Today (when I eventually arrived) we learned some colours. Murat asked:

Τι χρώμα είναι. What colour is it?

Stephania replied:

Είναι μπλε. It is blue.

Είναι κόκκινο. It is red.

Είναι πράσινο. It is green.

Είναι κίτρινο. It is yellow.

Μαύρο. Black.

Άσπρο. White.

For more colours (χρώματα), please see the following set, which I made earlier.

I brought some bread (το ψωμί) which we shared. I asked:

Θέλεις ψωμί; Do you want bread?

Ναι, παρακαλώ. Yes, please. Or:

Ναι, θέλω. Yes, I want.

Σου αρέσει το ψωμί; Do you like (the) bread?

Ναι, μου αρέσει πολύ. Yes, I like it very much.

Όχι, δεν μου αρέσει καθόλου. No, I don’t like it at all.

But this was no ordinary bread! It also contained:

ελιές (η ελιά) olives (the olive)

ντομάτες (η ντομάτα) tomatoes (the tomato)

Linda asked:

Τι είναι αύτο; What is this? I answered:

Είναι ντομάτα. It’s a tomato.

For some more foods please see the following set (from last year’s lessons).

Finally, I asked you to check out ‘Pronunciation 1’ on the home page (‘A Good Place to Start’). I have copied it below to save navigation.

Pronunciation 1

Now that we are starting to recognise the Greek Alphabet, it’s time to think about how the letters are pronounced in different combinations. The following clip demonstrates the vowel and consonant sounds. The repetitive pattern of the sounds in the clip means that you are quite quickly able to predict the sound made by the letters even before you hear them.

Although it is intended to be self-explanatory, perhaps some explanation will help you to get the most out of these exercises. The narrator first reads the vowel sounds  in turn, working down the first column. He continues to work down the column, combining each consonant with the vowel sounds. It may also be helpful to do the following:

• Watch and listen once through.
• Watch again and try to read/say the sounds out loud with the narrator. (You may need to repeat this many times)
• Try again, this time with the sound down.