Aims:

• Learn one more set of letters (vowels) combinations
• Declension: definite article, nouns (Part 1)
• Auxiliary verb έχω (to have)

1. Vowel combinations

In Lesson 2, we learnt how to pronounce two-letter vowels, i.e. a combination of two vowels that sound as another vowel, completely different from what we see on the page.
In Greek language there are also combinations of two vowels that produce a vowel + consonant sound. This happens as follows:

Vowel combinations:

Greek	Pronounced	When followed by
αυ	af	κ, χ, π, φ, τ, θ, ξ, ψ, σ, τσ
ευ	ef	κ, χ, π, φ, τ, θ, ξ, ψ, σ, τσ
αυ	av	vowel γ, β, δ, λ, ρ, μ, ν, ζ, τζ
ευ	ev	vowel γ, β, δ, λ, ρ, μ, ν, ζ, τζ

According to the above table, we will pronounce:

ο ευγενικός (adj.)	ο evyenikòs	gentle, civil
η αυλή	i avlì	yard
αύριο (adverb)	ávrio	tomorrow
o ευνοϊκός (adj.)	o evnoïkòs	favorable
το πεύκο	to péfko	pine
το αυτί	to aftì	ear
αυθαδιάζω (verb)	afθaδiázo	to show impertinence

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2. Declension: Definitive Article

Greek is a highly inflected language. Greek articles and nouns (as well as adjectives and pronouns) are inflected for gender, number and case.

 

Singular Number

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
Nominative	ο	η	το
Genitive	του	της	του
Accusative	το(ν)*	τη(ν)*	το
Vocative	—	—	—

*Note: The final consonant -ν is added when the next word (noun, article, etc) begins with:

(i) a vowel or any kind of vowel combination,

(ii) κ, τ, π,

(iii) a double consonant (μπ, ντ, γκ).

 

Plural Number

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
Nominative	οι	οι	τα
Genitive	των	των	των
Accusative	τους	τις	τα
Vocative	—	—	—

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3. Declension: Nouns (Part 1)

The next step is to inflect some nouns.

Greek nouns consist of a word root and an ending denoting the word’s gender, number and case. Thus, we can have:

Masculine

	Singular	Plural
Nom.	o ήλι-ος	οι ήλι-οι
Gen.	του ήλι-ου	των ήλι-ων
Acc.	τον ήλι-ο	τους ήλι-ους
Voc.	– ήλι-ε	– ήλι-οι

Feminine

	Singular	Plural
Nom.	η γυναίκ-α	οι γυναίκ-ες
Gen.	της γυναίκ-ας	των γυναικ-ών*
Acc.	τη γυναίκ-α	τις γυναίκ-ες
Voc.	– γυναίκ-α	– γυναίκ-ες

*Note: We see that, in the genitive of plural, the stress moves to the ultimate syllable of the noun. This phenomenon pertains to the general rules governing Word Stress, which we will explore in one of our next lessons.

Neutral

	Singular	Plural
Nom.	το μωρ-ό	τα μωρ-ά
Gen.	του μωρ-ού	των μωρ-ών
Acc.	το μωρ-ό	τα μωρ-ά
Voc.	– μωρ-ό	– μωρ-ά

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4. Auxiliary verb “έχω” (to have)

εγώ έχω (eyo eho)	εμείς έχουμε (emis ehoome)
εσύ έχεις (esi ehis)	εσείς έχετε (esis ehete)
αυτός έχει (aftos ehi)	αυτοί έχουν (afti ehoon)
αυτή έχει (afti ehi)	αυτές έχουν (aftes ehoon)
αυτό έχει (afto ehi)	αυτά έχουν (afta ehoon)