Useful Greek Words

Listed here are some words you may hear, with spellings in Greek, and approximate pronunciations.

Pronunciation guide
Most Greek words of two syllables and all of 3 or more have one syllable stressed. This stress is very important as it can make the difference between one word and another completely unrelated word. Stressed syllables are indicated in the pronunciation below in -italics-. For example:
p-o-li means city and pol-i means very. In the same way, the word for softly may be confused with an extremely rude act just by stressing the wrong vowel in a word that is spelled with exactly the same letters! In the Greek language, an accent (or tonos) is placed above a vowel that is to be stressed.

Formality
Anyone who has learnt any French may remember that there are two forms of addressing people in the 'you' context, these being tu and vous, the first form is the informal and singular which you would use to address a child, friend or family member, and the second form for talking to a group of people or somebody you have just been introduced to. This is the same in Greek and out of politeness you should always use the second form when addressing any Greek you are not on first name terms with. You will get some very strange looks if you walk into a room full of Greeks and bellow out "Yassoo tee kanees" as a friend of mine once did!