20 Comments
So ένας can mean a/an or one? I was told Greek has no indefinite article. Confused!
So ένας can mean a/an or one?
Yes! The indefinite article doubles as the numeral for this number.
1210
So is ένας "the" when referring to a masculine noun and μία when feminine? Is το supposed to be an object then? And what about omicron as "the"? Sorry I'm a bit confused :)
Definite article for masculine: ο
Ο άντρας = The man
Definite article for feminine: η
Η γυναίκα = The woman
Definite article for neuter: το
Το παιδί = The child
The indefinite article is the same as the number "one":
Indefinite article for masculine: ένας
Ένας άντρας = A man / One man
Indefinite article for feminine: μία / μια (*)
Μία γυναίκα = A woman / One woman
Indefinite article for neuter: ένα
Ένα παιδί = A child / One child
(*) Please note: The indefinite article for feminine could have an accent, or not. So you can see it as "μία" or as "μια". They both mean exactly the same and can be used in all contexts. You only change the way you read it. "Μία" is a disyllabic word (and you stretch on ι) while "μια" is monosyllabic (and you stretch on α).
If you make this info available in separate "wiki" clickable from left side widget it would be realy useful fo everyone utilizing duolingo.
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No, ένας (masculine) and μία (feminine) mean "a(n)" or "one", i. e., the indefinite article. ο (masculine), η (feminine), and το (neuter) mean "the", i. e., the definite article. το does not necessarily refer to an object; for instance, "the child" is το παιδί, because it is a neuter noun.
Why is μια accepted with a "you have a typo μία" warning?
I read that monosyllabic words don't take the accent mark. Is this true?
Is the "y" in woman the lowercase 'gamma' or the uppercase 'upsilon' pronunciation being used here?
I guess it's the lowercase gamma, the word came to English as the root of vagina, gynecologic etc, so it's the gamma thought if as a "g"
Clearly, you're right on the etymology of gynecologic, LaP. But as for "vagina," my unabridged English dictionary states the English word goes back to its use in neo-Latin; and that it goes back to Latin "vāgina," where it meant "sheath"; and that's it, no "borrowed from Greek."
Also, the fact that modern Greek uses κόλπος or αιδοίο here suggests our English word comes from the Latin original.
what happens is that modern Greek doesn't pronounce the gamma alone as clearly as we speak "g", but it's the "Greek g"
μια (unaccented) isn't accepted, even though the speaker clearly pronounced it μια and not μία [Web, listening]
