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- "Η χελώνα και το μικρό άλογο."
19 Comments
Please tell me there is a distinction between Tortoises and Turtles in Greek. They are different creatures. The one swims, the other sinks like a brick. I now have visions of Greek animal lovers trying to save tortoises by throwing them in rivers. Bad idea. Haha.
There is no distinction, you can only say θαλάσσια (sea) χελώνα or χελώνα γλυκού νερού (freshwater turtle) to indicate it's not a land creature.
tortoises/turtles/terrapins is not a scientific distinction, much like ape/monkey. Different languages divide things up differently, or not at all.
There isn't really a distinction so we say "Η θαλάσσια χελώνα" which is "The sea turtle
Did you know? The word άλογο comes from α(ν)- + λόγος, i.e. non-logical, like beasts are.
Αctually λόγος means word or speech, so a more direct translation would be non-talking. It was a military term used by the Greeks to refer to the horses. in ancient Greek, they referred to a horse as ιππος.
I do not know of a Greek word for a pony, so is "pony" a valid translation for "small horse"?
No, a pony is "πόνυ" and the animated show "My little pony" is "Μικρό μου πόνυ" :D
O.K......So the word is tortoise and to indicate that it's a turtle you would say "sea tortoise". Interesting.
As troll says in this very discussion
You can use ίππος but hte most common word for horse is άλογο.
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Sorry, I mainly use the cellphone for Duolingo and I don't see there all the comments posted.
Hmmm, I thought users could see all the comments in a discussion. That certainly explains why people ask the same questions! :) Is it the app or the website you are logging on to?
i can't do the diacritics on my keyboard, so why was my answer not accepted when answers without diacritics have been accepted up to now?
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I had in my mind for some long time the word "αγαλό" as a translation of "horse"; now I find out that word doesn't exist O.O
