How to use the small words σαν and ως

 

How to use the small words σαν and ως

 

We already know that we use the word σαν in similes.

Πεινάω σαν λύκος/ I am hungry like a wolf. But you know that I am not a wolf. So we use the word σαν to say that someone or something is similar to someone os something else.

Γράφει σαν ποιητής/he writes like a poet. When I say σαν ποιητής means that he is not a poet but the way he writes is so special that he writes as a poet does.  

H Mαρία δουλεύει σαν γραμματέας./ Maria works like a secretary.

Η Μαρία είναι φιλόλογος, αλλά δουλεύει σαν γραμματέας./ Maria is a philologist, but she works like a secretary. So when I say σαν γραμματέας means that she studied something else but she works like a secretary.

In the other hand we use the word ως to give to someone a real quality. For example :

Ο άντρας μου εργάζεται ως πολιτικός μηχανικός/ my husband works was a civil engineer. He is a civil engineer. This is his job because this is what he studied.

Ως μητέρα σε συμβουλεύω να περνάς περισσότερο χρόνο με τα παιδιά σου./ As a mother I advise you to spend more time with your kids. Ως μητέρα means that I am a mother. I have my own kids.

Native greek speakers use the two words interchangeably and they think that the only difference is that ως is more formal than σαν. This is wrong. As you can understand the meaning of the two words is completely different.

Very often we hear members of Parliament or even prime ministers saying εμείς σαν κυβέρνηση……/we like a government….. and they don’t realize that with this phrase they mean that they are not government.

Εγώ σαν πρωθυπουργός…./I like a prime minister….it means that he is not the prime minister. The correct phrase is εγώ ως πρωθυπουργός. Now it means that he is the prime minister.

And the last example.

Εργάζομαι ως καθηγήτρια./I work as a teacher. I am a teacher. I am a certified teacher. BUT

Η Μαρία από τότε που πήγε στην Αμερική εργάζεται σαν καθηγήτρια ελληνικών./Maria by the time she went to America she works like a teacher of Greek. Σαν καθηγήτρια. She teaches Greek but she is not a certified teacher.  

Greek metaphorical phrases

 

Greek metaphorical phrases

Today we will talk about the most popular metaphorical phrases we use to make our speech more vivid, more beautiful. Let’s see first of all the meaning of 2 very important words for today’s lesson.

Κυριολεξία/Literalism and μεταφορά/metaphor. When we use the words with their literal meaning we say that we talk literally, when we don’t use the words with their literal meaning we talk metaphorically. Let’s see an example to understand what is a metaphor.

Φοράω χρυσά σκουλαρίκια/ “I wear gold earrings”. I use the word gold to tell you of what  material my earrings are made, but when I say that Ο Γιώργος έχει χρυσή καρδιά/George has a gold heart, of course I don’t mean that his heart is of gold, but that he has a very good heart, that he has a very good character.

Now that we understood what is a metaphor, let’s see the most popular phrases. The metaphorical phrases like the similes that we learned in the former lesson will help you to understand the Greeks better and to speak better.

So we said that when someone is very good, we say that he has a gold heart. Also we can say Χρυσό παιδί ο Γιώργος/“George is a gold guy”. Again it means that George has a good character. If we are talking about a woman we can say Χρυσή κοπέλα η Παναγιώτα./“Panagiota is a gold girl”. The adjective χρυσός-χρυσή-χρυσό /gold is often used in metaphorical phrases because of the economic importance of this material.

Let’s see a new metaphor. When we want to say that someone is very rich we say that τρώει με χρυσά κουτάλια/he eats with gold spoons.

Many metaphorical phrases we use with the word δόντι/“tooth” as well. For example: Ήλιος με δόντια/sun with teeth. Of course we don’t mean that the sun has teeth. It is a metaphor used very often at winter when it is sunny but the temperature is very law.

When we say Πονάει το δόντι του Γιώργου/“George’s tooth hurts” we mean that he has to go to the dentist, but when we say Πονάει το δοντάκι του /“his little tooth hurts” it means that he is interested in a woman. It is usually about a phrase we use about someone who is in love but he doesn’t admit his feelings. Έχει δύο μήνες που χώρισαν, αλλά ακόμη πονάει το δοντάκι της/“it’s two months since they broke up, but still her little tooth hurts”, so she still cares about him.

The food that has much salt we say that it is salty, but when you live in Greece also a price can be salty. Ωραίο είναι το σπίτι, αλλά η τιμή του είναι πολύ αλμυρή/“the house is beautiful but the price is quite salty/expensive”

When we learn bad news and we are disappointed we say Πέφτω από τα σύννεφα/“I fall from the clouds”. Of course I cannot literally fall from the clouds but I use the phrase to emphasize that I feel disappointed.

Let’s go to the next metaphorical phrase. George says η μαμά μου κόβει το ψωμί σε φέτες/“my mom slices the bread” and he speaks literally, but his mom, as every Greek mom who feels super proud because she believes that she gave birth to Einstein says Κόβει το μυαλό του γιου μου/“my son’s brain cuts”. When we say that someone’s mind cuts we mean that he is smart.

When we want to say to someone that we are listening carefully to what he is telling, that we are interested in the topic he is talking about, we can sat κρέμομαι από τα χείλη σου/“I am hanging from your lips”. Contrariwise when we talk to someone and we understand that he doesn’t listen to us we usually say to him πού ταξιδεύει ο νους σου;/“where is your mind travelling?”. With this way we ask him what is he thinking about.

When we speak literally we say that a dove flies, but we can also use the verb to πετάω/fly metaphorically too. When I want to say that I am very happy, we say πετάω από τη χαρά μου/ “I am flying because of my happiness”.

The αηδόνι/nightingale is a very beautiful bird that sings with a unique way. This is why when someone has a very good voice, either if he is a singer or not, we say that είναι αηδόνι/he is a nightingale.

The child that is very mischievous we say that είναι θηρίο/it is a beast and the good and quiet child είναι αρνί/ is a lamb. He who is very light/he has a few kg, we say that είναι πούπουλο/he is a feather.

Normally we say that μασάμε την τροφή μας/we chew our food. When we say that someone chews his words/ μασάει τα λόγια του, we mean that he doesn’t speak clearly, that he tries to hide something.

Someone eats his food but when you are a Greek you also eat wood. Tρώω ξύλο/I eat wood means that someone beats me. Also for someone who is too jealous we say that the jealousy is eating him/τον τρώει η ζήλια, so he is so jealous that he harms himself.

   

How to use the word σαν. Simile or clause of time?

How to use the word σαν. Simile or clause of time?

In this lesson we are going to learn how to use the word σαν, a small word that can be used in many different ways and today we will talk about two of them. The most common way to use the word is in a παρομοίωση/it is the comparison of one thing to another of a different kind in order to make the description more vivid/ so it is the simile.

There are several ways to form a simile in Greek, such as using the words όπως, μοιάζει, λες και, όμοιος με ….but the most often used word to make a comparison is the word σαν.

For example: Πεινάω σαν λύκος. I am hungry as a wolf.

There are 2 different ways to make these comparisons with the word σαν. The first one is to use the word σαν and then a noun in nominative without article. Remember our example. Πεινάω σαν λύκος.  Let’s see some new examples.

Αυτό το μέρος είναι όμορφο σαν ζωγραφιά. This place is beautiful like a painting.

Η Μαρία είναι πολύ ντροπαλή. Όταν της μιλάς γίνεται κόκκινη σαν παπαρούνα. Maria is very shy. When you talk to her she turns red like a poppy.

The other way is to use σαν and then the definite article and a noun in accusative.

Example: Είναι κρύος σαν τον πάγο. He is cold like the ice. Of course here we can use this phrase metaphorically too for someone who is emotionally unavailable.

Δουλεύω σαν το σκυλί. I work like a dog, we mean I work hard and we have σαν, the definite article and the noun in Accusative.

It is not wrong to say «Δουλεύω σαν σκύλος». Ιn this sentence we have σαν and the noun in nominative without article.

 So if we want to make a comparison we can use the word σαν and then a noun in nominative without article or the word σαν, a definite article and a noun in Accusative.  

Let’s learn now some new similes.

Ντυμένος σαν γαμπρός. Dressed like a groom.

To someone who is very well dressed we say that he is dressed like a groom. For example Maria says to her 20 year old son:

 -Πού πας; “where are you going?”. Her son says:

-Πάω σινεμά με τους φίλους μου. “to the cinema with my friends”.

-Πας σινεμά με τους φίλους σου ντυμένος σαν γαμπρός;/“are you going to the cinema with your friends dressed like a groom?

His mom is sure that he is going to meet a girl.

The next one:

Ψηλός – ψηλή – ψηλό σαν κυπαρίσσι. Τall like a cypress. When someone is very tall we say that he is tall like a cypress.

 And when we want to say that someone is too tough we say that he is σκληρός σαν ατσάλι/tough/hard as steel so he is strong and determined. He can tolerate difficulties or suffering.

For someone who is extremely pale like I am we say είναι άσπρος σαν το γάλα /he is white like the milk or είναι άσπρος σαν το χιόνι/he is white like the snow.

After the word σαν we can also have the strong form of the personal pronouns in accusative or other pronouns, adverbs, verbs, nouns in genitive, but we will talk about them in another lesson. Today except for the similes we will learn how this word can introduce an adverbial clause of time. So sometimes we can use the word σαν instead of the word όταν/when. “Σαν πας στην Καλαμάτα και έρθεις με το καλό, φέρε μου ένα μαντίλι να δέσω στον λαιμό”says a traditional greek song and we mean “when you go to Kalamata and you come back, bring me a bandana to tie around my neck.

Όταν έγινε 18 χρονών, έφυγε από το σπίτι του. When he became 18 he left his house.

My favorite poet Konstantinos Kavafis says in one of his most popular poems:

Σαν βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη, να εύχεσαι να είναι μακρύς ο δρόμος. Αs you set out for Ithaka, hope the voyage is a long one. So in the last examples the word σαν is not the word we use to compare but it is a word used more often in literature instead of the word όταν to introduce an adverbial clause of time.  

Τhe difference between the adjectives άσπρος and λευκός

Τhe difference between the adjectives άσπρος and λευκός

Today we will talk about my favorite color, λευκό/white or it is better to call it άσπρο? Have you ever wondered when do we use the one adjective and when the other? Some people say that the adjective λευκός is mostly used in formal speech while the adjective άσπρος in daily life. Is that really so?

Even thought the adjective λευκός is Greek, the word άσπρος is a Latin word. In Roman empire “asprum” was called the low value coin. It was coming by the word “asper”/rough. Little later, Byzantines were calling άσπρα the silver coins in order to focus on their difference from the high value gold coins. So, from the byzantine Greek until today the word got the same meaning as the adjective “λευκός/white”. In most cases we can choose which of the two adjectives we want to use. For example, I can say both άσπρα νύχια and λευκά νύχια/white nails. With the clothes as well. Άσπρο/λευκό παντελόνι/white pants, but with the clothes we usually choose the adjective άσπρος. Άσπρη μπλούζα/White blouse, άσπρο πουκάμισο/white shirt, άσπρο σακάκι/white jacket etc.

Unfortunately, we cannot always choose which adjective we like the most. Sometimes we can use only the adjective λευκός and other times only the adjective άσπρος.   Let’s see:

Λευκό κρασί/White wine, Λευκός Οίκος/White House, Λευκός Πύργος/White tower, λευκά είδη/linen  (bed and bath). With the term λευκά είδη/linen we mean bed sheets, tablecloths, towels). While we can say “Προτιμώ τα άσπρα σεντόνια/I prefer the άσπρα σεντόνια/white sheets” or “Αγόρασα ένα άσπρο τραπεζομάντιλο/I bought a άσπρο τραπεζομάντιλο/white tablecloth”, the general term to talk about all of them includes the adjective λευκός. “Η Μαρία παντρεύεται, γι’αυτό αύριο θα πάμε να αγοράσουμε λευκά είδη/Maria is going to get married this is why tomorrow we will go to buy linen”.

Let’s go to the next. Λευκή κόλλα is a white paper on which we haven’t written anything yet. It is usually that paper we were writing a test at. When I was a student I hated the phrase that the teachers were using “Βγάλτε μία λευκή κόλλα/take out a piece of paper”. Unfortunately nowadays I say to my students the same phrase too.

Λευκό ποινικό μητρώο: clean criminal record has the person who has not committed any crime. Λευκά αιμοσφαίρια/leucocytes and λευχαιμία/leukemia is called the blood’s disease that is manifested by a very high number of leucocytes.

In the elections when someone does not want to vote any of the existing political parties, we say that he gives “λευκή ψήφος/white vote” or “λευκό ψηφοδέλτιο/white ballot”. The “white vote” is a way of protest against the political system and at the same time the vote is not considered as invalid.

“λευκή μαγεία/white magic. I don’t know what exactly is, but here the adjective is used to focus on the contrast between this kind of magic and black magic.

 “Λευκή απεργία/work to rule” is called the strike that some people have without stop working completely to not lose their work.

Λευκός θάνατος/white death are called the hard drugs, because it is about a white powder that leads to death.

Λευκός γάμος/white wedding but in Greek it means “fake wedding”. When two people get married without loving one the other or wanting to have a family, but for another reason, usually in order to take one of them a resident permit or maybe to take a legacy.

We use the adjective λευκός for some animals, such as “λευκός καρχαρίας/white shark” and “λευκός ελέφαντας/white elephant”, but also the same adjective is used about the people. We say λευκή φυλή/white race, λευκοί άνθρωποι/white people.

 And let’s go now to the adjective άσπρος/white. We say άσπρο τυρί/white cheese, such as greek feta cheese, cream cheese.

Now some phrases with the word άσπρος. My friends usually tell me “Είσαι άσπρη σαν το γάλα/you are white like the milk”. When somebody’s skin is very “light colored/pale”, we say that he is white like milk.

Άσπρη μέρα/White day is the happy day. This is why you will listen very often Greeks saying “Πότε θα δούμε μια άσπρη μέρα/when are we going to see a white day?/a day without problems”.

Next phrase is ”κάνει το άσπρο μαύρο/he makes the white black. It means “to distort the truth”. So when someone narrates the facts not as they are but in the way he wants in order to prove that he is the good one, we say that he makes the white black.

I kept for the end my favorite phrase. Στη ζωή τίποτα δεν είναι άσπρο ή μαύρο. Υπάρχει και το γκρι./ In the life nothing is white or black. There is grey too. In a difficult situation when we don’t know what to do because we don’t like the two choices we have, a friend of us can say to us. In life nothing is white or black. Using this phrase we encourage the other person because we are telling to him that certainly there is a third choice.

I want also to tell you the three compound words you should know. Ασπρόμαυρος/black and white. we cannot say λευκόμαυρο. We always say ασπρόμαυρο.

The second compound word is ασπρομάλλης/white-haired”. We don’t say λευκομάλλης. He who has white hair is called ασπρομάλλης. But we say that the Greece’s flag is γαλανόλευκη/blue-white. In this compound word we use only the adjective λευκός.

 

The Greek verb φταίω

The Greek verb φταίω

Today we will learn how to use the Greek verb φταίω/to be blame, to be responsible. Many of you find it quite difficult to use this verb because it is not always possible to translate it properly into English. This is why today we will learn how to use it through sentences.

First of all let’s see how to conjugate the verb φταίω in Present tense.

 

Ενεστώτας/Simple Present/Present Continuous

εγώ φταίω

εσύ φταις

αυτός, αυτή, αυτό φταίει

εμείς φταίμε

εσείς φταίτε

αυτοί, αυτές, αυτά φταίνε/ φταιν

 

Αόριστος/Simple Past

εγώ έφταιξα

εσύ έφταιξες

αυτός, αυτή, αυτό έφταιξε

εμείς φταίξαμε

εσείς φταίξατε

αυτοί, αυτές, αυτά έφταιξαν/ φταίξανε

 

 

Παρατατικός/Past Continuous

εγώ έφταιγα

εσύ έφταιγες

αυτός, αυτή, αυτό έφταιγε

εμείς φταίγαμε

εσείς φταίγατε

αυτοί, αυτές, αυτά έφταιγαν/ φταίγανε

 

 Μέλλοντας Εξακολουθητικός/Future Continuous

εγώ θα φταίω

εσύ θα φταις

αυτός, αυτή, αυτό θα φταίει

εμείς θα φταίμε

εσείς θα φταίτε

αυτοί, αυτές, αυτά θα φταίνε

 

Let’s see now some examples.

Εγώ φταίω. Σου ζητώ να με συγχωρήσεις./I am at fault. So, we use the verb to say that I am responsible for a particular situation that has gone wrong. “I am at fault. I am asking you to forgive me”. 

  Εάν έφταιξα, σου ζητώ συγγνώμη./if I did wrong, I am sorry.

Ο Γιώργος έφταιγε, αλλά ο διευθυντής δεν του είπε τίποτα. /George was at fault but the manager didn’t tell him anything.

Όταν ένας γάμος διαλύεται, φταίνε και οι δυο./”when a marriage breaks up, both are to blame.”

Φταίμε κι οι δυο. /”we are both at fault!”

Also, we can use the preposition για after the verb φταίω if we want to mention what bad we have done.

Εσύ φταις για το ατύχημα./”you are to blame for the accident”.

Αυτός φταίει για όσα περνάω τώρα./”he is at fault/he is responsible for everything bad I am living now”. So, we use the verb φταίω, the preposition για and then Accusative.

Ποιος φταίει για το σπασμένο παράθυρο;/”who is to blame for the broken window?”

 

Another way to use this verb is to say φταίω and then to use a dependent clause to say the reason.

Φταίω κι εγώ που πίστευα ό,τι μου έλεγε. /”it’s my fault too because I was believing everything he was telling to me”.

Η δασκάλα φταίει που δεν ενημέρωσε τους γονείς του μαθητή./  ”it is the teacher’s fault because she didn’t inform the student’s parents”.

 

It is very common to use the weak form of the personal pronoun in genitive before the verb. For example:

Σε τι έφταιξα και με τιμωρείς;/”what did I do to you and you are punishing me?”,

Τι σου έφταιξε ο σκύλος και τον χτυπάς;/“what did the dog do to you and you are beating it?”

Τι τους έφταιξαν τα αδέσποτα και τα δηλητηρίασαν;/”what did the stray dogs do to them and they poisoned them?”

 

Also, the neuter noun φταίξιμο comes from the verb φταίω. So we say:

Eσύ φταίς/”you are at fault” or Το φταίξιμο είναι δικό σου/“the fault is yours”.

Εγώ φταίω.Δεν έπρεπε να τον πιστέψω./”I am to blame/I am at fault. I shouldn’t believe him” or

Το φταίξιμο είναι δικό μου. Δεν έπρεπε να τον πιστέψω./“the fault is mine. I shouldn’t believe him”.

 

 

How to use the Greek word μήπως

 

                                                    How to use the Greek word μήπως

Today I am going to explain to you how to use the Greek word μήπως. I know that it is a quite confusing word because it can be used in different ways and the hardest thing is that sometimes when we try to translate into English a Greek sentence, especially a question that begins with the word μήπως, in the English sentence there is not an equivalent word.

For example in Greek we say Μήπως έχεις αναπτήρα;, but in English we say “do you have a lighter?”

The word μήπως means “maybe”, this is why many Greek language learners use it instead of the word ίσως/maybe. For example, they say Μήπως θα επισκεφτώ την Ελλάδα φέτος. They want to say “maybe I will visit Greece this year”, but the sentence they use is wrong. In this case we have to use the word ίσως. In statements we use the word ίσως. We use the word μήπως only in questions in direct or indirect speech. Let’s see again the first example:

 Μήπως έχεις αναπτήρα; it is a direct question. Obviously, if we say Έχεις αναπτήρα; the other person will answer yes or no and this is what we want to learn, but the word μήπως denotes the uncertainty.

Γιώργο, μήπως είσαι ακόμη στο σούπερ μάρκετ; Τελείωσε το γάλα. George, are you still at the super market? The milk is finished.

Μήπως προκαλούν παρενέργειες αυτά τα χάπια; do these pills have side effects?

 Ίσως έρθω το βράδυ. Μήπως θέλεις να φέρω κάτι; maybe I will come at night. Do you want me to bring anything?

Let’s see some indirect questions.

 Με ρώτησε μήπως έχω αναπτήρα. He asked me if I have a lighter. So, in indirect questions we can translate the word μήπως as “if”. In Greek too in the indirect questions we can replace the word μήπως with the word αν/if.

Έχεις ώρα; do you have the time? Mε ρώτησε μήπως έχω ώρα. He asked me if I have the time.

But the word μήπως is not only used to ask a question directly or indirectly. It can also be used in expressions of fear after a verb that means “to be afraid”, “to be worry”. Let’s see the most often used verbs. Φοβάμαι: to be afraid, ανησυχώ: to be worry, αγωνιώ: to be anxious

After one of these verbs the word μήπως means “lest”.

Φοβήθηκα μήπως σου έχει συμβεί κάτι. I was afraid lest something have happened to you.

Ανησυχώ μήπως χαθούμε. I am worrying of getting lost.

Αγωνιώ μήπως δε φτάσουμε στην ώρα μας. I am anxious that perhaps we will not arrive on time.