# βρηκες κανα...



## Karina (Brazil/Portugal)

Hello to you all my friends!  fo so long I didnt came here!

For what I can see, this sentence:

vrikes *kana* kalo portogalo k mas ksexases emas.

means:

_You had found a good portuguese and forgot us._ right? 

But I didnt understand why this *"kana"* in the sentence... kana = εκανα = I made... swsta?  




I will be glad with your help, thank you


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## Kevman

Γεια σου Καρίνα!


Karina (Brazil/Portugal) said:


> kana = εκανα = I made... swsta?


Nope. 

Κάνα is another way to say *κανένα*, a sort of indefinite determiner.
The first vowel would only be dropped from έκανα if the word before it ended with a vowel, so that's one way you could rule it out in this case.

By the way, βρήκες is simply "you found." The past perfect tense ("you had found") is formed with έχω: είχες βρει.


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## pulcinella

I just add to the points Kevman made that the use of "kanena" usually indicates sth indefinite - in this phrase not only that the Portug. guy is not known to the speaker but that it is only a guess, a thought that is not certain, it's not a fact but sth the speaker supposes. And this is very well indicated with the use of ", right?" in the translation that you made Karina.


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## epam

i think the use of "right?" was not included in the translation, since it's clearly not underlined. The poster just asked if that was right, isn't that right?

How could you translate: Κανά δυό κιλά then?



Kevman said:


> Κάνα is another way to say *κανένα*, a sort of indefinite determiner.
> The first vowel would only be dropped from έκανα if the word before it ended with a vowel, so that's one way you could rule it out in this case.
> 
> By the way, βρήκες is simply "you found." The past perfect tense ("you had found") is formed with έχω: είχες βρεί


 
No! Translating Greek to English is not that simple. The question "Βρήκες κανά καλό Πορτογαλλό και μας ξέχασες εμάς;" could be translated to "Did you find any good Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?" or "Have you found any good Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?". I would, in my opinion, prefer the latter.  Tenses are not the same for Greek and English.

Κανά in this case could be translated to any.

By the way, it's wrong (totally wrong) to say "μας ξέχασες εμάς", since this phrase recurses on the same person. That person should have said "μας ξέχασες" or "μας έχεις ξεχάσει"


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## Vagabond

epam said:


> How could you translate: Κανά δυό κιλά then?


A kilo or two..?


> No! Translating Greek to English is not that simple. The question "Βρήκες κανά καλό Πορτογαλλό και μας ξέχασες εμάς;" could be translated to "Did you find any good Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?" or "Have you found any good Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?". I would, in my opinion, prefer the latter. Tenses are not the same for Greek and English.
> 
> Κανά in this case could be translated to any.


I'm sure Kev wasn't implying that "κανα" should be translated as "no one, nobody, no"; technically speaking, "κανα" is indeed a shortened "κανένα". The use is obviously different though, like you say.

Also, on the tenses matter; in British English, you'd absolutely use "have found", like you suggest. It is my understanding though, that in American English, simple past and present perfect are often used interchangeably.


> By the way, it's wrong (totally wrong) to say "μας ξέχασες εμάς", since this phrase recurses on the same person. That person should have said "μας ξέχασες" or "μας έχεις ξεχάσει"


Totally wrong?! I wouldn't say so. Repetitions like this are often used in Greek for emphasis. Μας ξέχασες εμάς, εμάς μας ξέχασες, εμάς μας έχεις γραμμένους etc are very, very common.


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## pulcinella

epam said:


> i think the use of "right?" was not included in the translation, since it's clearly not underlined. The poster just asked if that was right, isn't that right?
> 
> How could you translate: Κανά δυό κιλά then?


Hadn't noticed the underlining! Anyway, I suggest including "right?" in the translation for the reason I explained in my previous post. Or another way to translate the meaning that "kanena" includes could be:

*"I guess/bet you found some nice Portuguese guy and forgot us".*

I would have used Present Perfect too for both the verbs (have found - forgotten) but didn't want to interfere too much in Karina's translation which is probably aimed to an American public, but I'm sure a British speaker would hate to see that Past Simple at the place of a Present Perfect 

"Κανά δυό κιλά" I would translate it "a couple of kilos" or, as Vagabond suggested, "a kilo or two" - I don't think we can fix a standard word for translating "kanena", it depends on the context and its translation could not always be literal.


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## pulcinella

epam said:


> By the way, it's wrong (totally wrong) to say "μας ξέχασες εμάς", since this phrase recurses on the same person. That person should have said "μας ξέχασες" or "μας έχεις ξεχάσει"


Look epam, the phrase in Greek is not the translation but the original one!
Anyway, I guess it was part of a dialogue so the language used was informal and spontaneous and the personal pronoun is repeated in order to give emphasis or even to indicate the speaker's feelings of embarrassment or sadness or else.

"μας έχεις ξεχάσει" wouldn't have been used in standard Greek in that context and in an inofrmal conversation. I think it wouldn't be used in the Cypriot Greek either in a spontaneous dialogue.


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## Kevman

epam said:


> The question "Βρήκες κανά καλό Πορτογαλλό και μας ξέχασες εμάς;" could be translated to "Did you find any good Portuguese guy and forgotten forget about us?" or "Have you found any good Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?".


Yes, but Karina's translation used the *past* perfect: "you had found."  Do we need to break this issue off into a new thread?

Otherwise I basically agree with you.  The simple past is of course the literal translation, but the difference between simple past and past perfect is not so strict as to exclude either of those options, depending on context of course.


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## epam

Well, informally and in spoken language, anything could be correct.  But you can achieve giving more emphasis on what you want to say by accentuating the right vowels in a phrase without the need for recursions in a single statement. 

I am sure you don't have this in Greek language "ηύρες κανά καλό Πορτογαλλό τζιαι ξέχασες μας;".  This is how it would be transformed in the Cyprus dialect (spoken).

ηύρες as εύρηκα = find - found


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## Karina (Brazil/Portugal)

I didn't know that κάνα could mean κανένα, now I know!  So thank you to you all for the explanation. About my english, I just have to say I'm sorry!


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## DimitrisXP

I would use the word "some" for "κάνα", so my translation would be something like "have you found some nice/superb/sexy Portuguese guy and forgotten about us?".


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