Learn about the formation of augmentatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, lesson 8, Start Your Morning Right With a Big Greek Coffee! I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, we’ll learn more about word formation in Greek, and specifically augmentative. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place at Antonia’s house. It’s between Antonia and her colleague, Vasilis, who is visiting her before going to work. |
| Becky: The characters know each other well so they’ll use informal Greek. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (sound of doorbell, door opens) |
| Αντωνία:Α! Καλώς τον! Καλημέρα! |
| Βασίλης:Καλημέρα Αντωνία! |
| Αντωνία:Έλα πέρασε μέσα! Πες μου, τι να σου προσφέρω; |
| Βασίλης:Μια φραπεδάρα θα την έπινα ευχαρίστως! Είμαι υπναράς βλέπεις και ακόμα δεν έχει ανοίξει το μάτι μου καλά καλά! |
| Αντωνία:Έγινε! Εσύ κάθησε αν θες στον καναπέ στο μπαλκόνι. Οι καινούριες μαξιλάρες που πήρα είναι πολύ άνετες. |
| Βασίλης:Πωπω! Αυτό δεν είναι μπαλκόνι, είναι μπαλκονάρα! Το έχεις διακοσμήσει και με πολύ ωραία φυτά. Μια χαρά! |
| Αντωνία:Χαίρομαι που σου αρέσει! |
| :(moments later) |
| Αντωνία:Ορίστε και ο φραπές! |
| Βασίλης:Να' σαι καλά! Να σου πω, καθώς έμπαινα στην πολυκατοικία, είδα έναν καράφλα με έναν σκύλαρο να, να βγαίνει από το ασανσέρ καπνίζοντας! Ρε, πάει καλά αυτός; |
| Αντωνία:Α... αυτός; Αυτός είναι πολύ περίεργος άνθρωπος. Και φωνακλάς πολύ. Μένει στον 4ο. Κάθε φορά που βλέπει ποδόσφαιρο, φωνάζει συνεχώς! |
| Βασίλης:Τι λέει δηλαδή; |
| Αντωνία:Συνήθως βρίζει, αλλά όταν μπαίνει γκολ και πανηγυρίζει λέει πάντα: "ΓΚΟΛΑΡΑΑΑ"! |
| Βασίλης:Ο σκύλος πρέπει να τα έχει δει όλα! |
| Αντωνία:Χα χα, όντως! Α, να και η γάτα μου! Τη λένε «Μιμή». Είναι μια φαγού αυτή! |
| Βασίλης:Φαίνεται ότι τα ζώα σε αυτήν την πολυκατοικία τρώνε καλά! |
| Αντωνία:Τ'ακούς αυτό Μιμή; Από αύριο δίαιτα! |
| Antonia: Ah! There you are! Good morning! |
| Vasilis: Good morning, Antonia! |
| Antonia: Come on in! Tell me, what can I offer you? |
| Vasilis: I would love to drink some frappé coffee! You see, I am a sleepy head and I haven't even opened my eyes properly yet! |
| Antonia: Got it! You go sit on the couch on the balcony if you want. The new cushions I got are very comfortable. |
| Vasilis: Oh wow! This is not just a balcony, it's a huge balcony! You have also decorated it with very nice plants. It's great! |
| Antonia: I'm glad you like it! |
| :(moments later) |
| Antonia: Here's the frappé! |
| Vasilis: Thank you! Hey, as I was entering the building, I saw a bald guy coming out of the elevator, smoking, with a huge dog! Hey, is there something wrong with him? |
| Antonia: Oh...him? He is a very strange man. And a yeller too. He lives on the 4th floor. Every time he watches soccer, he yells constantly! |
| Vasilis: What does he say? |
| Antonia: He usually swears, but when someone scores and he cheers, he always says, "GOAAAL!" |
| Vasilis: That dog must have seen everything! |
| Antonia: Haha, indeed! Oh, here's my cat! Her name is "Mimi." She eats a lot! |
| Vasilis: It seems that the animals in this building eat a lot! |
| Antonia: Do you hear that, Mimi? As of tomorrow, you're on a diet! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: So how’s life in Greece? |
| Stefania: Hmmm... I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that question! I guess in big cities like Athens, or Thessaloniki, life is very crowded. |
| Becky: Are there many millions of people living there? |
| Stefania: Actually it’s not because there are many people living there. Compared to other cities in the world, we are not so densely populated. The true reason is the housing style. |
| Becky: What is it like? |
| Stefania: Well, actual houses are very rare. Most residential constructions are tall apartment buildings, usually 7 to 10 floors high, and each floor has about 1 to 5 apartments. |
| Becky: I guess there is limited privacy in terms of noise, right? |
| Stefania: Yes! And also limited space for parking your car as well! You see, the problem is that when those buildings were built, mainly in the 60s and 70s, there was no planning for parking spaces, because there weren’t many cars around back then! |
| Becky: Is that why there are also a lot of traffic jams going on? |
| Stefania: Yes. The streets are very narrow, full of parked vehicles and now we also have so many cars per family, that it’s inevitable! Depending on the neighborhood you might need approximately 5, 10 or 15 minutes to find a parking spot. Sometimes even more! |
| Becky: Wow, that’s a lot! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: προσφέρω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to offer |
| Stefania: προσφέρω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: προσφέρω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: ευχαρίστως [natural native speed] |
| Becky: with pleasure, gladly |
| Stefania: ευχαρίστως [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: ευχαρίστως [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: καλά καλά [natural native speed] |
| Becky: properly, well enough |
| Stefania: καλά καλά [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: καλά καλά [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: μαξιλάρα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: cushion |
| Stefania: μαξιλάρα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: μαξιλάρα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: διακοσμώ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to decorate |
| Stefania: διακοσμώ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: διακοσμώ [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: πολυκατοικία [natural native speed] |
| Becky: apartment building |
| Stefania: πολυκατοικία [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: πολυκατοικία [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: καράφλας [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bald man |
| Stefania: καράφλας [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: καράφλας [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: φωνακλάς [natural native speed] |
| Becky: yeller |
| Stefania: φωνακλάς [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: φωνακλάς [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: βρίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to swear |
| Stefania: βρίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: βρίζω [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: πανηγυρίζω [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to celebrate, to cheer |
| Stefania: πανηγυρίζω [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: πανηγυρίζω [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 first? |
| Stefania: Let’s see this expression from our dialogue: “...δεν έχει ανοίξει το μάτι μου καλά καλά!” |
| Becky: What does it mean? |
| Stefania: “my eyes haven’t opened up properly”. You see, repeating the word “καλά” twice, which means “good”, gives us the meaning of “properly” or “well enough”. |
| Becky: I see. What about the other “kalá” that we have on the dialogue? |
| Stefania: In every case, they have a different meaning. For example “Να’ σαι καλά!” has been rendered in English as “Thank you!” instead of “May you be well” which is actually the literal meaning and would not make sense in English! |
| Becky: So why “Thank you”? |
| Stefania: It’s because there is a sense of gratitude that is implied in the Greek phrase. Next, we have the phrase “Ρε, πάει καλά αυτός;”. |
| Becky: This is an idiom. Literally what it’s saying is “Hey, is he going well?”, but what is again implied is “Hey, is there something wrong with him?” We have one more expression with “kala” I believe. |
| Stefania: Yes. The last one, which is ”τρώνε καλά”. |
| Becky: “They eat... good”? |
| Stefania: Hmmm... it’s not just “good”, it’s mostly “they eat enough” or “they eat a lot”. |
| Becky: Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to know about this little word! What do we have next? |
| Stefania: The masculine noun “καράφλας” meaning “bald man”. In Greek, we also use another masculine noun that means the same thing. |
| Becky: And that is? |
| Stefania: “φαλάκρας”. |
| Becky: But be careful! These words are very colloquial and direct, so they shouldn’t be mentioned in front of someone who is actually bald. It will offend him! So is there a better word we could use? |
| Stefania: Yes, the adjective “φαλακρός” for example: “ο φαλακρός άντρας”, “the bald man”. This can also be used as a noun for example: “είδα έναν φαλακρό”, “I saw a bald man”. It is worth mentioning here that there is also the feminine noun “καράφλα” which refers specifically to a bald spot or area on someone’s head. |
| Becky: OK. Let’s move to the last one! |
| Stefania: It’s the masculine noun “φωνακλάς” or “φωνακλού” for feminine. |
| Becky: Which means “yeller.” |
| Stefania: In Greek, it’s basically a person who is very short-tempered and yells at others when he or she feels irritated. Usually in a scolding or complaining manner. |
| Becky: Sounds scary! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about augmentatives. These are words that indicate a bigger version of what the original word denotes, a greater intensity, or a person who has intense attributes or big features, such as big eyes etc. |
| Stefania: Sometimes they can even express some level of intimacy or affection. |
| Becky: Are these words common in Greek? |
| Stefania: Augmentatives, just like diminutives, are very common words in Greek. They can be produced from most nouns, even proper nouns such as people’s names, with the addition of special suffixes. |
| Becky: However, grammatically, they can only be either masculine or feminine words and sometimes they might even have versions in both genders, especially when it refers to animate things and not objects. And they are used to express greater intensity, often in size, but also intensity of other attributes. |
| Stefania: Yes. Also because the suffixes we will see are less in number than the ones used for diminutives. |
| Becky: OK. So let’s get to the formation of augmentatives. |
| Stefania: In our dialogue, there are nine examples of augmentatives. One of them is “φαγού” that comes from the ancient Greek verb “φάγω”, which means “to eat” with the combination of the suffix“-ού”. |
| Becky: I thought that “to eat” in Greek is “tróo”... |
| Stefania: It is... in modern Greek. So if you know “τρώω”, you also know its past tense which is “έφαγα”. Can you see the ancient “φάγω” hidden in that irregular form of the past tense? |
| Becky: Yes! Oh, so THAT explains it! Now I finally understand that verb! |
| Stefania: Well, I’m glad I could help! But let’s see our next word: “φραπεδάρα”. It comes from the masculine noun “φραπές” meaning “frappé coffee” and the suffix is “-άρα”. The stem we used for “φραπεδάρα” was the stem of the plural form of “φραπές”, which is “φραπέδες” so “φραπεδ-” plus “-άρα”. |
| Becky: This is a common grammatical phenomenon in Greek. Using the plural stem of words for word derivation is quite common. So what does our word mean? |
| Stefania: In this context, it doesn’t just mean a big glass of frappé coffee. What is implied here is a “great” coffee in terms of deliciousness. |
| Becky: OK. So what’s the next word? |
| Stefania: “Υπναράς” meaning “sleepyhead” and coming from the masculine noun “ύπνος” meaning “sleep” and the suffix “-αράς”, which gives the notion of a person who has a specific and intense property. |
| Becky: So in this case to sleep a lot! |
| Stefania: Exactly! Oh, and since we are talking about a person, we have a feminine version of this one which is “υπναρού”. |
| Becky: I see. What’s next? |
| Stefania: “Μαξιλάρα” meaning “cushion”. This comes from “μαξιλάρι”, which means “pillow”, and the suffix “-άρα”. |
| Becky: Here the augmentative clearly denotes big size and has only one gender, since it refers to a specific object and not a person. |
| Stefania: This notion and suffix also apply to “μπαλκόνι” meaning “balcony”. So what we get is “μπαλκονάρα”. |
| Becky: OK. What’s another example from our dialogue? |
| Stefania: We have “καράφλας” which means “bald man”. Τhis one is created by adding the suffix “-ας” to the word “καράφλα”, which we mentioned before and it means a bald spot on someone’s head. |
| Becky: Next? |
| Stefania: We have “σκύλαρος” meaning either “big” or “fat dog”. This comes from “σκύλος”, “dog” in combination with the suffix “-αρος”. The female version of this one is “σκυλάρα”. |
| Becky: I see. Anything else? |
| Stefania: Yes! “Φωνακλάς”, “yeller”. It comes from the feminine noun “φωνή”, “voice”, with the addition of the suffix “-ακλάς”. |
| Becky: And last? |
| Stefania: A great “goal” in Greek soccer is not just a “γκολ”, it’s a “γκολάρα”! |
| Becky: So adding “-άρα” here has the notion of greatness and not of big size. |
| Stefania: Exactly! |
| Becky: Well, that was a lot! Listeners, make sure you check the lesson notes, because we have included another handy table with all of this information, plus some more suffixes and examples for augmentative! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Stefania: Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing Greek vocabulary? |
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| Stefania: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
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| Stefania: ...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
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Outro |
|---|
| Becky: That’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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