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- Topic: Greek >
- "The eagle eats a mouse."
"The eagle eats a mouse."
Translation:Ο αετός τρώει ένα ποντίκι.
8 Comments
Translating it back to Greek shouldn't it work even without indefinite article?
Not really, the meaning changes a bit. Without the article it would be more like "The eagle eats mice", as if a mouse is part of the eagle's diet, the same way someone may ask "Τρως αρνί;" = "Do you eat lamb?" Answering yes does not mean that you're eating a lamb, but you will eat it as food. The lesson sentence is more specific in its meaning than that.
I'm very confused as to the pronunciation of "ποντίκι" - it sounds somehow as "podítchi" to me. Why the "nt" group becomes a "d" sound?
Sound change, I suppose. ντ is how modern Greek writes the [d] sound, and ντ is generally pronounced either [d] or [nd]. (You can use either, with no difference in meaning.)
Is ποντίκι related to οίκος?
Not at all.
ποντίκι is a diminutive of ποντικός, which comes from Ποντικός μυς "Pontian mouse" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontus_(region) ).
So, a little bit like how Latin iecur "liver" was used in the combination iecur ficatum "fig-stuffed liver" (a favourite dish), and then the adjective ended up being used as the word for "liver" in descendant languages, e.g. Spanish hígado, French foie, etc.
The answer "Ο αετος τρωει ποντικι" is marked as wrong. However native speakers have said that an indefinite article is not always mandatory and is added for educational purposes sometimes. So how do learners know?
