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- "Αυτό είναι ένα κορίτσι."
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I'm sorry, but I'm very shocked by the similarity with kuritsa (курица, chicken in russian)
It actually comes from κόρη (kore), the ancient Greek word for maiden, and the suffix "-τσι", which denotes something small (like the German "-chen" and "-lein"). Nowadays, κορίτσι means girl and κόρη means daughter.
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Compare chicken with Spanish chica. (Btw at this exact day I finished my Russian tree :D)
If you go back to the ABC lessons, under the lessons is text telling you all about letters, dipthongs and letter combinations. The letters "αυ" when next to each other like in "αυτό" is an "af" sound.
When a baby is born, the midwife says "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!",
(not: "She's a girl", or "He's a boy")
Why is the letter upsilon in "αυτος" pronounced as a 'v' or 'w' whereas elsewhere it is pronounced as the german 'ü' or the french 'u' in "tu"?
The letter υ is usually pronounced as ee in bee. When it follows another vowel like α, ε, or ο, the two of them are combined. The combinations are
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αυ, pronounced as af (αυτός) when it's is followed by κ, π, τ, χ, θ, φ, σ or ξ, or av(αυλή) when it's followed by another vowel, a dipththong or γ, β, δ, λ, μ, ν, ρ.
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ευ, pronounced as ef (ευχή) when it's is followed by κ, π, τ, χ, θ, φ, σ or ξ (ευχή), or ev (Ευρώπη) when it's followed by another vowel, a diphthong or γ, β, δ, λ, μ, ν, ρ.
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ου, pronounced as oo (κουκουβάγια).
Thank you very much for your explanation Dimitra. This solves my problem but there now are new question marks floating above my head: If you say that 'υ' was usally pronounced like "ee" as in "bee", why isn' the 'ε' or the 'ι' used as they are pronounced "ee" as in "meet" or "bee" as well? It's the same thing like with the letters Ο and Ω which are often used the same way.
It's okay, we can clear things up. ^.^
The letter ε all by itself is pronounced like e in elephant.
There are three individual letters that sound like ee in bee. These are υ, ι, and η.
However, ει and οι also sound like ee, as they are what we call diphthongs (two vowels combined, that produce one vowel sound -in that case, ee.)
There is also a diphthong that produces the sound of e in elephant, αι. ^.^
@mizinamo (too many nested comments to reply directly):
γγ and γκ are different
Are they? For example I would pronounce them the exact same way in αγγιζω-αγκίστρι or φεγγάρι - εγκέλαδος and I might drop the n in φεγγάρι actually. Besides, it's the εγκ- that's εν+κ, if I'm not mistaken. I would not pronounce an n in 'φιγγερ' - this is definitely a 'figure' type of word, not a 'finger'! It might have something to do with the vowel preceding γγ/γκ?
Ok, thank you so far. So I guess I just accept that there are so many letters for the same sound but I have one last question.
Are the letters 'β' and 'γ' always pronounced as 'v' and 'ch' respectively or are there exceptions? For now I've not found an example where the gamma is pronounced as 'g' like in "get"
γ has two main pronunciations: /j/ or /ʝ/ before front vowels /e i/ and /ɣ/ before back vowels /a o u/.
γιατί and γατί are not pronounced the same -- the first starts with a sound similar to that of "y" in "yes", the second with a kind of gargling sound, the voiced equivalent of χ before back vowels or the German "ach-Laut".
(Greeks sometimes describe that back sound of gamma as "like the w in wood" -- but I think that's due to Greeks' accents in English, not because the sounds are identical.)
And as Dimitra said, γγ and γκ are different again: γκ is usually /g/ and γγ is /g/ or /ŋg/ depending on region (so a hypothetical Greek word φίγγερ could sound a bit like "finger" or a bit like "figure (figger)").
Β is pronounced as ν in Venus.
Γ is pronounced as y in yes.
The double consonants γκ and γγ are pronounced as g in get (αγκαλιά, αγγούρι, αγκίστρι, μάνγκο, etc.) ^.^
@mizinamo Thank you so much for the input. I should've probably mentioned the difference in the pronunciation of γ before the vowels! >.<
It has three meanings, depending on its usage (the same thing was for ancient greek). The first meaning is the third singular person (αυτός,αυτή,αυτό=he,she,it). The second is "this,that" Μην με κοιτάς με αυτό το ύφος=Don't look at me with that face. The third meaning is "the same" when αυτός is preceeded by the definite article or και. Also αυτό- as a first component of a compound word has the meaning of self-: Αυτοκαταστροφικός=self-destructive.
Tips and notes can be found under the lessons, within the skill units, in the website (including mobile web).
can't it be "he is a girl" like in a case of pointing someone who dresses like a man
Well, considering that the word girl refers to people of a younger age, you could say this sentence has the meaning of "This child is a girl.", where is child is neuter in gender, and implied. ^.^
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I am slightly confused. I put my answer as 'It is a girl'. This was marked as correct, but how would I have know that the answer is supposed to be 'This is a girl'?
Well, technically, pronouns can always be omitted in Greek. Not only because there is a different verb ending for each pronoun, but also because there's usually context, so even in third person singular (or plural), there wouldn't be a need for it.
Usually, when the pronoun does appear, it is used for emphasis, so it translates to this instead of it. ^.^
(It's not wrong to use the pronouns. Just redundant.)
How is it possible that some say that they write things wrong, yet still get a heart, where I got the sentence right, without the apostrophy, which I don't have on my keyboard! How can I get to use apostrophy?! ....just gave duolingo a good review, but am reconsidering!
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"How is it possible that some say that they write things wrong, yet still get a heart" That doesn't seem possible. But since I don't know what sentences you mean I can't answer.
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Now I think you mean the "accent", that little line on top of a letter. Like this
κορίτσι
Ok, that's easy. I'll show you how to do that.
But, and this is very important, Duo never rejects a sentence if the accent is wrong or missing.
Now have a look at this information and you will be able to do the sentences right, even use the accent.
HOW TO ADD THE ACCENT:
ON A COMPUTER: On the Greek keyboard first type the key on the right of the Λ (L) (the semicolon :/;) you will not see anything, then type the letter you want the accent on.
ON A MOBILE/ANDROID just hold the letter for an extra second or two and there will appear a variety of that letter with accents. Slide up to the one you want.
HOW TO FIND EXACTLY WHICH WORD TO USE: Just pass your cursor over the word and you will see a list. Use the first word on the list.
Ok, give this a try and if you have any problems come back and tell us so we can help.
So κοριτσι is neuter?
Yes. Like pretty much everything that ends in -ι.
Apart from the fact that κορίτσι is considered to be neuter in Greek, I think there are phrases like "It's a girl/boy" (when a baby is born), "It's just a kid" etc. So it is used not only for children (occasionally) but also for animals and plants. I think they all considered to be living things, no? ^.^
In English it can be used as dummy pronoun, not implying necessarily that the subject is a thing.
