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- "Your wife reads a book."
"Your wife reads a book."
Translation:Η γυναίκα σου διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο.
16 Comments
Surely you could use the formal version of 'you' could be used here too. E.g. Η γυναίκα σας διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο.
Yes, it had already been included in the possible translations.
I understand that in written Greek, an accent on the pronoun would indicate an indirect object, eg: Η γυναίκα σού διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο would then be "The woman reads a book to you." What about spoken Greek? Would there be an audible pause (as though there were a comma) after γυναίκα in order to pair it with the verb as opposed to the preceding noun? eg: Η γυναίκα (pause) σου διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο? Or would there be more audible emphasis placed on the pronoun as a way to distinguish it from the possessive adjective? (eg: Η γυναίκα σου διαβάζει ένα βιλβίο.)
It's not a clearly audible pause, it's more about intonation as your comment implies: how words are grouped together and speech flows.
Η γυναίκα σού διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο = Η γυναίκα σουδιαβάζει ένα βιβλίο
Η γυναίκα σου διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο =Η γυναίκασου διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο
If you try to read these as they are grouped, you are forced to utter the words in a way that it's clear whether σου is a possessive or not.
σού? Why the accent? I got that in one of those exercises with multiple answers, to choose.
It's wrong. The accent is needed if it were "the woman reads you a book."="η γυναίκα σού διαβάζει ένα βιβλίο"
Oh, so the indirect object is marked with an accent in those pronouns? Like μού, σού, τού, τής, μάς, σάς, τούς?
Yes, but only in a case when it could be misunderstund as a possessive, as in the above sentence. So αυτός σου διαβάζει=he reads to you does not need an accent because σου here could never be a possessive. Also, that accent mark is present in spoken Greek as an emphasis on σου.
I almost got this. But I still wonder how one would say: Your wife reads you a book; Do you put σού after σου, like that: Η γυναίκα σου σού διαβάζει...?
Yes, or you can skip the accent on the second σου, because it cannot be confused with a possessive (you can't have two possessives in a row). It's aesthetically better with the accent, though.
1425
'Fraid this one rejected my "η γυναίκα σου διαβάζει βιβλίο," insisting on "το βιβλιο." Could it be added so as to bring it into line with all the "... διαβάζει εφημερίδα" examples already allowed in this exercise?
Shouldn't you say σύζυγος instead of γυναίκα? Or is σύζυγος only reserved for 'husband'?
- 1425
Whoa, j. Please check your spelling here; both versions you typed are a little off. As I'm sure you know, it's always σύζυγος, masculine or feminine.
η γυναίκα μου / ο άντρας μου are very common ways of saying "my wife / my husband".
You don't have to say η σύζυγός μου / ο σύζυγός μου "my spouse".
