Greek Notes – Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις

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Χαίρετε, εξαιρετικοί ιεραπόστολοι της Αθηναϊκής Ελληνικής Ιεραποστολής! Σκέφτηκα να εκδώσω τις Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις κάθε τόσο, που να περιέχουν σύντομες παρατηρήσεις στη γραμματική και το λεξιλόγιο της ελληνικής γλώσσας. Παρακαλώ, πέστε μου τι νομίζετε, και επίσης εάν σκεφθείτε θέματα που θέλετε να θιχτούν σε ερχόμενες εκδόσεις των Ελληνικών Σημειώσεων.

Greetings, excellent missionaries of the Greece Athens Mission! I thought it would be nice to publish Greek Notes, containing short notes on grammar or vocabulary, every now and then. This is the first edition of Greek Notes. Let me know what you think of it. Also let me know of any topics you think should be included in Greek Notes.

This edition's topics are: Τα θέματα της παρούσας έκδοσης:
Η δραχμή — το χιλιάρικο Η δραχμή — το χιλιάρικο
Female surnames Θηλυκά οικογενειακά ονόματα
Useless word of the issue ΄Αχρηστη λέξη της έκδοσης


1. Η δραχμή and το χιλιάρικο, and other names of coins etc.

The drachma is feminine in Greek (η δραχμή). This is important especially with those numbers that change according to the gender of the thing counted, such as τρία/τρεις, διακόσιοι/διακόσιες/διακόσια, χίλιοι/χίλιες/χίλια. While you won't often have to deal with three or four drachmas, this is something to bear in mind if you have to talk about a multiple of a hundred drachmas, or a thousand drachmas. Bear in mind also that χιλιάδα (a group of thousand; used for forming the numerals for thousands) is also feminine and so needs, for example, τρεις χιλιάδες and not τρία χιλιάδες. So: it's διακόσιες δραχμές, χίλιες εφτακόσιες δραχμές, τρεις χιλιάδες δραχμές, τέσσερις χιλιάδες πεντακόσιες δραχμές. Or, shorter: τέσσερις πεντακόσιες.

However, many Greeks, when naming prices, don't count drachmas, but count coins or banknotes. So here are some common names for money: πενηντάρικο = a 50 dr coin, κατοστάρικο = a 100 dr coin or banknote, πεντακοσάρικο = a 500 dr banknote, χιλιάρικο = a 1000 dr banknote, πεντοχίλιαρο = a 5000 dr banknote. Κατοστάρικο and χιλιάρικο especially are used for naming amounts of money. So, instead of τριακόσιες δραχμές, you may hear τρία κατοστάρικα, and instead of τέσσερις χιλιάδες, τέσσαρα χιλιάρικα. Note that the names of coins and banknotes are neuter, not feminine, so they take the neuter forms of numerals!

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2. Female surnames

As you may or may not know, women's surnames are in the genitive case. It is as if one were to say, "She's Eleni, daughter of Mr. Papadopoulos" (Ελένη Παπαδοπούλου), or "She's Maria, wife of Mr. Perakis" (Μαρία Περάκη). So, you have to be aware of how these names are formed and used. The following table gives common male name endings and the corresponding female name ending:

Male Female
-ος -ου
-ας
-ης -η in general,
but usually:
-ίδης -ίδου
-άδης -άδου

Note also that a male name ending in -ος and accented on the third syllable from the end becomes a female name in -ου accented on the second syllable from the end; so, Παπαδόπουλος becomes Παπαδοπούλου. This has historical reasons and does not tie in with how the genitive would be formed today; "Mr. Papadopoulos's car" would usually be "Το αυτοκίνητο του κ. Παπαδόπουλου", with accent on the third syllable from the end. Names ending in -ας or -ης hardly ever have the accent on the third syllable from the end, and when they do, the accent stays the same, e.g. Μπούκουρης becomes Μπούκουρη.

Something that may be confusing is that the the female name endings -α and -η look like female endings, and you may be tempted to decline them. However, they are masculine endings in the genitive case and do not change.

So, if you have a car belonging to Maria Peraki, then it is "the car belonging to Maria, (wife) of Perakis" — το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας Περάκη; not της Μαρίας Περάκης! Her first name, Maria, has a feminine ending and forms the genitive regularly by adding -ς; her family name, though, is a genitive and cannot form another genitive, so it stays the way it is. Similarly, it's το αυτοκίνητο της Ελένης Παπαδοπούλου.

Male names that do not end in one of the usual endings stay the same in all cases, and the female equivalent is then identical. This is particularly the case where the male name ends in -όγλου or is a genitive form such as Σταύρου, Παπαθανασίου, Χατζηιωάννου.

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3. Useless word of this issue is:

ο βρυκόλακας — the vampire.

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Greek Notes is brought to you by: Οι Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις είναι μία προσφορά του:
Philip Newton
Pommernstr.32
25436 Tornesch
Germany
Φίλιππου Νεύτωνος
Οδός Πομερανίας 32
254 36 Τορνές
Γερμανία

(Note that this address has changed since I published Issue 1; my address is now: Philip Newton, Reeseberg 48, 21079 Hamburg, Germany)

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