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Day: July 18, 2016

Why doesn’t the verb take a third person singular form in past tense?

By: | Post date: 2016-07-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

Brian is of course right, but I think he’s explained it a bit too quickly. Armed only with Old English grammar and Middle English from Wikipedia, behold the past tenses of verbs in action. I’m only going to pay attention to weak verbs, because that’s the pattern that has prevailed. Old English: Present ic hǣl-e […]

What is the Modern Greek equivalent of the English phrase “I know, right?”

By: | Post date: 2016-07-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

Good question. The English phrase expresses acknowledgement of the interlocutor’s surprise at something the speaker has just said. The Greek idiomatic equivalent, I’d say, is Είδες; “See?” Updated 2016-07-18 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-Modern-Greek-equivalent-of-the-English-phrase-I-know-right/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

How is “o po po” written in Greek?

By: | Post date: 2016-07-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Modern Greek, Writing Systems

Ω πω πω. You will also see ωπωπω, and πω πω πω and πωπωπω are more frequent. They’re interjections, so their spacing has not been normalised. The initial ω is so spelled by analogy with ancient Greek ὦ “O!”, though it’s not strictly speaking the same thing. No idea why πω has an omega, maybe […]

How does the Modern Greek pronoun το modify verbs?

By: | Post date: 2016-07-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

As a pronoun, το is the clitic accusative neuter third person pronoun, and it corresponds to “that” or “it”. So, ξέρω “I know”; το ξέρω “I know that”. Which means that, in the first instance, το is not modifying the meaning of a verb; it is completing it by providing an explicit object. You could […]

Can someone translate from Greek the phrase “apeasa vrohe ston dromo, ke agao then stathika, san poli stin agallia sou, irtha ke zastathika”?

By: | Post date: 2016-07-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Modern Greek, Music

I commend your taste in music, Anon, though not your transcription skills. stixoi.info: Το σακάκι μου κι αν στάζει, 1970. Lyrics: Akos Daskalopoulos. Music: Stavros Kouyoumtzis. Μ’ έπιασε βροχή στο δρόμο μα εγώ δε στάθηκασαν πουλί στην αγκαλιά σου ήρθα και ζεστάθηκα Κι αν με χτύπησε τ’ αγιάζι το σακάκι μου κι αν στάζεισου το […]