A stroll through modern Greek

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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:12 pm

Lesson 52 today! This was the last lesson I had completed a few weeks ago before I decided to "double back" for a bit. I've been putting in at least an hour each day and now I'm sitting at:

Total time spent on Greek: 80 hours, 30 minutes

I've got a total of 445 cards in Anki. It's crazy to think it's been only a little more than two months (71 days) since I started studying Greek. I feel quite satisfied with my progress so far.
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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Tue Apr 25, 2023 4:00 pm

Lesson 53 this morning, μια βόλτα στο χοριό (= A stroll in the village). It's neat to catch the odd borrowings from Italian here and there (like la volta -> η βόλτα).

Overall Greek pronunciation is pretty straightforward given the languages I know but it does have a few tricks to it. The /xt/ cluster is a new one for me, for example in χτισμένος (xti.'zmɛ.nɔs) (= built, constructed) from today's lesson.

Definitely starting to process aorist forms more automatically this last week or so.

Reviewed lessons 51, 48, and 43 as well.

Total time spent on Greek: 82 hours
5 x

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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Wed Apr 26, 2023 2:03 pm

Lesson 54 this morning, Στο καφενείο (= At the cafe). Definitely the longest lesson yet and lots of new vocabulary.

I got tired of Anki again and deleted my Greek deck (lol). I think I'm just averse to using it for the beginning stages of a language. I can't escape the suspicion that most of the words I'm putting in there are so common that it's kind of pointless to make an effort to memorize them: they'll come up so often in any engagement with the language that they'll flow into my brain naturally, if maybe a little more slowly than if I had pushed them in there with SRS. Or so I like to think. We'll see how it works out!

I also reviewed lessons 52, 49, and 44.

I've spent an hour and a half on Greek already today. Και μου αρέσει πάρα πολύ! (= And I'm quite enjoying it!)

Total time spent on Greek: 84 hours
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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:08 pm

Lesson 55 this morning, Ο δεύτερος δρόμος δεξιά (= Second street on the right). Mostly about how to give directions. Lots of new vocab.

So I learned we have two different adjectives, ακριβής/-ής/-ές (= exact, precise, punctual) and ακριβός/-ή/-ό (expensive). I'm sure that will never trip me up at all, heh.

Finally saw the words for "right" and "left": δεξιά and αριστερά.

δεν θα χαθείτε (= you (pl.) won't get lost) is kind of a tongue-twister (/ðe.þa.χa.'þi.te/).

I'm sitting at 85 hours and 45 minutes studying Greek so far.
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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Fri Apr 28, 2023 12:13 pm

Lesson 56 today, an επανάληψη (review) lesson. Review of accentuation, one of the less common declension paradigms (masculine in -ας/-ες), and passive imperfect and aorist forms. A ton of stuff basically, rather overwhelming. I'm sure it will all sink in eventually, though.

Also reviewed lessons 54, 51, and 46.

Time spent on Greek: 87 hours, 30 minutes
3 x

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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Mon May 01, 2023 3:33 am

Forgot to log here yesterday but I did lesson 57 and studied about an hour and a half total. Still haven't missed a day!

Today was lesson 58, Πότε θα έρθεις; (= When are you coming?), mostly dealing with weather and season vocabulary. I love the names of the cardinal directions in Greek. Maybe just because they're so different from those in any language I've learned before.

ο βορράς / vo.'ras / (north) (e.g. "aurora borealis")
ο νότος / 'no.tos / (south)
η δύση / 'δi.si / (west)
η ανατολή / a.na.to.'li / (east) (Anatolia)

Also reviewed lessons 48, 53, and 56 today.

Total time spent on Greek: about 91 hours
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Mon May 01, 2023 11:48 am

Lesson 59 this morning, Ο καιρός (= The weather). More weather vocabulary, as one might guess from the title. Lots of new words. It's always fun when a "new" Greek word falls into place immediately thanks to science terms you've known since forever. Today it was το έντομο (= insect), as in "entomology."

Much as in the Romance languages with the descendants of Latin tempus, καιρός can mean both "weather" and "time," as in the expression έχουμε τόσο καιρό να τα πούμε (= it's been a long time since we've talked).

Reviewed lessons 57, 54, and 49 as well.

Total time spent on Greek: 92 hours (in 78 days)
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Tue May 02, 2023 9:16 am

I found the Subtlex project, which contains Subtlex-GR, a set of massive lists of Greek words with frequency measures based on occurrences in movie and TV subtitles: https://www.bcbl.eu/en/subtlex-gr

I downloaded the version of the database they recommend for "researchers" and whittled it down to just two columns: a word and its "Lg10CD" frequency measure:

https://020406.org/el/subtlex-gr--Lg10C ... y-only.csv (contains 145,631 entries, sorted by frequency)

I don't know if this will be useful to anyone else, or even to me really -- the data is still pretty "raw," for example different cases of the same noun are separate "words" -- but I thought it would be nice to link.
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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Tue May 02, 2023 12:31 pm

Lesson 60 this morning, Τι ώρα προσγειώνεται; (= What time does he land?). Transportation-themed, this time dealing with airport and metro vocabulary.

Some useful modal constructions in this one, for example: δεν πίστευα ότι θα ήταν έτσι (= I didn't think that would be the case).

It's a relief that the conditional is so simple in Greek: just put θα in front of the imperfect and you're good to go.

Also went over lessons 58, 55, and 50.

Time spent on Greek: 93 hours, 30 minutes (in 79 days).
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tastyonions
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Re: A stroll through modern Greek

Postby tastyonions » Wed May 03, 2023 4:35 pm

Lesson 61 this morning, Μια βαλίτσα που δεν χάνεται (= A suitcase that doesn't get lost). Some more travel terms plus words dealing with being mistaken / having made a mistake.

I glance at native videos, mostly news, on YouTube every few days or so and each time I watch it seems I can catch a couple more things. Still a looong way off from full comprehension, but hey I've only been at this for under three months.

Time spent on Greek: 95 hours (in 80 days)
4 x


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