How To Speak Greek In Greece and Cyprus And Words You Already Know

This is the Greek flag. The blue of the sky and the white of the waves - wonderful alliteration.

Cyprus has a distinctive flag which shows the shape of the island.



Flag of Cyprus. I added a black border in photoshop elements to make the flag stand out from the white background of the page.

Greek in Cyprus
Since 1974 from a tourist's point of view the island has been divided into the Greek and Turkish speaking halves.

From visiting Greece I could remember good morning kali mera and what I thought was good evening kali spera but the others say it is good afternoon.  I remembered what I thought was efkaristo for thank you. Confusingly, yes look like no and no looks like ok.

Here is some Greek:
English - Greek (roughly alphabetical and logical sequence)
Let's start with two one-syllable words. Short, but confusing.

1. Yes - Nei (I think of yes, nice one)
2. No - Ohi ( I think of oh no!). ............................................................................................................................................................
3. GREETINGS: Hello - Ya Sou (Ya Saz when addressing a group)
4. Good morning - Kaleemeerah (m for morning)
5. Good afternoon - Kaleespeerah! (s for spend the afternoon shopping)
6. Good night - Kaleenihkta (n for night) (Like the poem by Scottish Burns, who wrote Auld lang syne, he also wrote about a broad bricht moonlit nicht, a broad, bright, moonlit night). ....................................................................................................................................................................
7. CHAT: How are you? - Ti Kanis?
8. I'm well - Poli Gala
9. Please - Parakalo - (both words start with p.)
10. Sorry! - Signomi - (borth words start with s.)
12. Thank you - Efharisto - (ever so grateful)
13. Come on! - Ela! (exit - la!). .....................................................................................................................................................................
14. QUESTIONS: Do you speak English? - Milate anglika (anglika like anglican).
15. How much is it? - Posso kane? (I think of I possibly can buy it what is the possible cost or asking price?)
16. How's it going? - Pos pai? (What is passing by? Is it a pie?
17. What time is it? - Ti ora ine? (what hour is it) ..................................................................................................................................................................................
18. ESSENTIALS: Where is   ... -  που είναι  pou eínai
20. The toilet  - η τουαλέτα -- i toualéta
21. The restaurant - το εστιατόριο - to estiatório
22. Cheers! - yamas
23. Goodbye - Αντιο σας antio sas (sounds a bit like adios ass!)

SPEAKING TIPS

1. You might not remember all of these, but if you recognize them when you hear them spoken by other people, you will eventually by able to say them.

2 Difficult? Fear not. You already know lots of words.

Of the 500 most common words in English, 18 are of Greek origin:
place (rank 115), 
problem (121), 
school (147), 
system (180), 
program (241), 
idea (252), 
story (307), 
base (328), 
center (335), 
period (383), 
history (386), 
type (390), 
music (393), 
political (395), 
policy (400), 
paper (426),
 phone (480), 
economic (494).^[18]

Greek alphabet

upper case
Α	Β	Γ	Δ	Ε	Ζ	Η	Θ	Ι	Κ	Λ	Μ	Ν	Ξ	Ο	Π	Ρ	Σ	Τ	Υ	Φ	Χ	Ψ	Ω
lower case
α	β	γ	δ	ε	ζ	η	θ	ι	κ	λ	μ	ν	ξ	ο	π	ρ	σ ς	τ	υ	φ	χ	ψ	ω

Αα	Alpha	Νν	Nu
Ββ	Beta	Ξξ	Xi
Γγ	Gamma	Οο	Omicron
Δδ	Delta	Ππ	Pi
Εε	Epsilon	Ρρ	Rho
Ζζ	Zeta	Σσς	Sigma
Ηη	Eta	Ττ	Tau
Θθ	Theta	Υυ	Upsilon
Ιι	Iota	Φφ	Phi
Κκ	Kappa	Χχ	Chi
Λλ	Lambda	Ψψ	Psi
Μμ	Mu	Ωω	Omega

Once you know some of the Greek alphabet, you are half way to learning the Cyrillic Alphabet used for Russian and Bulgarian.

Useful Websites (Alphabetical)

Basic Greek website 

duolingo.com

Greek phrase site

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin

https://www.iamgreece.org/culture/language/you-speak-greek/

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