίνα:Καθόλου! Το πιστεύω ακράδαντα! |
| Αντωνία:Για να επιμένει, κάτι θα ξέρει Δήμητρα! Να δοκιμάσω λίγο; |
| Δήμητρα:Βεβαίως! Πάρτε και μια χαρτοπετσέτα για να μη λαδωθείτε! |
| Αντωνία:Ευχαριστώ! Μμμμ... Έχει δίκιο η Ματίνα, Δήμητρα! Εξαιρετική τυρόπιτα! |
| Δήμητρα:Σίγουρα; Το ροκφόρ δεν την ανοσταίνει κάπως; |
| Αντωνία:Αντίθετα, νομίζω ότι το ροκφόρ τη νοστιμίζει! |
| Ματίνα:Αυτό λέω κι εγώ! Καταπληκτική σου λέω! |
| Κώστας:Κυρίες μου, καλή η τυρόπιτα, αλλά μήπως πρέπει να κάνουμε και καμιά δουλειά; Αν συνεχίσουμε έτσι, δεν θα τελειώσουμε ούτε στις δέκα! |
| Αντωνία:Μάλιστα κύριε Γιαννουλάτε! |
| Antonia: It smells good in here! What happened? |
| Dimitra: I warmed up my food. It's almost four! |
| Matina: Antonia, try Dimitra's cheese pie! It will bring tears to your eyes! |
| Antonia: Is it that good? |
| Dimitra: Mrs. Legakis is exaggerating! I think it's been dried out. |
| Matina: Not at all! I strongly believe what I'm saying! |
| Antonia: If she insists so much, she must know something, Dimitra! May I try a little bit? |
| Dimitra: Of course! Take a napkin too, so you won't get all oily! |
| Antonia: Thank you! Mmmm...Matina is right, Dimitra! Excellent cheese pie! |
| Dimitra: Are you sure? Don't you think that the Roquefort cheese makes the taste dull? |
| Antonia: On the contrary, I think it makes it even tastier! |
| Matina: That's what I'm also saying! It's great, I'm telling you! |
| Kostas: Ladies, all good with the cheese pie, but shouldn't we also do some work? If we go on like this, we won't be finished before ten. |
| Antonia: Yes, Mr. Giannoulatos. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: So Greeks eat their lunch at work? |
| Stefania: These days most do, except public servants who finish work early, so they get to eat at home. |
| Becky: But doesn’t that mean that they eat late? |
| Stefania: Hmm, usually at about 3 PM. |
| Becky: And what about dinner? |
| Stefania: We usually eat dinner after 8 PM. |
| Becky: Wow! And when you eat at work, do you order in? |
| Stefania: Sometimes, yes. I mean, some people go out to eat something or bring their own “ταπεράκι”, a Tupperware box with something they prepared at home. |
| Becky: Don’t companies have cafeterias? |
| Stefania: Some do, but many don’t. Newspapers do, because the workers there have a very irregular schedule. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: μοσχοβολάω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to smell good |
| Stefania: μοσχοβολάω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: μοσχοβολάω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: δοκιμάζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to try |
| Stefania: δοκιμάζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δοκιμάζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: πιστεύω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to believe |
| Stefania: πιστεύω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: πιστεύω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: λαδώνομαι [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to get soiled by oil |
| Stefania: λαδώνομαι [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: λαδώνομαι [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: νοστιμίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to make something tasty |
| Stefania: νοστιμίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: νοστιμίζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: συνεχίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to continue, to keep, to proceed |
| Stefania: συνεχίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: συνεχίζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: κοντεύω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be getting close, to be almost there |
| Stefania: κοντεύω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κοντεύω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: καθόλου [natural native speed] |
| Becky: not at all, any |
| Stefania: καθόλου [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: καθόλου [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ανοσταίνω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to make something taste dull |
| Stefania: ανοσταίνω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ανοσταίνω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: τελειώνω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to finish, to be done with something |
| Stefania: τελειώνω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: τελειώνω [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. |
| Stefania: First is the verb “λαδώνομαι”, a passive voice verb meaning “to become oily” or more accurately “to become soiled with oil”. |
| Becky: Like when you eat fries without using a fork! |
| Stefania: Exactly: “Έφαγα τις πατάτες με το χέρι και λαδώθηκα.” |
| Becky: Did you just say “I ate the french fries with my hands and got all oily”? |
| Stefania: Yes, but in Greek we say “με το χέρι”, literally meaning “with the hand”. We don’t always use the plural “hands”. |
| Becky: OK. Can we have the full phrase again? |
| Stefania: “Έφαγα τις πατάτες με το χέρι και λαδώθηκα.” |
| Becky: Excellent! Our next word? |
| Stefania: The verb “κοντεύω” means that we are “close“ or “almost” ready to do something. It is almost always used with some other verb that signifies what we are getting close to doing. |
| Becky: Okay. Can you give us a sample sentence using the word? |
| Gre. The first one is: “κοντεύω να τελειώσω”. |
| Becky: It means “I’m about to finish”. |
| Stefania: Also, we can say “κοντεύω να φτάσω”. |
| Becky: It means “I’m almost there”. That’s a very useful phrase! |
| Stefania: Oh, yes! We use it all the time. |
| Becky: Good! And our last word? |
| Stefania: The quantitative adverb “καθόλου”. |
| Becky: Meaning? |
| Stefania: “not at all” when used in a negative sentence. For example “δεν έφαγα καθόλου”... |
| Becky: ...meaning “I didn’t eat at all”. |
| Stefania: Or “δεν έκανα καθόλου δουλειά”... |
| Eng ...meaning “I didn’t do any work at all”. |
| Stefania: “καθόλου” has the same meaning when used as an answer to a question. For example: “Σου αρέσει το ποδόσφαιρο; Καθόλου!”. |
| Becky: It means “Do you like football? Not at all!”. |
| Stefania: Finally, it is important to say that when “καθόλου” is in questions, most of the times it has the meaning “any” or “a little bit”. For example “Έφαγες καθόλου πίτσα;” |
| Becky: “Did you eat any pizza?” The same question can also be in negative form, but the meaning will still be the same... |
| Stefania: …“Δεν έφαγες καθόλου πίτσα;” |
| Becky: “Didn’t you eat any pizza?” |
| Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about derivative verbs. That is verbs that derive from...? |
| Stefania: ...other words that can be other verbs, nouns, and adverbs. |
| Becky: It’s not complicated, right? |
| Stefania: It isn’t! |
| Becky: One thing to remember is that these verbs are usually created with the addition of a suffix to the stem of the root word. And are there many of these suffixes? |
| Stefania: There are quite a few. But don’t worry! We have included the most common of them in our lesson notes… |
| Becky: …so listeners, make sure you check them! For now, let’s take a look at a simple example. |
| Stefania: In Greek, “oil” is “λάδι”. |
| Becky: Ok.... |
| Stefania: So if we take the root “λάδ-“ and add the suffix “-ώνω”, which signifies “to do something” we have “λαδώνω” which means “to oil something”. |
| Becky: For example a creaking door? |
| Stefania: Exactly! |
| Becky: I see. This verb is used in our dialogue, isn’t it? |
| Stefania: Yes. It is used in the passive voice “λαδώνομαι”. The ending “-ομαι” shows this is in the passive voice. |
| Becky: So this means “to get soiled by oil”? |
| Stefania: Right! |
| Becky: Are there any other verb examples in our dialogue? |
| Stefania: There are quite a few. Let’s take a look at them one by one. I’ll say the Greek, then Becky will give the English. |
| Stefania: “Μοσχοβολάω” |
| Becky: to smell good |
| Stefania: “Ζεσταίνω” |
| Becky: to warm up |
| Stefania: “Κοντεύω” |
| Becky: to be getting close, to be almost there |
| Stefania: “Βουρκώνω” |
| Becky: to bring tears to my eyes |
| Stefania: “Ξεραίνομαι” |
| Becky: to dry up |
| Stefania: “Πιστεύω” |
| Becky: to believe |
| Stefania: “Νοστιμίζω” |
| Becky: to make something tasty |
| Stefania: “Ανοσταίνω” |
| Becky: to make something taste dull |
| Stefania: “Συνεχίζω” |
| Becky: to continue |
| Stefania: and “Τελειώνω” |
| Becky: to finish… Wow, there were many! |
| Stefania: Don’t worry! They are explained in detail in the lesson notes! |
| Becky: That’s a relief! And these are all derivative verbs? |
| Stefania: Yes! |
| Becky: I recognized some very common nouns in them! |
| Stefania: Of course! Derivation is not an unusual procedure. It happens all the time. |
| Becky: Let’s see some examples. |
| Stefania: Sure: “πιστεύω” means “to believe” and it comes from the noun “πίστη”, which means “belief” or “faith”, with the addition of the suffix “-εύω” signifying an action, such as “to do something”. |
| Becky: So we can think of it as “I-do-faith”. |
| Stefania: Right! Another verb is “συνεχίζω” and it means “to continue”. The root noun is “συνέχεια”, meaning “continuation” and by adding the suffix “-ίζω” to its stem, we create a verb that also signifies an “action”. |
| Becky: “To-do-continuation”, that is, “to continue.” |
| Stefania: Precisely! It isn’t that hard, is it? |
| Becky: Not really. But it needs some study! |
| Stefania: A worthwhile thing to do! Start from the examples in our lesson notes, and see if you can recognize these suffixes in the Greek words you come across! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Becky: Attention perfectionists! You’re about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Stefania: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Becky: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Stefania: Super simple to use. Listen to the Greek word or phrase... |
| Becky: then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Stefania: You’ll speak with confidence knowing that you’re speaking Greek like the locals. |
| Becky: Go to GreekPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lessons page today! |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: That’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
| Becky: Bye! |
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