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- "No matter how much food ther…
"No matter how much food there is, I will not eat."
Translation:Όσο πολύ και αν είναι το φαγητό δεν θα τρώω.
39 Comments
Just some feedback: for somebody new to Greek this section is a show stopper. Been manageable up to now, but without grammar help this isn't.
If you click on the light bulb that you see when you click on the skill, or go to https://www.duome.eu/Adriaan952156/progress and click the light bulb there, you will find some grammar notes. If you are using the app, the latter might be your only choice.
That being said, this sentence seems more idiomatic than anything so far, so the notes aren't of much help with the first part of the sentence.
Thanks for that! No lightbulbs in the Android app, which is why I never saw the notes. But found them on the web, and they are very helpful.
TIPS TO MAKE LEARNING EASIER and EFFECTIVE + HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22424028
they will help you:
1 always find the correct translation (Drop Down Hints)
2 find explanations for grammar and vocabulary....(Tips & notes)
3 Show you what to do if your sentence is rejected or you have another problem.
Also, check out the Greek Forum with many more resources…... https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/936 -
I happened to stumble upon the introduction, but found it unhelpful. Too many theoretical definitions.
I got this sentence in a "Mark all correct translations" exercise, and I was marked wrong for not also choosing Όσο πολύ και αν είναι το φαγητό δε θα τρώω. The only difference is the final -ν that is omitted from δεν. Is there a rule that permits elision of the -ν when followed by the future tense or something? I had never seen this before now...
The final nu is omitted before β δ φ θ χ λ ρ as well as μ ν γ (but not μπ ντ γκ) according to the rules taught today.
http://ebooks.edu.gr/modules/ebook/show.php/DSDIM-F102/580/3784,16613/
What is wrong with this sentence? «Δεν πειράζει πόσο φαγητό υπάρχει, δεν θα φάω.»
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I tried a similar one "Δεν πειράζει πόσο φαγητό έχει, δεν θα τρώω". Can someone explain if at least some variant of this would work?
Δεν πειράζει is like It's ok, no problem, so it cannot work in this case.
Is there an explanation why υπάρχει can't be used instead of είναι in this sentence?
Does "θα τρώω" even exist? I was taught that the future of "τρώω" is "θα φάω". Can you explain please?
Yes, both θα τρώω and θα φάω exist.
The first of those, formed with the present stem, refers to repeated or habitual actions; the second, formed with the aorist stem, refers to a single action. (More or less.)
A bit like the difference between "I eat bread (every day)" versus "I am eating bread (right now)", or "we used to eat bread (whenever we went camping)" versus "we ate bread (on the 21st of June)".
So Greek also has "we 'will use to' eat" (as it were) versus "we will eat".
Similarly with other verbs.
This habitual future is formed with θα + the present subjunctive, but for pretty much all verbs, that's exactly the same as the regular present tense. (It used to be spelled a bit differently, e.g. -η instead of -ει, but since they're pronounced the same that spelling difference has disappeared in modern Greek.)
Όσο πολύ και αν... Can this structure work with other adjectives? Like Όσο ακριβό και αν είναι το ρολόι θα το παίρνω and other similar constructions. This structure came suddenly out of the blue and really needs some explanation
Yes it can be used with other adjectives. The sentence you wrote is almost correct Οσο ακριβό κι αν είναι το ρολόι, εγώ θα το πάρω . We need πάρω because we are not talking about a habitual action.
The reason why is the verb used (είναι) and the structures implied with / without the article.
If something είναι φαγητό = it is edible. Φαγητό here is the predicate.
However, Όσο πολύ και αν είναι το φαγητό suggests the structure το φαγητό είναι πολύ, so the food is the subject and it's about this food we're talking about. It's like rephrasing 'there is food' to 'however much food there may be' and linking it to 'food is plentiful'.
So, "Όσο πολύ και αν" could be described as a Greek idiosyncratic phrase?
Yes, it is, as G.Georgopoulos has written in a previous comment. I don't have access to the translations list, but my guess would be Όσο πολύ φαγητό κι αν υπάρχει, δε θα τρώω/φάω. I prefer the version with είναι though, πολύ makes the υπάρχει sentence sound ungrammatical for some reason.
Remember to copy and paste your whole answer in your comment if you have a suggestion that was rejected. :)
Have you read the comment by G. Georgopoulos above? And follow the instructions given by D_.. to report your sentence.
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It wasn't there last night when I wrote the question. (I'm 10+ GMT) but I have now. Thank you D_.
You're very welcome Jezza11. It's a problem that Duo does not always display previous comments causing all sorts of issues. For that reason I suggest filing a bug report that goes directly to staff at https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204728264-How-do-I-report-a-bug- to tell them that this 'feature' of not seeing previous comments before posting a new one needs to be fixed.
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Thank you D_.. for revealing that bug. I had no idea this was happening till now. I will definitely report it! PS: I always enjoy your answers - like Einstein said, if you know something well enough you can explain it to a child ... or an old lady in this case ;-)
