"μία" and "μια"
I have just finished the Greek course and I have noticed that, in all exercises when I had to use the feminine singular determiner, only "μία" with an accent was accepted. However, I always write "μια" without accent, and Duolingo allowed me to continue but the answer was marked as "Almost correct".
Both "μία" and "μια" are correct, so I believe they both should be equally accepted. This can be seen in the Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek:
4 Comments
1297
Hi JAGascon and thanks for your comments!
When you want to emphasize the number, you need to add the accent and the pitch goes to ι, so you say μία. When you refer to "anyone" or "anything" you use μια and the pitch goes to α. As the difference is very small and indistinctive even for Greeks, the course accepts almost everywhere both versions and this doesn't mean that who uses one or the other is wrong. As you said they are both equally accepted but note that some sentences have only μία as the best translation so when you add μια Duolingo gives you the "almost correct" message and your sentence is accepted anyway. Once the tree is unlocked we will try to improve this part of the course especially some sentences.
I believe that arguing with some learners is not constructive and it doesn't make sense in these discussions so please keep your feedback coming. It is very useful and the course will never exit Beta if you don't do so. I thank you once again!
Thank you very much for the explanation. I generally take the "almost correct" as an indication that it's not in fact correct, that's why I decided to leave you a comment. If I'm wrong on this, then there is no problem. But you are right, this is not the place for arguing.
- 1297
...and you did well to leave this comment! Should you go through the course again (I hope that you'll keep practicing), please report every sentence where this message appears and mark that "your sentence should be accepted". You'll give us a great hand to individuate such sentences and correct them. :-)
