Learn how to introduce yourself
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| Whatever the reason for traveling to Greece, you won't leave the country without having met people. Therefore, it's necessary to learn how to introduce yourself, and how to respond to people introducing themselves. |
| The best way to introduce ourselves may be by reviewing the parts of a conversation. As you know, we have a polite version (the one where we use the formal level of speech) and another one in which we use the informal level. |
| Let's cover the formal version first. |
| In Greek, "How do you do?" is Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| Let's break it down by syllable and hear it one more time: Ti ka-ne-te? |
| Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| The first word, τι (ti), literally means "what," but translates as "how:" τι (ti). Next, we have κάνετε (kánete), which in English literally means "you do:" ka-ne-te, κάνετε (kánete). |
| All together, we have Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) This literally means "What do you do?," but translates as "How do you do?" |
| After Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?), we will cover "My name is...," and we will use my name this time. Therefore, "My name is Maria" is Με λένε Μαρία. (Me léne María.) |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Me le-ne Ma-ri-a. |
| Now let's hear it one more time, Με λένε Μαρία. (Me léne María.) |
| The first word, με (me), means "me," and we follow it with λένε (léne), which in English is "they call:" le-ne. To recap here, we have με λένε (me léne), which literally means "they call me." Then, you have the name, in this case María. |
| All together, we have Με λένε Μαρία. (Me léne María.), which literally means "They call me Maria." |
| After that, we will cover "Nice to meet you," which in Greek is Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| Let's break it down and hear it one more time: He-ro-me ya ti gno-ri-mi-a. |
| Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| The first word, χαίρομαι (hérome), literally means "I am glad:" he-ro-me. Then, you have για (ya), "for," and, finally, you have τη γνωριμία (ti gnorimía), which in English is "the acquaintance." |
| All together, we have Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.), which literally means "I am glad for the acquaintance.," but translates as "Nice to meet you." |
| Let's look over the informal level now. It's very straightforward because you need to change just a few things. |
| Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?), "How do you do?," becomes Τι κάνεις; (Ti kánis?) since you are now using the second person singular in place of the second person plural of the formal level. The second part doesn't change at all. In fact, we also have Με λένε Μαρία. (Me léne María.) in the informal level meaning "My name is Maria." |
| In place of Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.), "Νice to meet you," in the informal level, instead we have Χάρηκα πολύ! (Hárika polí!) Χάρηκα (Hárika) literally means "I was glad," and as we know, πολύ (polí) means "much/a lot." This is simple and useful! Χάρηκα πολύ! (Hárika polí!) |
| Okay, to close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it out loud. You'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so Καλή τύχη (kalí týchi), which means "good luck!" in Greek. |
| "How do you do?" (formal) - Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| Τι κάνετε; (Ti kánete?) |
| "How do you do?" (informal) - Τι κάνεις; (Ti kánis?) |
| Τι κάνεις; (Ti kánis?) |
| Τι κάνεις; (Ti kánis?) |
| "My name is..." Με λένε ... (Me léne…) |
| Με λένε ... (Me léne…) |
| Με λένε ... (Me léne…) |
| "Nice to meet you" (formal) - Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| Χαίρομαι για τη γνωριμία. (Hérome ya ti gnorimía.) |
| "Nice to meet you" (informal) - Χάρηκα πολύ! (Hárika polí!) |
| Χάρηκα πολύ! (Hárika polí!) |
| Χάρηκα πολύ! (Hárika polí!) |
| All right, that's going to do it for today! |
| Remember to stop by GreekPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Αντίο! (Antío!) |
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