Hello again, this is Steve for LessonsOnlineTV and this is the second video, the second lesson,
on this video series concerning the Greek language.
In this lesson, Greek 101, I'm gonna tell you a few simple phrases that you say in Greek,
every day Greek, 101 after all.
So, I'm gonna do this, I'll "cut" this board in half with this line and this part is English,
this part is Greek, okay?
Because I haven't said anything about the Greek alphabet,I'm actually going to write
the latin transcipt, how you pronounce words, okay, so let's start.
When you see somebody, like, you want to say good morning. Okay, "good morning", this is
one of the simplest words we usually learn. Um, "good morning". This is actually pretty
well known I think, it's actually written like this if you want to use a latin transcript,
it literally means -- it's actually said, "kalimera". This is actually, "good-day".
This pattern is found in all the rest of the words.
Now, if you want to say , "good afternoon..".
"(sound of marker on board)"
../evening".
(big pause)
You actually say "kalispera".
This is an i.
"Kalispera", good -- this is not exactly, it is afternoon, but it's ancient, you don't
really say "espera" anymore. So, if you're chatting with somebody, you are going to be
like "Hey, kalimera", like "good day", "good morning". If you see somebody, like -- okay,
morning is from 6 o'clock, I dunno, 6 o'clock in the morning, a.m., actually, the sun is
up, usually, in Greece. So you can actually say "kalimera", up until 12. Exactly midday.
From that point onward, you can actually start to say that, not you can, you should actually
use that, "kalispera". "Kalispera" should be used from 12 up until, I dunno, night.
When you actually start saying "good night". Now, "good night"...
...is actually "kalinihta". This is like the best latin transcript I can find, this being
a "h" sound. It's "good-night", it's really that clear. And, now, to be more accurate,
"good afternoon", there is actually a set of words describing it, because this is actually
evening it's not really afternoon, if you want to say "good afternoon" exclusively.
But, if you say "good afternoon" even in English, you don't really say "Hey, good afternoon".
I don't know if you say it, but in Greek it sounds really weird. Like, you will mainly
say that when somebody is leaving, the same way with "Good night", you don't go up to
somebody and say "Hey, good night". It's like, "Hey, bye". If you say "Hey, good afternoon"
it doesn't sound right but if somebody is leaving in the afternoon and you want to wish
them a good afternoon, you say "Kalo..
..apogevma". And this is like, good after-meal. Okay, afternoon. That's kind of the context.
This is practically the same as this, it's just a declension, you inflect it, there is
a lot of that in Greek, we're going to see it afterwards. Now the simplest one, "Hi",
"Hi/Hello". It's actually pronounced "Ya". "Ya", just like that. It sounds very simplistic
but it's actually health. It's a shortened form of the word "health". Um, so when you
say "Hi" you are actually wishing somebody health, that's the way it came up. But this
is also.. it can be used as "bye". Like, when you say "Ya", to somebody when you first see
them it's like "Hey". If you say "Ya" after talking and you leave, it's pretty obvious
that you meant "Bye". I mean, it's the whole feeling, the whole context that gives this
that kind of meaning. So, "Ya", it's just that. If you want to say, now, let's say you
start a chat, you are going to be like "Hey, how are you?". Okay. "How are you". "How are
you". This has a few ways of being, how do you say, of being said, I'm going to write
down two. These are actually the most common.
This is like, "Pos ise?", this is like, "Ti kanis?". Um, it's like "How - you are" which
is practically "How are you?", okay, it's like, exactly what you know. But, "you are"
exists in this. It's already described because this verb is conjugated, there is a lot of
conjugation too in Greek, in the next lessons I will tell you. So, "how - you are" and "what
- you do". It's literally, "what are you doing". In English it sounds a bit aggressive, like,
"what are you doing?", you wouldn't say that to greet somebody. But you can, actually,
say it in Greek, it's pretty normal. If you say, "Ti kanis EKI?", like, "What are you
doing THERE", it sounds aggressive, yes, but this is pretty good, actually. "Ya, ti kanis?".
This is actually a pretty good way of saying "Hi, how are you?". Or, "Ya, pos ise?". It's
that simple really. You want to answer back, okay, "I'm fine.". No, okay, let's say "Fine",
because, it's not -- usually if somebody says "Fine", I would imagine that they could also
be pissed off, like, "Yea, it's okay I'm fine". But it's not like that, if you actually say
"Kala", which actually means "Well", okay, if you actually translate it.
"I am well". It's like, "good -ly", right, it's like, the adverb.
"I am well", that's the answer to this, "I am well". Okay.
If you say -- if you want to say "Not bad", there are a lot of ways to say that, but,
I don't think you are going to go up to a Greek and start chatting and say "Well, I'm
not so well because..", I dunno. "Fine" should do the trick for now. Um, if you want to be
polite, you usually ask "And you?". Like, how are you too? "And you?".
(big pause)
Well, "And you" is like, "Ki esi?..."
(pause)
.."/Ke esi?". This is a slash, right.
Or "Esi?" just by itself. This is literally "you", okay. This is like, standard. There
is no other meaning for that, it's just -- it just shows the person, "you". It's like, "and
you", "and you". If you actually notice, we have "K(e e)si". Usually, in order to avoid
that prolonged "e", we just use "i" in this place. But nobody's actually going to hold
it against you, it's not really that bad if you say "Ke esi". And, "Esi?" , like, "I'm
fine. You?". You say that in English too, I think.
So, "I'm okay, you?".
That's pretty good.
Now, if you want to say "Thank you"..
(big pause)
For any reason, I'm not actually playing out a conversation here I'm just saying a few
basic words. It's actually "Efharisto".
Now, I have no way of explanining that. I think I understand it but I have no way of
explaining it so just take it for granted.
"Efharisto" is just the word for "Thank you".
And, I'm gonna make some space here. I'm just going to erase the top.
If you want to say "You are welcome", I have no idea why you would want to say it, but
that's the only way to say it.
You say, "Parakalo".
So these two go together, "Thank you" and "You're welcome". "Efharisto" "Parakalo".
These are the two words.
As a Greek 101 lesson, I think this is more than enough. You know the basic words, I'm
going to just say them all the way again.
Okay, there was "Good morning" here. "Good morning" - "Kalimera". "Good afternoon/evening"
- "Kalispera". I'm just going to say this column right here. "Kalinihta". "Kalo apogevma".
"Ya". "Pos ise? / Ti kanis?". "Kala".
"Ki esi?/Ke esi?/Esi?".
"Efharisto" - "Parakalo".
So this is it, this is the end. In the next video, I'm going to show you the alphabet.
Knowing the alphabet is one of the most valuable tools you can actually get. Greek is not written
with latin letters, it's only written with Greek. So if you actually want to get serious
about learning Greek, you are going to need the alphabet. So I'll see you in the next
video, with the Greek alphabet.