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- "The child is as small as a c…
"The child is as small as a cat."
Translation:Το παιδί είναι τόσο μικρό όσο μία γάτα.
9 Comments
Is somebody able to help me out here?
So, I was just marked incorrectly for 'το παιδί είναι τόσο μικρά όσο μια γάτα'.
It's not been explained, so I'm presuming from the incorrect mark, that when making comparisons like this you gender the adjective based on the subject of the simile, not the object it's being compared to?
Yes. It goes like: Το παιδί είναι μικρό->(How small??)Το παιδί είναι τόσο μικρό όσο μια γάτα. The word μικρό is predicate to the word παιδί. (Also the most common feminine for μικρός is μικρή, μικρά is very literary)
Thanks Troll, you're a star! Due to a completely grammarless 80s/90s education, it doesn't help that I'm simultaneously having to learn English grammar in order to learn Greek!
Sorry to always be the one to ask this but why is the indefinite article needed here?
Because the sentence wouldn't make sense without it. :P The noun is in singular, and the article is needed in English, just like it's needed in Greek. ^.^
Gotcha. Thanks for helping. I think my confusion stems from something I read on another thread here. the person said the general rule is if the number didn't need to be specified the indefinite article could be omitted. Is there a better rule than that?
Are the exceptions the same in Greek? As boring as TV, as black as night, as hot as hell, etc?
You're welcome. The rule is pretty accurate, but the problem lies in όσο. You can't use the phrase τόσο.... όσο... and not use an article after όσο (unless, of course, there is some sort of pronoun following, instead of a noun. Όσο εγώ, όσο εσύ etc.)
If you write ένα γάτα (which is incorrect as γάτα is feminine and you have to use μία) the grading system will give you the noun corresponding to the article you used, in this case γατί which is the neuter form of the word γάτα.
