Declinable parts of Greek language - The definitive article
Greek language has ten parts of speech. From these, six are inflected (κλιτά) and four are uninflected (άκλιτα). The inflected parts of speech are the following: articles (άρθρα) nouns (ουσιαστικά) adjectives (επίθετα) pronouns (αντωνυμίες) verbs (ρήματα) participles (μετοχές) The uninflected parts of speech are the following: adverbs (επιρρήματα) conjunctions (σύνδεσμοι) prepositions (προθέσεις) interjections (επιφωνήματα) In the inflected word there is a part that changes and we call it an ending (κατάληξη) and there’s a part that doesn’t change and we call it a stem (θέμα). f.e. I love (αγαπώ) is αγαπ (stem) - ώ (ending), You love (αγαπάς) is αγαπ - άς He/She/It loves (αγαπάει) is αγαπ - άει CASES (πτώσεις) The inflected parts of the language have cases – in other words they are declinable. The four cases are the following: nominative (ονομαστική), genitive (γενική), accusative (αιτιατική) and vocative (κλητική). 1) Nominative is the case we use to answer to the question who or what. Example with who (Ποιός, ποιά, ποιό) Ποιός είναι; (Who is it?) Είναι η Μαρία. (It’s Maria)
Example with what (Τι) Τι είναι μπλε; (What is blue?) Ο ουρανός. (The sky) 2) Genitive is the case we use to answer to the question whose. Example with whose (Ποιανού, Ποιανής ή ποιού, ποιάς)
Ποιανού είναι το ποτήρι; (Whose is the glass?) Της Ζωής. (It’s Zoe’s)
Or
To ποτήρι είναι της Ζωής. (The glass is Zoe’s)
3) Accusative is the case we use to answer to the question whom (or what).
Example with whom (Ποιόν, Ποιά, Ποιό)
Ποιόν συνάντησες; (Whom did you meet?) Συνάντησα τον Γιάννη. I met John. Watch this though:
Τι παίζεις; (What do you play?) Παίζω μπάλα. (I play ball *means I play soccer) Παίζω μουσική. (I play music)
Τον παίζω. (to be explained orally)
4) Vocative is the case we use to call or address someone. Έβελυν, έλα ‘δω! (Evelyn come here!)
GENDER AND NUMBER (γένος και αριθμός) - Part 1 The Greek language has three genders, masculine (αρσενικό), feminine (θηλυκό) and neuter (ουδέτερο). Yep, this language was ahead of its time! ;)
We will start identifying gender with the articles. We have talked about the articles before.Let’s start with the definitive (οριστικό) article.
Ο Γιάννης - masculine Η ζωή - feminine Το ποτήρι - neuter When we speak generally about someone and not about a specific person then we use the male gender. Go back to this example:
Ποιόν συνάντησες; (Whom did you meet?) Συνάντησα τον Γιάννη. I met John. The question uses the male gender (Ποιόν). You could also ask: Ποιόν συνάντησες; (Whom did you meet?) – Again the male gender Συνάντησα τη Ζωή. I met Zoe. – To get a response about a female person As we have already said, the inflected parts of the language are declinable. So, articles are declinable. We decline the definitive article in this way: Singular masculine Nom. ο Gen. του Acc. το(ν) Plural masculine Nom. οι Gen. των Acc. τους Singular feminine Nom. η Gen. της Acc. τη(ν) Plural feminine Nom. οι Gen. των Acc. τις Singular neuter Nom. το Gen. του Acc. το Plural neuter Nom. τα Gen. των Acc. τα