24 Comments
πολύ is the neuter form, e.g. πολύ βούτυρο "a lot of butter" and is also used as the adverb, e.g. μου αρέσει πολύ "I like it a lot" or πολύ καλά "very well". It's also used as the masculine accusative form (the masculine nominative form being πολύς).
πολλή is the feminine form (nominative/accusative).
Here, ζάχαρη is feminine, so you need the spelling πολλή rather than πολύ. The pronunciation is identical in today's language.
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Oh thanks for that explanation. I forget all of this when I'm not writing and just speaking Greek.
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Believe me, half the Greek population is confused with this, and maybe even more!
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Το τσίζκεικ έχει πολλή ζάχαρη. τσίζκεικ......really. This is a greek word????????????????? I am befuddled. I think I have been away for too long.
You bet, from the biggest cities to the tiniest villages τσιξκεικ is "in". Just google the word and see how many recipes pop up. cheesecake TV shows and recipe books feature it. :-)
I think you'll enjoy these comments. https://www.duolingo.com/comment/17698439$from_email=comment_id=18790385 Note "trezost's" comments. :-)
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I very much enjoyed reading all the comments.
About 15-20 years ago I attended a lecture by a Greek-American linguistics professor in Washington, DC and it was hilarious as he talked for an hour on Americanisms that have become ingrained in the language used by Greeks and Greek-Americans used in the U.S.
I was extremely sensitive to this as I studied at the University of Athens in the late 1960's and early 70s and worked very hard to avoid using these ingrained words that I learned growing up in New York City (στο Μπρουκλιν....which made me a Μπρουκλης).
Also, in University I had to use katharevousa back in those days. I remember very distinctly in 1969 while addressing a stranger (older man) in a hospital waiting room in Athens getting corrected ( and sharply) for using the singular form of "you" rather than the formal plural.
I know that everything has changed since then, the culture, the language, people's relationships with each other. Some things still make me wince but they are getting less frequent. I do smile though hearing words used by my completely illiterate (in both languages) Grandmother in everyday usage now including being taught here as "Greek".
I will close with my grandmother's frequent query when I walked into her house when I was a child: "Θελεις κεικι" and if it was her καρυδόπιτα my answer was always ΝΑΙ ΓΙΑΓΙΑ!!!
Thank you very much for this "memoir" I know just what you mean. katharevousa shutter. I would have loved to have heard the lecture about the cross-cultural language.
I have a relative in NY who still commutes by caro and at a church meeting I once heard someone selling raffle tickets for "dio kores". No, you didn't have to give up your daughters just "two quarters." That was the US.
Yes, just as μπάρα is now μπαρ "κεικι" is now "κεικ".
Shall we try some translations from menus? Try to guess what "bowels on a spit" might be? or "eyelid soup"? To be continued...
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As much as I dislike transliterated words such as "τσίζκεικ", I have accepted, reluctantly, that they have become linguistically acceptable in Greece and the Greek diaspora; however, I still think it's not a great word to have here on Duolingo where beginners are learning the language.
Don't worry. This happens in all languages and countries. I live away from my country and every time I go back (holidays) I find at least half a dozen words whose meaning I have to ask. They are mostly slang words.
The same for me. I never do catch up on slang. I've also noticed that food and clothes tend to be very sensitive areas for changes. What I used to call a "blouse" is now a "top" and it has recently come into use in Greek as well. :-)
The normal use of "much" is in questions and negative sentences. Or in gradations as in "too much"
In this sentence we use a lot of.
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Not even "The cheesecake contains much sugar" is accepted. Why?
Because "much" is not used that way. The dictionary definition of a word does not determine its use in a sentence. The correct usage for "much" would be "The cheesecake has too much sugar." If you wanted to say that the amount was more than what you feel is the right amount.
