"The woman talks to him."
Translation:Η γυναίκα τού μιλάει.
12 Comments
Just to be clear. Without the accent on the "τού" this sentence could read (in English): "His wife/woman talks," right?
Both are fine.
These verbs in άω have double forms for most persons:
- εγώ μιλάω, μιλώ
- εσύ μιλάς
- αυτός/αυτή/αυτό μιλάει, μιλά
- εμείς μιλάμε
- εσείς μιλάτε
- αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά μιλάν(ε), μιλούν(ε)
I think the ones on the right are a bit more "formal".
When you say "η γυναίκα του, μιλάει" you refer to "his wife". You emphasise on the person who acts. When you say "η γυναίκα, τού μιλάει" you emphasise on the act. But it is not that strict. On the vast majority of the cases is used "του".
124
But when speaking; how do you know if someone says "The woman is talking to me" or "My wife is talking"? I thought the difference could be "Η γυναίκα αυτή μου μιλάει" if she is talking to me, but I cannot find this in the comments.
When you speak, it's easier to understand what the other person means. If you want say "the woman is talking to me", either you can say "η γυναίκα μού μιλάει", or "η γυναίκα αυτή μου μιλάει" and show the woman to the other person at the same time, in both cases. On the other hand, if you want to say "my wife is talking", usually you have to continue the phrase (unless the woman was mute and she spoke again). For example " my wife is talking on the phone"= "η γυναίκα μου μιλάει στο τηλέφωνο". So, it is not hard to seperate those phrases when speaking.
This is a very good point! Actually the sentence would be the same but their will be a slight difference in the intonation which becomes more obvious when you write down the sentence. "The woman is talking to me" becomes "Η γυναίκα μου μιλάει" while "My wife is talking" would be "Η γυναίκά μου μιλάει". In other words, the nouns which belong to someone followed by possesive words like "μου,σου,του etc" get an extra intonation mark at the last syllable. In oral speech this means you emphasise differently the two sentences. You make sure to emphasize both syllables in the second case to make your meaning clear. If you want to say " My wife is talking to me" would be "Η γυναίκά μου μου μιλάει". Other examples with double intonation: "The family/ my family"=" Η οικογένεια/η οικογένειά μου". "The notebook/your notebook"= "Το τετράδιο/το τετράδιό σου"
