# Να μου ζήσεις



## Charlie Parker

*Να μου ζήσεις*
According to the marginal note in my book, Modern Greek for Classicists, this means “may you live many years.” Here is the broader context: Μπράβο Θησέα! Να μου ζήσεις με τις ωραίες ιδέες. It is an imaginary conversation between Hercules and Theseus. I am quite new to Modern Greek. I think this would be expressed by the optative mood in Ancient Greek. Can anyone explain this construction to me? What is μου doing there?


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## ioanell

Charlie Parker said:


> Να μου ζήτεις  ζήσεις





Charlie Parker said:


> this means “may you live many years.”


That's right, but "to/for my pleasure" should be added for a more meticulous translation.

The verb *ζήσεις*, along with the particle *να *in front of it, is in the subjunctive mood, which among other denotations also expresses sth desired, a wish, e.g. _Μακάρι *να ζήσει*_=I wish s/he lived, may s/he live.
*μου *is the genitive of the weak form of the personal pronoun of the 1st person [εγώ] and in this case is called "_genitive charistiki"_ (I'm using the Greek grammatical term) as it denotes the person in whose favour/delight something is said or done.


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## ioanell

Charlie Parker said:


> I think this would be expressed by the optative mood in Ancient Greek.


That's correct!


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## Charlie Parker

Thank you so much, ioanell. I corrected my silly error.


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## bearded

Charlie Parker said:


> I corrected my silly error.


We still read ζήτεις in the title.


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## Charlie Parker

Thanks bearded. I think I fixed it now.


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## bearded

ioanell said:


> *μου *is the genitive... for my pleasure


In other languages, that would of course be a dative case ('ethical dative' or 'dative of advantage').


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## Perseas

bearded said:


> In other languages, that would of course be a dative case ('ethical dative' or 'dative of advantage').


Hallo, bearded. Do you have other languages in mind other than Ancient Greek or German?


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## bearded

Perseas said:


> other languages in mind other than Ancient Greek or German?


Hello Perseas 
In Romance languages, personal pronouns still have a 'dative' case.
Italian (colloquial): _spero che mi vivrai a lungo._
Perhaps French (colloquial) :_ J'espère que tu me vivras longtemps.._


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## Apollodorus

bearded said:


> In Romance languages, personal pronouns still have a 'dative' case.
> Italian (colloquial): _spero che mi vivrai a lungo._
> Perhaps French (colloquial) :_ J'espère que tu me vivras longtemps.._


Romanian “să-mi trăiești” seems to be closest to Greek "vα μου ζήσεις", possibly due to Greek/Balkanic influence.


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