"A cup of coffee"
Translation:Ένα φλιτζάνι καφέ
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'Ένα ποτηρι καφέ' was marked wrong but ποτηρι was given as an option for cup in the drop down list and earler when asked to translte to English from Greek 'A cup of coffee' was accepted as correct for 'Ένα ποτηρι καφέ' ?
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The word φλιτζάνι has not been taught in this series of lessons, only ποτήρι has been taught so far.
Yes they did in the first lesson. I know because i write the new words on paper. Seems like φλιτζάνι is used only for coffee
Φλιτζάνι is also used for tea. I suggest running an image search with the Greek word in such cases, it's pretty accurate. Of course there's no tea drinking culture in Greece, so coffee takes the lead in this case, but tags and images include tea cups too. :)
You're right, but, unfortunately, that can't be changed now. Such errors are going to be avoided in the second tree. Thank you for your comment!
cup=φλυτζάνι/φλιτζάνι
glass=ποτήρι
And what about μία κούπα καφέ ? that's the 1rst suggested translation. Is φλιτζάνι a better word for cup ?
All of them can be used, depending on whether we're using a κούπα, φλιτζάνι or ποτήρι. What I like doing in such cases is googling the terms and seeing what Google Images has to say. It's easier to distinguish the words after that.
@Atheia
In case you're still interested in that question, ποτήρι had probably been left out initially and was added after some time.
Yes, that's the better translation, this is mostly for the sake of consistency.
Is καφέ here in nominative or is another case used? Would a bottle of milk also be: "a bottle + milk (nominative)" and so on (like for example in German)?
This is the accusative case. A preposition is implied before καφέ, like "a cup (with) coffee", therefore the accusative is used. (It would take a really long post on how the nominative could fit here and all the possible meanings attached to either case, that I decided to scrap my draft and post this instead.) (Edit: And while I was going on and on about cases and meanings in my draft, a more decisive Theo gave the answer! Good job!)
It's actually pretty interesting. I would never expect the accusative in such a structure and I'm not sure I understand this implied preposition. Does it come from some other form of this structure? How do you say with in Greek? With the accusative? Also, how would you say things like a slice of pizza or a piece of cake?
I don't know if this can help you, but you can visit both the English and Greek Wiktionary and search for the word (e.g., "καφές"). Both sites usually have a declension table, along with etymology and definition of the word.
Also, the Greek translation of the word "with" is "με" (in general; I don't know if there are any exceptions that "with" could be translated as something else than "με" in Greek). However: "With" can also be translated as "μαζί" ("μαζί" usually means "together"), and is used if you want to translate, for example, this sentence: "Do you want to come with me?" = "Θέλεις (do you want) να (to) έρθεις (come) μαζί (with) μου (me);" Another translation of the same phrase with "με" would be: "Θέλεις να έρθεις [μαζί, optional] με (with) εμένα (me);" In my opinion, considering that you are on Level 5, I think that this is far advanced for now. (In everyday speech, I think we generally use the first phrase: "Θέλεις να έρθεις μαζί μου;") Nevertheless, I suggest that you read this article (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B5%CE%B3%CF%8E), which is about the word "I" (εγώ), in case you're interested.
If you want to say "a slice of pizza", you can say: "ένα (a) κομμάτι (slice) πίτσα (pizza)", and "a piece of cake": "ένα κομμάτι κέικ". Note that the phrase "ένα κομμάτι κέικ" doesn't have the meaning of the idiom "that's a piece of cake" = "that's easy" (we usually say: "πανεύκολο", from παν + εύκολο=easy).
Edit: in the sentence " a cup of coffee", the "of" word is usually translated as "του" or "της", depending on the gender, but we generally omit this, since it is obvious from the whole context (that you want a cup FILLED with coffee). Using "του" (or "της") in this sentence or every other similar sentences could also be problematic: for example, say you are at a Greek taverna, you have a glass of water on the table, and the glass falls and brokes into pieces. Then maybe you'll say: "Χρειάζομαι ένα [νέο] ποτήρι του νερού επειδή [or γιατί] έσπασα το άλλο [or you could say, το προηγούμενο, instead of το άλλο]": "I need a [new] glass of water because I broke the other one". Here, the word "του" specifies the type of glass you need. And especially if you have a big bottle of water already on your table, then he or she will bring you just an empty glass OF water (not of, say, wine).
To sum up, in Greek we usually change the meaning of the word "of" (which means "του/της", generally), in favor of the meaning of the word "with" (με or μαζί in Greek semantics), on such occasions. Therefore, I think there isn't a 1-1 relationship between those two languages...
I hope that I made myself understood. And, of course, keep up learning Greek! These obstacles aren't very important on the level you are now (but of course it's very nice to ask questions when you have trouble)!
What I was especially curious about was that accusative in this structure.
in the sentence " a cup of coffee", the "of" word is usually translated as "του" or "της", depending on the gender, but we generally omit this, since it is obvious from the whole context
So does του/της require the accusative after it?
With those "slice of pizza" and "piece of cake" I was wondering about what structure is used in that case, if it's also accusative or nominative. I guess those things don't really matter because those forms seem to be usually the same anyway. I just though it was interesting.
Thank you very much for the detailed comment :)
If it was in nominative it would be ένα φλιτζάνι καφές. I think it is in accusative case, but I am not very sure!
Yes, it can be the same. For example: ένα μπουκάλι γάλα (a bottle of milk), ένα ποτήρι νερό (a glass of water), μία κουταλιά μέλι (a tablespoon of honey).
I'm struggling to understand how the grammar works - is the nominative "a coffee cup" (i.e the actual type of cup) and the accusative is "a cup of coffee" (i.e. the coffee, server in a cup)? I'm British and don't really speak any languages that have inflected nouns so the concepts are new to me.
In this case it's impossible to determine whether it's in the nominative (i.e. the noun is the subject of the sentence) or the accusative (i.e. the noun is the object of the sentence) without further context. Don't worry too much, you'll get the hang of it, eventually ;)
The sentence was last edited 9 months ago, so changes to the sentence have already been saved. Please don't forget to use the report option in such cases so that we can see what you typed in.
I speak German and the difference in how Nominative and Accusative cases are treated confuses me a little. In Greek, the noun goes through a change, whereas in German only the gender goes through the change. Because of this tiny little difference, I actually couldn't tell what case this is since in German this would be "Eine Tasse Kaffee", but the case isn't shown. Very interesting question here for me
Actually the sentence structure is the same between the two languages in such cases
Ein Glass Wein = Ένα ποτήρι κρασί
Could a cup of coffee that happens to be in a glass cup be "ένα ποντήρι καφέ"?
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Are the three words for cup actually just different words for containers that are used to drink from? (I have an earlier reply somewhere.)
"κούπα" is one of the accepted translations. Did you use the right article? If your sentence was not accepted you should have made a report.
TIPS TO MAKE LEARNING EASIER + HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22424028
And check out the Greek Forum here with more links. https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/936
How come in the listening exercise the app says, "ένα ποτήρι καφέ" but if I type it, I'm marked incorrect and told to use "φλιτζάνι"?
Hi LeonAchill! Please read the rest of the comments in the discussion, your question has already been answered. :)
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