"Φέτος και πέρυσι."

Translation: This year and last year.

[PeterGuillam]

Is there any particular reason why "this year" and "last year" have these distinctive forms? Are there any etymologies or other derivations that explain it?

[kirakrakra]

THIS YEAR, εφέτος ή φέτος εφ- fr. επ- fr. επί + έτος

YEAR ***έτος (το) [του έτους, τα έτη, των ετών] αρχ. Ελ. Fέτος (F is the old digamma, I do not have the symbol, a v/w sound.) fr. I.E. wet- (year)

LAST YEAR πέρσι ή πέρυσι fr. I.E. peruti fr per-(beyond) + wt wet- (year)

NEXT YEAR του χρόνου χρόνος time or year, unknown origin. My theory is that it comes from Zeus' father, Kronos/ Κρόνος, who ate his kids, because there is a saying in my language that "Time eats it's children" and we are the children of Time

[PeterGuillam]

Right, thank you, that's fantastic!

[olayasimioni]

It takes πέρσι as incorrect in this excercise. It should be fixed.

[mizinamo]

ϝέτος

[topher967863]

interestingly germanic has a word from the same root as greek for last year: πέρυσι, both going back to a proto indo european [peruti]
the proto germanic form became [ferudi]
and is the source for example of the danish and norwegian:
i fjor (last year)

[Stergi3]

Πέρυσι the same as in Ancient Greek= the last year, πέρσι is right too in Modern greek.

[ShaoxuanLi]

is there a word for next year?

[jaye16]

yes, we use: "του χρόνου".

[Marva441926]

Does that mean that του χρόνου is ambiguous between "of the year" and "next year"? Or does it consistently mean "next year"?

[mizinamo]

In theory, it's ambiguous, but in practice, it usually isn't.

I suppose one could construct a sentence such as "We will measure the length of the year" or "We will measure the length next year", but otherwise, it should be pretty clear which meaning is meant since one is used like an adverb, the other will be after a noun.

[AlexFalconer]

I love all the erudite linguistic comments. However, it is grammatically correct to translate the phrase thus - This year and last. In English the second 'year' can be omitted as understood.

[jaye16]

"This year and last." is already one of the alternative translations. And it is indeed accepted by Duolingo. If it was not it should have been reported as: "My sentence should be accepted." But I don't see it among the reports. Thank you for your input.

[UralMasha]

Can " πέρυσι" also mean "past year"?

[D_..]

No, it is used specifically for last year. A "past year" would be "περασμένο έτος"/"περασμένος χρόνος"/"περασμένη χρονιά", because of course year can be in any of the three grammatical genders in Greek!

[Vemund75118]

Are the old greek male name Perseus connected to this word "περυσι"?

[troll1995]

No, it comes from the ancient (and no longer used) verb "πέρθω" that means "to conquer, to sack".