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- "The girl is wearing a sweate…
"The girl is wearing a sweater."
Translation:Το κορίτσι φοράει μία ζακέτα.
20 Comments
Is ζακετα really a sweater? Wouldn't that rather be a πουλόβερ? Or is that some english/american confusion?
I'm seriously having issues with when I can leave out the indefinite article. Can someone please explain this. I've asked in several different threads and have not gotten an answer.
In Greek, when 1) the noun can't be more than one or when 2) we don't care about the fact that the noun is one thing or when 3) we just want to generalise, we can leave the indefinite article out. So,
1) είμαι άνθρωπος=I am a human, does not need the indefinite article because it is impossible to be more than one person.
2) Φοράω μια ζακέτα specifies that I wear one sweater whereas φοράω ζακέτα does not give any importance to the fact that it is one/a sweater, it just tries to convey that I have a jacket on me. It is a matter of emphasis.
3) Τρώω μια ντομάτα means "I a eating a tomato", τρώω ντομάτα means "I am eating (an unspecified amount of) tomato(es).
For the sake of argument, in this particular lesson, we are asked to translate from English to Greek. "The girl is wearing a sweater." Not ONE sweater, A sweater. So, shouldn't the answer be correct WITHOUT the μία, as well?
Yes it should. If it is not, it is an omission on our part and will be added. :)
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However, nine months after your reply, the response without μία was red-screened today, with the μία underlined in the only accepted correct answer....
For example, in the lesson, "Translate from English to Greek: I wear a coat." An acceptable answer is, "Φοράω παλτό." No ένα required. Fyi, I'm almost always doing my exercises on the Android app. Thanks. I just want to help future learners. This bit really discouraged me and slowed down my learning. Now that I'm into POS, I've picked up the pace again.
Here's why the indefinite article cannot be omitted.
A person can be wearing multiple sweaters. The English phrase to translate is "The girl is wearing 'a' sweater" as in, 1 singular sweater.
This means she is not wearing 2 sweaters, and thus this word cannot be omitted. When you omit the indefinite article you are omitting information from the translation.
Think of the English to translate as "the girl is wearing 1 sweater"
I see what you're saying, but it does not say "one" in the English version. Also, then why not require it in the other exercise I noted above (I wear a coat)? Or in the exercise, "Translate from English to Greek: He wears a shirt." Αυτός φοράει πουκάμισο is correct WITHOUT the indefinite article. Why the inconsistencies? Again, I'm just trying to clarify. Thank you, sincerely, for your assistance. :)
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As I understand it from my native Greek husband, a ζακέτα is a cardigan. The more generic sweater is a πουλόβερ.
I am also confused about that. Although I have an English friend who uses the word "sweater" for a pullover sweatshirt, so maybe an English thing?
In America sweaters are a knitted material whether pulled over or open in front. Jackets are not knitted and open in front. Sweatshirts are not knitted and are pulled over .
It's interesting to me and perhaps to others that ancient Greek had no indefinite article ("a") even though in the koine the indefinite pronoun τις "someone," and the numeral εις, "one," often functioned as an indefinite article; modern Gk inherited the latter use of the numeral for the indefinite article, as μία = koine Gk "one" (fem). Modern Gk indef. article: ένα and ένας (masc), μία (f), ένα (n); koine Gk: εἷς, μία, ἕν. For instance, in the NT we find εἷς γραμματεύς, "a scribe." I think in modern Gk that would be ένα γραφέας or ένας γραφέας. Ancient Gk papyri use the numeral for the indefinite article, too, e.g., εν μια βιβλιω, "in a book." My point is just that the use of the numeral for the indef. article in Gk is ancient and found in the Septuagint, the NT, and koine papyri, but in earlier Gk of Plato and so on they did the indef. article differently.
