Learn how to use the sentence pattern "I want..."
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, I'm John. |
| Chrissi: And I'm Chrissi. |
| John: And welcome to Must-Know Greek Sentence Structures, Season 1, Lesson 5. Expressing What You Want. |
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use a sentence pattern for expressing what you want. |
| PATTERN |
| John: For example, |
| John: "I want a new car." |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| Chrissi: [slow] Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| John: The pattern for expressing what you want has three elements. First, the strong personal pronoun in the nominative, meaning "I", which is optional. |
| Chrissi: Εγώ (Egó). |
| John: Second, the verb "to want" in the first person singular, meaning "I want". |
| Chrissi: θέλω (thélo). |
| John: Third, a neuter noun phrase in the accusative, meaning "new car". |
| Chrissi: καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο (kenúrio aftokínito). |
| John: Altogether, we have... "I want a new car." |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) [slow] Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) [normal] Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| John: You can start this pattern with a noun phrase in the nominative case as your subject. This noun phrase can be a pronoun, such as… |
| Chrissi: εγώ Egó |
| John: ...meaning "I," although you can use any noun or name with an article to talk about what someone else wants. Remember, you can even omit the subject altogether, if it is understood by the context. |
| Next, use the verb "to want," |
| Chrissi: θέλω (thélo,) |
| John: in the correct person and number. Continue with a noun phrase in the accusative case if you want to refer to a specific thing that is wanted, or a verb in the subjunctive if you want to refer to a specific action. |
| The noun phrase needs to be in the accusative case here, because it's the direct object, and direct objects in Greek are usually in the accusative case. As for the verb in the subjunctive, this will be the focus of a later lesson in this series. For the moment, you only need to know that a verb in the subjunctive is usually preceded by this conjunction… |
| Chrissi: να (na) |
| John: ...meaning "to", as in "I want to eat." |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| John: So remember, to express what you want, start with a noun phrase in the nominative case, which can contain a pronoun or any noun or name, with an article depending on whom you are referring to. Then use the verb "to want," θέλω (thélo) in the correct form, followed by what it is that you or someone else wants, which can be either a noun phrase in the accusative case or a verb in the subjunctive. |
| John: Here is another example meaning, "I want to sleep." First, we have the verb "to want" in the first person singular, meaning "I want". |
| Chrissi: θέλω (thélo). |
| John: Second, we have a verb in the first person singular in the subjunctive, meaning "to sleep". |
| Chrissi: να κοιμηθώ (na kimithó). |
| John: Altogether we have... |
| Chrissi: Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) [slow] Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) [normal] Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) |
| John: "I want to sleep." |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) |
| John: How do you say - "I want a book." To give you a hint, "a book" is... |
| Chrissi: ένα βιβλίο (éna vivlío). [slow] ένα βιβλίο (éna vivlío). [normal] ένα βιβλίο (éna vivlío). |
| John: "I want a book." |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) [slow] Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) [normal] Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) |
| REVIEW |
| John: Let's review the sentences from this lesson. I will tell you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Greek. Here we go. |
| John: "I want a new car." |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| John: "I want to sleep." |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω να κοιμηθώ. (Thélo na kimithó.) |
| John: "I want a book." |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) |
| [pause] |
| Chrissi: Θέλω ένα βιβλίο. (Thélo éna vivlío.) |
Outro |
|---|
| John: Okay. That's all for this lesson. You learned a pattern for expressing what you want, as in... |
| Chrissi: Εγώ θέλω καινούργιο αυτοκίνητο. (Egó thélo kenúrio aftokínito.) |
| John: meaning "I want a new car." |
| John: You can find more vocab or phrases that go with this sentence pattern in the lesson notes. So please be sure to check them out on GreekPod101.com. Thanks everyone, see you next time! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! |
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