The Focus of this Lesson is an Introduction to Participles
Πολύ καλά... Δεσποινίς Γιαννίδου, είμαι εντυπωσιασμένη από το βιογραφικό σας, μπορώ να πω.
"Very well... Miss Giannidou, I must say I am impressed by your curriculum vitae."

Participles (μετοχές) are verbals in Greek. That means they are formed from a verb, but function as a different part of speech. They are similar to gerunds and participles in English.

Greek verbs usually have two participles.The active voice participle in the present tense (ενεστώτας), called ενεργητική μετοχή or ενεστωτική μετοχή, and the passive voice participle, called παθητική μετοχή.

Most verbs form their passive participle in the perfect tense (παρακείμενος), called μετοχή του παθητικού παρακειμένου, but a few verbs may also or instead form a passive participle in the present tense called μετοχή του παθητικού ενεστώτα.

Εxamples of Greek participles:

1. Περπατάω τραγουδώντας. (active voice participle, ενεργητική μετοχή)
   "I walk singing."
2. Είναι σπασμένο. (perfect tense passive voice participle, μετοχή του παθητικού παρακειμένου)
   "It is broken."
3. Είναι εργαζόμενη μητέρα. (present tense passive voice participle, μετοχή του παθητικού ενεστώτα)
   "She is a working mother."

Active Voice Participle (ενεργητική μετοχή)

This participle shows how exactly the action of the main verb of a sentence takes place. Thus, it has an adverbial function because it always defines a verb, showing "manner" or even "time."

Active voice participles are not conjugated and are formed by adding the ending -οντας or -ώντας to the present tense stem of a verb (for verb stems see Intermediate series, lesson 2).

● Τhe verbs of the first conjugation or conjugation A (Α' συζυγία) get the ending -οντας, For example:

κάνω ("to do") → κάν + οντας = κάνοντας
πλένω ("to wash") → πλέν + οντας = πλένοντας
χτενίζω ("to comb") → χτενίζ + οντας = χτενίζοντας

● The verbs of the second conjugation or conjugation B (B' συζυγία) get the ending -ώντας, For example:

ξεκινάω/-ώ ("to start") → ξεκιν + ώντας = ξεκινώντας
ρωτάω/-ώ ("to ask") → ρωτ + ώντας = ρωτώντας
θεωρώ ("to consider/to regard") → θεωρ + ώντας = θεωρώντας

* For A and B conjugation see Intermediate series, lesson 4.

Ιn English, active voice participles are usually rendered as gerunds. In example 1 above, the main verb is περπατάω, "I walk." If you ask "How?" the answer would be "singing," τραγουδώντας.

Active Voice Participles of Auxiliary Verbs

έχω ("to have") → έχοντας

είμαι ("to be") → όντας.

For example:

1. Έφυγε έχοντας μόνο μια βαλίτσα μαζί του.
   "He left having only one suitcase with him."
2. Όντας γιατρός, σε συμβουλεύω να κόψεις το κάπνισμα.
   "Being a doctor, I advise you to quit smoking."

Please note:

● Active voice participles can be negated with μη ("not"). For example:

1. Μη έχοντας καθόλου λεφτά, έφυγε από το μαγαζί με άδεια χέρια.
   "Not having any money, she left the store empty handed."

● Under certain circumstances, a sentence may have a limitless number of active voice participles. For example:

1. Ακούγοντας τα νέα, έφυγε τρέχοντας και χοροπηδώντας, φωνάζοντας ότι νικήσαμε.
   "When she heard the news, she left running and jumping, crying out that we won."
   (Here ακούγοντας shows 'time' and not 'manner'.)

● If weak forms of personal pronouns follow the -οντας ending participles, which are proparoxytone words, we pronounce them closely with the pronoun that follows. This results in adding an accent mark to the syllable right before the pronoun. When this happens, those personal pronouns are called "enclitics" (εγκλιτικά).
For example:

1. Λέγοντάς της τα λόγια αυτά, έτρεμαν τα χέρια του.
   "His hands were shaking as he was telling her these words.

* For enclitics see Intermediate series, lesson 19.

Passive Voice Participle (παθητική μετοχή)

All passive voice participles end in -μενος or -μένος and they behave just like -ος, -η, -ο adjectives, meaning they have three genders and are inflected.

* For the declension of -ος, -η, -ο adjectives see Intermediate series, lesson 13.

Note that verbs that are found only in the active voice may form a passive voice participle. For example, ακουμπώ ("to touch") → ακουμπισμένος.

In English passive voice participles are usually rendered as present/past participles or adjectives.

For example:

1. Βρεγμένα ρούχα.
   "Wet clothes."
2. Τυρί τριμμένο.
   "Grated cheese."
3. Ο αέρας είναι μολυσμένος.
   "The air is polluted."
4. Το δάσος αυτό ανήκει σε προστατευόμενη περιοχή.
   "This forest belongs to a protected area."

Perfect Tense Passive Voice Participle (μετοχή του παθητικού παρακειμένου)

This participle shows that the action of the verb which the participle derives from has affected the subject of a sentence in the past (see examples 2 and 6-8 above).

It is formed using the passive voice aorist tense stem of a verb + the ending -μένος, -η, -ο. We will examine this stem and the participle formation details later in this series.

Keep in mind that A' conjugation verbs that have the letters π, β, φ and πτ as the verb character (i.e. the last letter of the verb stem), form the passive participle with double μ.

For example:

εγκαταλείπω ("to abandon") → εγκαταλειμμένος

σκάβω ("to dig") → σκαμμένος

βάφω ("to paint") → βαμμένος

καλύπτω ("to cover") → καλυμμένος

See also example 7.

Exceptions to this rule include the irregular verb βλέπω ("to see") → ιδωμένος and B' conjugation verbs:
χτυπώ ("to hit") → χτυπημένος

If an "o" sound comes before the -μένος, -η, -ο ending, it is written with ω:

λέω ("to say") → ειπωμένος

τρώω ("to eat") → φαγωμένος

ξηλώνω ("to unpick") → ξηλωμένος

Present Tense Passive Voice Participle (μετοχή του παθητικού ενεστώτα)

This participle shows that the action of the verb from which the participle derives is affecting the subject of a sentence in the present time (see example 3 and 9 above).

The few verbs that form this participle, form it from the present tense stem + one of the following endings:

-όμενος¹

-ούμενος¹

-άμενος²

and

-ώμενος³

¹ Ending used for participles of many passive verbs (παθητικά ρήματα) and deponent verbs (αποθετικά ρήματα), the latter which have forms only in the passive voice. See examples 3 and 9.

² Ending used for participles of a few archaic and medieval verbs, For example:
υφίσταμαι ("to undergo") → υφιστάμενος.

³ Ending used only for some scholarly verbs of the B' conjugation, For example:
τιμώ ("to honor") → τιμώμενος, προσδοκώ ("to anticipate") → προσδοκώμενος.

Some present tense passive participles have become nouns in modern Greek:

το πλεούμενο ("floating vessel"), το περιεχόμενο ("content"), ο/η προστατευόμενος/-η ("protégé/-e"), τα μελλούμενα ("things yet to come") etc.

Examples of participles from our dialogue:

1. Δεσποινίς Γιαννίδου, θα ξεκινήσω πρώτα κάνοντας κάποιες ερωτήσεις ρουτίνας.
   "Miss Giannidou, first I'll start by asking some routine questions."
2. Πολύ καλά... Δεσποινίς Γιαννίδου, είμαι εντυπωσιασμένη από το βιογραφικό σας, μπορώ να πω.
   "Very well... Miss Giannidou, I must say I am impressed by your curriculum vitae."
3. Για τη συγκεκριμένη θέση οι συμβάσεις εργασίας έχουν οκτάμηνη ισχύ, ξεκινώντας τον Μάρτιο και λήγοντας τον Οκτώβριο.
   "For this particular position the employment contracts have an 8-month validity, starting from March and expiring in October."

For example:

κολυμβητήριο "natatorium"

This neuter noun comes from the ancient Greek verb κολυμβώ, which in modern Greek has changed to κολυμπώ, meaning "to swim." Adding the neuter suffix -τήριο, which as we've seen in Lower Intermediate series lesson 6 signifies location, the noun κολυμβητήριο means "natatorium," in other words the building with a large pool where swimming lessons or water sports like water polo can be practiced.

This noun can be also used in phrases such as πηγαίνω κολυμβητήριο. In this case, it takes the meaning "I go to swimming lessons." Keep in mind that κολυμβητήριο has an athletic connotation, so you cannot use this word to refer to the swimming pool of a hotel or a house. In that case, use the feminine noun πισίνα instead, meaning "swimming pool."

For example:

1. Τα κολυμβητήρια είναι μία καλή λύση για αυτούς που θέλουν να κολυμπάνε τον χειμώνα χωρίς να κρυώνουν.
   Ta kolimvitíria íne mía kalí lísi ya aftús pu thélun na kolimbáne ton himóna horís na kriónun.
   "Natatoriums are a good solution for those who want to swim in the winter without getting cold."

βιογραφικό "curriculum vitae, résumé"

Our second word is βιογραφικό, a compound neuter noun. The first part of the compound is the noun βίος meaning "life" and the second part comes from the verb γράφω meaning "to write." So, βιογραφικό means "curriculum vitae" or "résumé."

You will be required to submit your βιογραφικό when applying for jobs in Greece. Sometimes it might also be referred to as βιογραφικό σημείωμα, with σημείωμα meaning "note." Don't confuse the English noun "biography" with βιογραφικό though, just because they sound similar. For "biography" you should use the feminine noun βιογραφία.

For example:

1. Στο ίντερνετ μπορεί κανείς να βρει πολλές οδηγίες και πρότυπα για τη δημιουργία ενός βιογραφικού.
   Sto ínternet borí kanís na vri polés odiyíes ke prótipa ya ti dimiuryía enós viografikú.
   "On the Internet one can find many instructions and templates for the creation of a curriculum vitae."

ισχύς "power," "force," "strength," "potency," "validity"

Lastly, we have the noun ισχύς meaning "power," "force," "strength," "mightiness" or "validity." Don't be fooled by the -ύς ending that we see in Greek masculine adjectives. The noun ισχύς is actually feminine and is a remnant of ancient Greek. Its declension also follows an archaic pattern: η ισχύς, της ισχύος, την ισχύ, ισχύ. There is no plural for this word.

In the dialogue we used ισχύς to mean "validity." However it is also used to refer to watts, battery strength, engine power, force in the sense of "impact" and "potency."

For example:

1. Το νέο σύνταγμα μείωσε την ισχύ του προέδρου.
   "The new constitution decreased the potency of the president."

You should be careful not to use this word interchangeably with δύναμη, meaning also "power," "strength" or "force." There is a slight difference between the two. Although δύναμη means "power" as well, ισχύς is more like the amount of power that someone or something has.

For example, if a man has δύναμη, it means that he is either strong physically, a more raw form of power, or he is powerful in terms of authority. However, if a man has ισχύς, then he is only powerful in terms of authority, regardless of his physical strength. It might be hard to understand the difference at first, so pay close attention to how native speakers use these words.

For example:

1. Η αγοραστική ισχύς της χώρας αυτής έχει μειωθεί με την κρίση των τελευταίων ετών.
   Ι agorastikí ischís tis hóras aftís éhi miothí me tin krísi ton teleftéon etón.
   "The purchasing power of this country has decreased with the crisis of the recent years."

Etiquette and Grooming for Job Interviews

When you go to a job interview in Greece, the dress code might vary depending on the job field and how high the position is.

For example, in a more artistic field a casual chic look might be more appropriate than a suit, which would be more appropriate in an interview for a position in a bank or in a lawyer's office.

Whatever the interview may be, it's always best to stay away from jeans, T-shirts, revealing clothes, large pieces of jewelry, strong perfumes, elaborate hairstyles, and anything that might offend your interviewer, such as fur or outfits with political or religious messages.

Be sure to arrive on time, knock on all doors you come to, and wait for an answer before entering rooms. Then smile, shake hands firmly, use holiday related greetings during the holidays, sit only when offered a seat, maintain eye contact and positive body language, and always be polite.