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- "το κακό κάππα"
24 Comments
We are simply trying to introduce words into the vocabulary. There is no reflection on how good or bad the letter is. Quite simply we tried to give a word that would seem easy to learn while resembling the letter we are teaching.
It's not meant to mean anything. This is the first skill and we're introducing the alphabet and a few simple words.
Read the comment above yours. Look here for information about the Greek course. https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/936
Before kappa, there was a Greek letter called "Koppa". Despite currently only existing in numeral form, the letter Q descended from it.
are there any rules on accent marks? I see that accent is generally on one of last 3 syllables,but that doesn't help for 2 syllable words like kako or Kappa. I can't tell in the audio which syllable is stressed (tone deaf USA English speaker here). I'm just randomly issuing accent marks, and am mostly wrong. Thoughts on how to work smarter?
Good catch. The accent goes on one of the last 3 syllables but after that, there are no rules. You have to learn the accents as you learn spelling or gender. Each word as you learn it. As for hearing the accent on the listening...it's not you it's the audio that's not always clear.
You can check out each word by using the drop down hints. Just pass your cursor over the word and it will show you a list of translations...always use the first one that's the one that's used in the sentence.
"You have to learn accents as you learn ... gender." lol... the gender thing is a mystery to me. I have no idea of how to even think about it. I have no intellectual framework to work with.
Thank you for your prompt and responsive replies. I do appreciate your help.
Ok, let's leave the accents...they're simple in the end.
Don't worry you don't have to know these names to learn on Duo that's not how we work.
You just have to do the exercises and see how things are said and with repetitions, you'll get used to them. It's sort of how you learned Eng. when you were a child.
"Genders" since we don't have them in Eng. (well just a little like "him/her") can seem daunting. Just think of "genders" as categories of words that are used in a particular way. For example in Eng. we know we say "boy>boys" but "child>children" and other such things we "just learn" them.
Genders don't refer to "male, female, neuter" it's just the name. A girl is neuter in Gr but a chair is feminine. (no kidding),
Ok, here are some standards for the when it's a subject:
The masculine is Οο. The feminine is Η/η And the neuter is Το/το
Here is the Greek Forum with a lot of resources.
Start with the FAQ, then go on to those that talk about the alphabet.
And of course, you can just ask us.
