Meeting People

	Greek Text	Phonetic Pronunciation	English Translation
A :	!	*kalimEra!*	Goodmorning!
	.	*Ime o Ang'elos.*	I am Angelos.
B :	, !	*gh'A su, Ang'ele!*	Hello Angelos!
	.	*me lEne bhasIli.*	My name is Vassilis.
A :	, ;	*ti kAnis, bhasIli?*	How are you, Vassilis?
B :	, .	*polI kalA, efkharistO.*	Very well, thanks.
	;	*esI?*	(And) you?
A :	.	*k' eghO kalA.*	I (am) well, too.
B :	!	*khArika!*	I was glad (to meet you).
	!	*gh'A kharA!*	Goodbye!
A :	.	*k' eghO khArika.*	I was glad (to meet you), too.
	!	*adIo!*	Bye!

Grammar Notes

1. The verb (I am), like most verbs in the Greek language, is (unlike other languages) used with no personal pronoun preceding it. The subject (I,you,he,etc.) is denoted by the (so-called) person () in which the verb appears. Thus

   I am		*Ime*
   you are		*Ise*
   he/she/it is		*Ine*
   we are		*Imaste*
   you are		*Iste*
   they are		*Ine*

   There is a complete table of all the conjugation forms of the verb "to be" in the auxiliary verbs section.

   The personal pronouns (I), (you, sing.), (we), (you, plur.), are used only when we want to emphasize the subject. For example,

   Q : ; (Who is Angelos?)
   A : . (I am Angelos.)
2. Note that the definite article (, , ) is required before proper names. In general,
   • the article is required if the noun or adjective that follows the verb is a specific person/item/notion, e.g.,
     = I am Angelos
     = I am the Love
     = it is the State
   • the article should be omitted if the noun or adjective that follows the verb describes a quality or attribute of the subject, e.g.,
     = I am bad
     = she is beautiful
     = you are stupid
3. The nouns and (as well as other parts of speech) appear in more than one forms, knows as cases (). The case that has to be used is determined by the context and especially the way the noun is involved in the action described by the verb. There are four cases in Modern Greek,

   Nominative		*onomastik'I*
   Genitive		*gh'enik'I*
   Accusative		*etiatik'I*
   Vocative		*klitik'I*

   The noun should be in the nominative case if it performs the action (is the subject) or is in the state described by the verb . Thus,
   = Vassilis is running
   = Maria is beautiful
   = I am Angelos
   = God is love
   Accusative is used whenever the noun is the object, namely the recipient of the action described by the verb. Thus,
   = (lit.) They call me Vassilis
   = I want Angelos
   Whenever you address or call someone, you use the vocative case. Compare
   , ! = Hi, Angelos!
   ! = My God!
   , ; = (lit.) What are you doing, Vassilis?
   The genitive case does not appear anywhere in our text, so we will examine it later. In short, it is used to denote the owner or, in some instances, to replace a preposition-accusative form. For example,
   = Vassilis's house
   = I say to Angelos
   You can find more on how to conjugate nouns in the noun section.

Remarks

• actually means "good day" but is only used in the morning. In the afternoon one says (good afternoon).
• The conjunction , which means "and" and is pronounced *k'E* (just like the Spanish "que"), is transformed into if the next word starts with a vowel. Thus,
  = Vassilis and Angelos
  = You and I
  but
  • = She is beautiful and young
  • = Yesterday and today
  It wouldn't be wrong, however, to write . But in that case one would read *k'E eghO*.
• There are a number of seemingly meaningless expressions in our text.
  is a typical salutation. It comes from the word (*igh'Ia*) or (*igh'A*), which means "health", and could be translated as "health to you" or "may you have health", but it actually doesn't mean more than a "hello", "salute", "hola". In its short version it is a simple . Sometimes is used to say "goodbye" as well.
  , which literally means "I was glad/happy", is used in place of the American "nice/glad to meet you".
  is the most meaningless of all. It literally translates as "health happiness", but it is just one way to say "goodbye" (not that "goodbye" is more meaningful in English).
  is the Italian "addio" (French "adieu", Spanish "adios"). Modern Greek has borrowed several words from foreign languages, mainly as a result of centuries of foreign occupation (Venitian, French, Ottoman, etc).

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