The Greek verbs διαβάζω, μελετάω, σπουδάζω and μαθαίνω.
Have you ever heard teachers say Σήμερα θα σας μάθω…./today I will “learn you”….
It sounds strange, right? And have you ever said “εχθές το απόγευμα σπούδαζα ελληνικά”. It is a common mistake. Today I am going to explain to you how to use the Greek verbs διαβάζω, μελετάω, σπουδάζω and μαθαίνω.
Τhe easiest of these verbs is the verb διαβάζω/to read.
· We use the verb διαβάζω to say that we read a newspaper, a novel and generally something that we don’t have to memorize.
Ο πατέρας μου κάθε πρωί διαβάζει την εφημερίδα του./My father every morning reads his newspaper.
Το καλοκαίρι διάβασα τέσσερα μυθιστορήματα./At summer I read 4 novels.
· We use the verb διαβάζω to say that someone is able to read.
Η γιαγιά μου δεν πήγε σχολείο και γι’αυτό δεν ξέρει να διαβάζει./My grandmother didn’t go to school, this is why she cannot read.
· We use the verb διαβάζω to say that someone helps someone else to study. For example:
Όταν ήμουν μικρή, με διάβαζε η μαμά μου. Let’s see “when I was young my mother was reading me”. We mean when I was young, my mother was coaching me/ was helping me to study.
Ο Γιώργος είναι 16 χρονών και ακόμη τον διαβάζει ο μπαμπάς του./George is 16 years old and still his father was helping him to study.
· We use the verb διαβάζω instead of the verbs “to recognize, to interpret”.
Εγώ δεν του είπα τίποτα. Εκείνος διάβασε τις σκέψεις μου./I didn’t tell him anything. He read my thoughts.
Διάβασε την αλήθεια στα μάτια μου./ Ηe read the truth in my eyes.
· We use the verb διαβάζω to talk about the prayer the priest reads to bless someone who is sick.
Ο Δημήτρης είναι στα τελευταία του. Ήρθε ο παπάς να τον διαβάσει. / Dimitris is in his lasts/we mean his last days/he is ready to die. A priest came to bless him.
· As we said the verb διαβάζω is used when we want to say that we read something for fun and we are not trying to acquire knowledge but very often we use the verb διαβάζω instead of the verb μελετάω/ to study.
Μαρία, διάβασες τα μαθήματά σου;/Maria, did you study your lessons?/did you do your homework?
Δεν έγραψα καλά στο τεστ γιατί εχθές δεν είχα χρόνο να διαβάσω./ I didn’t write well in the exam because yesterday I didn’t have time to study.
And let’s go to the verb σπουδάζω which is one of the verbs used incorrectly by the Greek language learners. Σπουδάζω means to study at university. So the sentence εχθές το απόγευμα σπούδαζα ελληνικά as you can understand is wrong in Greek. We use the verb σπουδάζω with the preposition σε to say where do I study. For example:
Ο Χρήστος σπούδασε στο εξωτερικό./Christos studied abroad. Or
Σπούδασα στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης./I studied at university of Aristotle in Thessaloniki.
So we ask someone Πού σπουδάζεις;/where do you study? And he can answer by using the verb σπουδάζω, the prep σε and the name of the city. Σπουδάζω στη Θεσσαλονίκη or the verb σπουδάζω, the prep σε and the name of the university. Σπουδάζω στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο.
Τo ask at which university someone goes to we can also say Σε ποιο πανεπιστήμιο σπουδάζεις;/ what university do you study at?
Another question is τι σπουδάζεις;/what do you study?we mean what subject do you study at university.
So we can use the verb to talk about the subject of our studies.
Σπουδάζω φιλοσοφία./I study philosophy. Σπουδάζω μαθηματικά./I study mathematics.
· One more way to use this verb is to say that someone σπουδάζει someone else and we mean that someone covers my expenses to study.
Οι γονείς σου σε μεγάλωσαν, σε σπούδασαν κι εσύ τώρα τους εγκαταλείπεις./Your parents raised you and educated you and now you are abandoning them.
-θα πάτε φέτος διακοπές;/Will you go this year on vacation?
-Πού λεφτά για διακοπές! Σπουδάζουμε δύο παιδιά./ There are not money for holidays. We pay our children’s college education.
If you don’t know how to use the word που with the way I did, you can watch my lesson about που. You will find the link in the description.
· Let’s go now to the verb μελετάω/μελετώ/to study, but it is about the work done at home.
For example: Μελετάω 3 ώρες την ημέρα./ I work at my lessons 3 hours per day.
Μην κάνεις φασαρία. Μελετάω/Don’t make noise. I am studying.
In Greek to say “I work at my lessons” is more common to use the verb διαβάζω. In the last two examples we can replace the verb μελετάω with the verb διαβάζω. So the correct way to say that yesterday you were studying Greek is Εχθές το απόγευμα μελετούσα ελληνικά or εχθές το απόγευμα διάβαζα ελληνικά.
When knowledge is obtained by reading books mainly, then μελετώ can be replaced by διαβάζω.
· The verb does not always imply that any reading is done. You can study for example the life of an African race by living there. So μελετάω is to apply your mind purposefully to the acquisition of knowledge or understanding of a subject.
Ο Πέτρος μετακόμισε στην Αμερική για να μελετήσει τη ζωή των Μάγια. / Petros moved to America in order to study the life of Mayans.
And let’s go to the last verb. Μαθαίνω. The verb’s first meaning is “to learn”./ to acquire knowledge. So we say: Μαθαίνω γαλλικά./I learn French
Μαθαίνω πιάνο./I learn piano-how to play the piano
Μαθαίνω χορό./I learn dancing
Μαθαίνω ελληνικά./I learn Greek. We mean I take lessons in order to learn something. Μαθαίνω ελληνικά means to learn the Greek language.
· We use the verb μαθαίνω instead of the verb πληροφορούμαι/I am informed.
Έμαθες τα νέα;/Did you hear the news?
Έμαθα την αλήθεια./i learned the truth.
Έμαθες τι ώρα αρχίζει το μάθημα αύριο;/Have you learned what time the lesson starts tomorrow?
· We use the verb μαθαίνω instead of the verb συνηθίζω/to become accustomed.
Έμαθα να κοιμάμαι με το φως αναμμένο./I am accustomed to sleep with the light on.
Έμαθε να ζει μόνος./ He is accustomed to living alone.
· And the last meaning of the verb is “to teach”.
Όταν ήμουν μικρή ο πατέρας μου μου έμαθε να οδηγώ./When I was young my father taught me how to drive.
Μαρία, μάθε μου να παίζω κιθάρα./Maria, teach me how to play the guitar.
