greek- english- italian song please help meee!!

Thank you very, very, very much, Ema. Now I really have to start learning the letters! You are right, it isn't so hard to figure out how to pronounce a word, once you know the letters. I found several sites which have pronounciation and I realised by listening to the way they pronounced that if I learn exactly what and how you said, it's not so difficult!
I'm confused about one thing I found on one of this sites: Αυτή(she) and Αυτοί (they, masculine) are pronounced the same way?!?! From how they were pronouncing there, I couldn't tell ANY difference! Was it a mistake?
Thanks again, I'll bother you again soon When you get tired of me just tell me!

Great! I'm really glad!
As for those words, no there's no mistake and the two words have exactly the same pronunciation! The sound 'oi' is pronounced 'i' exactly like ει, η, υ and ι. No difference. In the particular case of αυτή and αυτοί, as with the adjectives, you have to rely exclusively on the context. For example, check if the verb is plural or singular: in the first case the 'i' will definitely be an οι (which means it's a plural), in the second case it will be an η (which means it's a feminine singular). Of course now you're just starting so I presume you don't know how verbs are conjugated yet, so take what I said into account only after you've learnt some more. For the moment just try to assimilate the basics and go step by step trying not to do too much at once. And of course as you have already done, don't hesitate to come to me if you have any doubts!

Aha, so that's one way to figure out which "i" you use and when.... So "oi" is i but for plural. "η" is i but for singular, feminine. Because that was another curiousity: they have so many ways of writing down this sound. But which is which?! So, did I get it right? Is that a rule?
God, I'm awful!!!

Why do you say you're awful?? I think you're learning really quickly and you should be very pleased with your language learning skills!
Anyway, yes that's a rule, it's one of the rules for the plural which you will learn AT THE RIGHT TIME in your course.
So you found out that when they are adjective or noun endings, οι and η are very easy to distinguish. But as far as the other 'i' sounds- ει, υ and ι- as well as οι and η when they are not endings, I'm afraid there's no rule to distinguish them and you must learn the correct spelling of each new word you learn. I suggest you make a list of the new words you learn and copy it over and over until you become familiar with their spelling.

However, I do have a sort of secret strategy which can in some cases help to remember the spelling of a word. I hope you can understand it because it's a bit complicated, even to explain.

So, over the centuries the English language has borrowed lots of words from Greek and their spelling has remained identical to the original Greek one. Where in Greek-derived English words there's an y, there will also be an υ in the corresponding Greek word. And it's also very easy to locate the itas (η) because this letter in ancient Greek was an 'e' sound (not 'i') and in English it has remained like that.

I'll give you an example. Take the word 'sympathetic': that's a typical example of a Greek-derived word in the English language. Although the meaning is different, this word can help you remember the spelling of the Greek word from which it derived- συμπαθητικός (sympathitikos = nice person). The 'y' in sympathetic corresponds to the 'y' in sympathitikos and the 'e' in sympathetic corresponds to the 'η' in sympathitikos.

Another word of this kind is 'semantic' which you might or might not know. 'Semantic' in English (and also in my language- Italian) is something connected to the meaning of a word and it's a word from the specialised vocabulary of language.
Anyway, this word is a Greek-derived word too- remembering this word will make it easy for you to remember the spelling of the word σημαντικός (simandikos = important) because the 'e' in semantic corresponds to the 'η' in simantikos.

This strategy can turn out useful with words like psychology/ ψυχολογία and the like.

If you find it too confusing please ignore it altogether! I don't want you to get even more confused than I imagine you already are, so.. please tell me if it really is too confusing. It's just something I use but it's not a rule or anything. Ok?

I have to admit, first time I read your message I started scratching my head! Then, I took a paper and a pen, put it altogether with greek characters and ...got it! It's a good method you found there! And the words you used as exemples...well romanian language has them all from greek; our correspondesnts would be: simpatic, semantic, psihologie! Those words are reaaallyy easy to learn!
Thank you for your compliments about my fast learning! BUT, I have this strage feeling that I'm not well organised. I'm trying to learn the letters, but at the same time I learnt the numbers. I'm trying to learn the persons and some greeting formulas, but meanwhile I found myself curious about verb conjugations!!! It's like I want to find out everything very quickly and I just jump from one subject to another! And this is not good. I know that I need to take it step by step, but I'm like a child in front of a big box of sweets. I want to see all of them at once!
For exemple, how many verb conjugations are there? I mean, how many classes? I suppose they respect the same principle like our languages do: they are categorised by the last letter in the verb. Is it?
And this pronoun: Αυτό , is it a kind of "it"? It refers to everything but humans? In Romanian there is not such a pronoun. We use the he/she for objects, too.
And the gender: they have masculine, feminine, neutre. Ok, in Romanian it's the same. But, isn't it that there is no rule about which of them are neutre? I just have to learn them when I find them, right?

And I just can't register on that site...I tried I don't know how many times...useless!

You don't know how happy I am to know that you found my method useful! I know it's quite complicated but I was sort of 'fingers crossed' that you would understand it, especially because your language is Romanian and it's like Italian where this method can really turn out useful!

Anyway, I know EXACTLY what you mean when you say you're like a child in front of a box of sweets because it was exactly the way I felt when I started! And if on the one hand I can't really say that jumping from one thing to another is the most organised way to learn, it allows you to get quite a lot of new vocabulary in a short time. Picking up bits and pieces here and there was the method I used before I found out about that course and thanks to this method I was able to go through the initial lessons with perfect ease. So if you don't get too confused, I think it's a good method to start with but I suggest that you keep trying to register on that site because you won't actually start SPEAKING the language until you start following a course. But to grasp the basics I can suggest another useful site which was the one I started with. Go to Word2Word Language Resources and Translating Chat first and then select language courses and then Greek. You'll find quite a few useful sites, and there is one where the grammar part is explained quite clearly.

I suggest you don't stay on that site too much though because it can be very confusing. In fact, trying to grasp all of the grammar at the same time is really dangerous, meaning that it's extremely complicated, maybe even impossible!! So I will try to answer your grammar doubts but please don't get obsessed with it because with grammar you really have to go step by step.
Verb conjugations in Greek are not divided according to the last letter, but according to where the accent on the verb falls. If it falls on the last syllable, like αγαπώ for example, then the verb follows a type of conjugation. If the accent falls on the second from last, like for example in the verb ξέρω (I know), then it follows a different type of conjugation.

As for the genders, yes αυτό is 'it', the third person neuter, but it doesn't just apply to inanimate objects because in Greek the neuter gender is different from English so yes you have to learn the gender of each word, you can't just deduce it from its English (or Romanian, or Italian) equivalent. For example the word κορίτσι, which means girl, is neuter in Greek and so every adjective that refers to a girl is in the neuter gender. For example, 'this girl' is 'αυτό το κορίτσι' (literally= this the girl- αυτό can also mean 'this'), all in the neuter.
Or for example 'love' which in English is an 'it' and in Italian is masculine, is feminine in Greek, η αγάπη.

Ok? I hope I answered all of your questions for now... Please tell me how things go with you and how you find the site I recommended. Good luck!

Thanks again for all the info you're offering me! Indeed, I'm gonna take grammar step by step as it seems quite confusing. Well, romanian grammar is equally complicated, so I will be able to understand it. I think for an english native speaker greek grammar seems really complicated, but for us who are used with verb conjugations, classes, noun declinations, three genders and so on, it's familiar at least at notions level.
The site you gave me proved, indeed, very useful, it has many links to many courses and some of them will really help me.
Now, I'm pround to announce you that I'm almost there with the Greek alphabet. I haven't had so much time in the last days but I still magaged to read and read and write the letters over and over again now and then. I tried to read aloud some words(numbers) in greek characters from a site which also has pronounciation, and I had the pleasant surprise to see that I recognized the letters, pronounced them right and got the accent(you were soooo right that when you read in greek characters the accent is imposible to miss!!!!) So I was pronouncing the numbers then I was checking with the pronounciation from the site and....it was perfect!!! Now, I know it's only about numbers, but if I got that, it means that I can hope that I'll be able to read other words too.
So, I've made a decision. First I learn the characters veeery well and then I move to something else, 'cause I realised that when you know the characters it's a lot more easier to approach every other aspect of the language! I know, I've just discoverd the wheel!!! Everika!!!

I'm sooo happy to hear that you've found your method! You see, I think that's the most important thing when starting to learn something new, get your method right. Once you've done that, you're off! I'm really happy.
I agree with you that to us 'Latin' speakers Greek grammar doesn't look so scary as it may look to English speakers... That's something I thought when I first approached it and I must say I feel lucky to have Italian to help me in learning Greek.
Good, good, good I'm really happy for you. I'm sure that in a few weeks you'll already be speaking Greek! It's a good idea to start with the numbers because they're easy and good practice for reading and writing. When you start learning new words which are not numbers though, it's better to learn them in a specific context, for example in a short text or something to facilitate the memorization. You can easily find some lists of words along with texts for the memorization on one of the sites I gave you.
Ok, keep practising and keep me updated on your progress!

Καλή τύχη!! (Good luck)

You're definitely right about finding my own method. It's the best way to learn. Who can know better than me how to organise the information so I can memorise it?
Today I haven't got the time to practise but I kept repeating in my mind what I learnt yesterday so as not to forget. So here I am, walking on the streets to work and repeating: one milion, 5 thousands, etc!By the way: how do you say hundreds of thousadns? For example: 500.000 Or 450.000?And what's the plural for milion? I only found the number 1 milion(ena ecatomirio-I don't have greek characters on my computer, but I know how to write it in Greek). So, how do I say 2 milionS? And in order to say, for example, 1 369.568. you just say the numbers one after the other, right? Ena ecatomirio, 369thousands I don't know how to say, but 568 is pedakosia eksida okto?

I found on the sites you gave me some where they pronounce words in phrases, so I have where to start with vocabulary. And you're right, I have to listen to the words in context, because I noticed that greeks tide one word to the other and it sounds a little bit different from what it's like when you pronounce each word separately. Am I right?

Evxaristo!

Originally Posted by dya

You're definitely right about finding my own method. It's the best way to learn. Who can know better than me how to organise the information so I can memorise it?
Today I haven't got the time to practise but I kept repeating in my mind what I learnt yesterday so as not to forget. So here I am, walking on the streets to work and repeating: one milion, 5 thousands, etc!By the way: how do you say hundreds of thousadns? For example: 500.000 Or 450.000?And what's the plural for milion? I only found the number 1 milion(ena ecatomirio-I don't have greek characters on my computer, but I know how to write it in Greek). So, how do I say 2 milionS? And in order to say, for example, 1 369.568. you just say the numbers one after the other, right? Ena ecatomirio, 369thousands I don't know how to say, but 568 is pedakosia eksida okto?

I found on the sites you gave me some where they pronounce words in phrases, so I have where to start with vocabulary. And you're right, I have to listen to the words in context, because I noticed that greeks tide one word to the other and it sounds a little bit different from what it's like when you pronounce each word separately. Am I right?

Evxaristo!

Yes, you're perfectly right, but I wasn't just talking about pronunciation there, I was talking above all about lexicon... vocabulary! But it's a great idea to practice listening too! I started too late with that and now I can't understand much when I listen to people speaking...
Anyway, wow! When you said you were learning numbers I thought you were talking about one, two three and four but you're already familiar with thousands and millions (which I only started to grasp after about three months of language learning)! Συγχαρητήρια (congratulations)!
So, 'a thousand' is 'μία χίλια' (feminine). The plural of χίλια is χιλιάδες, for example 2006 = δύο χιλιάδες έξη. 53.000= πενήντα τρείς χιλιάδες. 500.000= πεντακόσιες χιλιάδες. 334.000= τριακόσιες τριάντα τέσσερις χιλιάδες.
Ok?

The plural of million, εκατομμύριο, is εκατομμύρια. And that number you asked, 1 369.568 is correct the way you said, although of course there's a bit missing. It's ένα εκατομμύριο τριακόσιες εξήντα εννέα χιλιάδες πεντακόσια εξήντα οκτό. Ok?

I understand it's a bit complicated because with the word χιλιάδες the hundreds change. For example 500 = πεντακόσια, but 500.000= πεντακόσιες χιλιάδες. That's because they too turn into their plural form. It's a complicated rule which you need to remember. For now that you're not yet familiar with grammar, I suggest you only learn it by heart. When you start off with grammar it'll all be clearer to you.

Well done so far! Keep up the good work and of course keep contacting me!!

Ok. First: Evxaristo! Thank you for your patience and for the time you take to answer my questions.
Second: let's revise a little!
Thousand is feminine. Any determination of the word thousand goes feminine too, with all the necessary changes. So "hundreds" becomes feminine when we talk about "hundreds of thousands" because "hundreds" is like an adjective for "thousands"(what kind of thousands?-hundreds) So we make the accord between the noun and the adjective. Ok that's Romanian, so, it's easy. I noticed that the final letters are the same in this two words(ες), but I suppose that's because in fact both of them are nouns and only in this syntagma they are in an adjective-noun relationship. Question: feminine adjectives in greek usually have the same last letters as the noun they determine, according to the grammatical case(nominative, accusative, etc). ?

Bottom line: Did I get it right with the rule regarding the changes the word κόσια suffers when connected with χιλιάδες?
And another question: κόσια is also a feminine noun? So should I say "μία κόσια" and not "ένα κόσια" ?

Then, I noticed that 'τριά' suffers changes when connected to the same "χιλιάδες", it becomes "τρείς". Is there any other number from 0 to 9 which suffers similar changes? Let' take your example with 53.000.
50.000 πενήντα χιλιάδες,
51.000- πενήντα ένα OR μία χιλιάδες?
52.000- πενήντα δύο χιλιάδες?
54.000-πενήντα τέσσερα OR τέσσερις χιλιάδες?
And so on. I think you got my idea. Do these numbers change and how? I suppose they always look the same , I mean the 3 from 23.000 is the same with the 3 from 83.000, for example? So, what's the rule for each of them?

Ok, now, if you are tired of me, just say it and I'll stop!!! I promise!
Evxaristo!

Originally Posted by dya

Ok. First: Evxaristo! Thank you for your patience and for the time you take to answer my questions.
Second: let's revise a little!
Thousand is feminine. Any determination of the word thousand goes feminine too, with all the necessary changes. So "hundreds" becomes feminine when we talk about "hundreds of thousands" because "hundreds" is like an adjective for "thousands"(what kind of thousands?-hundreds) So we make the accord between the noun and the adjective. Ok that's Romanian, so, it's easy. I noticed that the final letters are the same in this two words(ες), but I suppose that's because in fact both of them are nouns and only in this syntagma they are in an adjective-noun relationship. Question: feminine adjectives in greek usually have the same last letters as the noun they determine, according to the grammatical case(nominative, accusative, etc). ?

Bottom line: Did I get it right with the rule regarding the changes the word κόσια suffers when connected with χιλιάδες?
And another question: κόσια is also a feminine noun? So should I say "μία κόσια" and not "ένα κόσια" ?

Then, I noticed that 'τριά' suffers changes when connected to the same "χιλιάδες", it becomes "τρείς". Is there any other number from 0 to 9 which suffers similar changes? Let' take your example with 53.000.
50.000 πενήντα χιλιάδες,
51.000- πενήντα ένα OR μία χιλιάδες?
52.000- πενήντα δύο χιλιάδες?
54.000-πενήντα τέσσερα OR τέσσερις χιλιάδες?
And so on. I think you got my idea. Do these numbers change and how? I suppose they always look the same , I mean the 3 from 23.000 is the same with the 3 from 83.000, for example? So, what's the rule for each of them?

Ok, now, if you are tired of me, just say it and I'll stop!!! I promise!
Evxaristo!

Hi again! First of all, I'm not tired of you, stop saying that! I see myself a few months ago in the things you're learning now and I have great respect for your enthusiasm. Unfortunately I won't be able to write to you in the weekend though so I'll see you on Sunday evening or on Monday.

Anyway, everyhting you said about the word thousand is correct. It is a feminine word and the hundreds go in accordance with it as feminine adjectives. And yes, adjectives go in accordance with the feminine nouns they precede in every aspect- gender, number and case. But you will learn more about that when you start a course (if you can't register on that site please tell me).

The word 'a hundred' is neither 'ένα κόσια' or 'μία κόσια', it's εκατό and it's a number just like five or six, it's not like thousand as far as I know. So you just say for example 120= εκατόν είκοσι (because when followed by another number, the word εκατό becomes εκατόν).

As far as all the other numbers are concerned, there are two more which act as adjectives and not as unchangeable numbers. They are 3 (τρία) and 4 (τέσσερα). You can notice the way they change for example when followed by thousands, as in the examples I gave you yesterday:

53.000= πενήντα τρείς χιλιάδες.
54.000= πενήντα τέσσερις χιλιάδες.

Because χιλιάδες is a feminine plural noun, 3 and 4 change into adjectives in their feminine plural form. Every other number in this situation wouldn't change:

56.000= πενήντα έξη χιλιάδες
55.000= πενήντα πέντε χιλιάδες.

As for 51.000, I must say I was a bit hesitant on that one, but I'm almost 100 percent sure it's πενήντα ένα χιλιάδες. Πενήντα μία χιλιάδες sounds completely wrong to me.

Did I answer all of your doubts? I hope so. See you soon

Evxaristo! Again! Yes, you've answered all my doubts, thank you! That with the numbers 3 and 4 having a feminine form, I didn't know! In Romanian only 1 and 2 have both masculine and feminine forms.
And now it is clear for me the situation with εκατό, it's just a number meaning one hundred, therefore it doesn't have any plural form. Starting with 200 we use κόσια.
Let me tell you what I did last evening! I found a site which tests knowledge on Greek numbers. It goes two ways:greek to digits and digits to greek. I tried the first one. So they gave you a numer written in greek characters and you are supposed to write it in digits. Happy to announce you that from 1 til 999 I'm an expert! Which also means that...yes!!! I can read greek characters! I spent one hour doing that and I was veeeery proud of myself! After that I tried the other type:they gave the number and I had to write it in Greek(they have a virtual keyboard with greek characters) Well....that didn't go so well, but it was promising! I wasn't completely wrong!!
I'm going nuts with that site! I can't register with any username! I even tried small sentences in Romanian, which I'm sure aren't already taken...and nothing! I'm starting to believe that maybe they have certain periods when you can register? Believe me, I tried at least 100 usernames, combinations of letters, numbers, signs, etc. Nothing! τίποτε!!! It's unbelievable! And I'm confused because on their tehnical forum there are persons who say they registered last weeks, while I was tring! So how did they managed and I don't?! It's an annoying mystery!!!
Anyway, thanks again, have a nice weekend and we'll talk again on Sunday or Monday. There's no hurry! I'm enthusiastic not desperate! Yet!!!!

Hi again dya!
My weekend was fine thank you and I hope yours was ok too. Anyway, I'm really proud of what you did with the numbers in Greek! Again, συγχαρητήρια (congratulations)! I think you should keep practising your writing though (the digits-to-Greek method) because spelling is one of the trickiest things in the Greek language! But anyway you've made some great progress and I'm really happy for you.

As far as that site is concerned, I will try and make an account for you if that's ok with you. I don't know, I succeeded the first time, I might succeed again! I'll let you know.

Hello! I'd be forever grateful if you could make an account on that site! Of course it's ok with me, I'm not able to register on that site, and if you have the time and the luck, I'll thank you thousands times
I know that writing is the hardest part regarding the learning of greek language, but it's still so confusing for me, that I decided to take it backwards: first reading in greek and then writing, hoping that meanwhile I'll develop a visual memory regarding certain words.
I also found another site with useful expressions in day-to-day situations and I started to learn them. It's a good site 'cause it has the phrases written in greek characters, then it can display them in latin characters(in case I get confused) and finally it dispalays the text in english. At the same time, it's an audio file so I can listen to it hundred times!
I found that site cause I was frustrated I didn't know any full sentence in Greek I knew a few words, the numbers, a few expressions from songs(most of them love-related, so of no help if I ever get lost in Greece so I started searching and found that site! Now I have what to repeat these days!!

i've come up with this topic, and I just wanted to make clear some things...

Indeed we greeks LOOOOOOVED that song from Mihai, but the greek version is a colaboration of Mihai and Tamta.

It was first presented in MAD TV Music Awards (A Greek music tv channel). Then released as a cd single from tamta...

This is my first post, so i hope that i'll have a very good time with you guys here..

Take care all..