# τι and ποιος in questions: difference



## RVA1

Hello everyone,

I have been learning Greek for a couple of years  but still can not fix the difference between τι and ποιος when they are  used in questions for specifying a noun that follows. Here are examples:
1. τι δουλεια κανεις;
2. τι ημερομηνια εχουμε σημερα;
3. σε ποιο ετος εισαι;
4. ποιο ειναι το επωνυμο σας;

In my native language τι and ποιος would be translated using one pronoun,  it seems the same for English too: 
1. what date is today? 
3. what year are you in? (about studies) 

So, could someone clarify the rule when I should use τι and when ποιος is these kind of questions. 
Thank you in advance.


----------



## Perseas

Hi RVA1 and welcome,

I could rewrite your examples as follows:
1. "Ποια δουλειά κάνεις;" sounds strange but "Ποια δουλειά να κάνω/εις;" or "Ποιο είναι το επάγγελμά σου;" are Ok.
2. Ποια ημερομηνία έχουμε σήμερα; ("Tι ημερομηνία..." is more common)


3. (Σε) τι έτος είσαι; (colloquial)
4. Τι επώνυμο έχετε; (not the best idea; also, depending on the tone it could be mistaken for "your last name is strange")
Another example: Τι πρόβλημα έχετε; = Ποιο είναι το πρόβλημά σας;

It is very difficult to talk about a rule. It's true that "ποιος-α-ο" and "τι" may both mean "what". We can use both "ποιος-α-ο" and "τι" to express the same meaning by reforming a little the sentence (as shown in the examples above).  In general, the use of "τι" makes the speech more coloquial, informal. 
Also, "τι" means "what kind": "τι άνθρωπος είσαι εσύ;" ~ "what kind of person are you?".  By "τι είναι ΧΧ" we usually mean "what is ΧΧ (definition)?": "*τι* είναι η καφεΐνη;" ~ "what is caffeine?"


----------



## RVA1

Perseas, thanks a lot for the explanation you have provided! 

I had a feeling that there was no strict rule (otherwise I would have found it). So, it seems that using "ποιος-α-ο" and "τι" is mostly based on an intuition and that's always a week point for those, who are not native speakers. Developing that kind of intuition requires reading more, talking more etc. So, I will go on.

And one more question. How do you pronounce abbreviations in Greek? E.g., from my recent text: ΟΑΕΔ. Should I pronounce it using full pronunciation of each capital letter?


----------



## elliest_5

Hi,

Regarding abbreviations, most of them are pronounced as if you're reading the word. So [oa'eδ]. Cases where you use the letter names are more rare and I suppose are cases where pronouncing the word would be difficult. For example ΑΦΜ would sound problematic as [afm] so we say [a-fi-mi] -note that, even then, we don't go into the trouble of saying "alfa-fi-mi".


----------



## Andrious

RVA1 said:


> And one more question. How do you pronounce abbreviations in Greek? E.g., from my recent text: ΟΑΕΔ. Should I pronounce it using full pronunciation of each capital letter?



Take a look in here, as well.


----------



## bearded

Would it be correct to say that 'ti' corresponds roughly to English what, whereas 'piòs' corresponds roughly to English which ?  Often they can be used indifferently, sometimes not.


----------



## Perseas

bearded man said:


> Would it be correct to say that 'ti' corresponds roughly to English what, whereas 'piòs' corresponds roughly to English which ?


It is true. For example: "Which of them is yours? Ποιο απ' αυτά είναι δικό σου;", "What time is it? Τι ώρα είναι;"
But in this example "ποιος" corresponds to "who": "Who are you? Ποιος είσαι/Ποιοι είστε;"


----------



## RVA1

Perseas, elliest_5, Andrious, 

Thank you for your answers and the link provided. They are really helpful.


----------

