# Sentence help: μ' αρέσουν



## zeldaj

I need help with this sentence:

Γι΄αυτό μ' αρέσουν οι δικές μου ιστορίες.

I think I understand all the constituent parts, but when I put it together I'm not sure that it says what I think it means. At the risk of looking totally confused, here's the best translation I could I could make: _So/hence?, they like me in my own stories._ But I'm not at all sure if that is correct.

Thank you for your help.


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## velisarius

"For that (reason)" [Γι΄αυτό...]

The subject of the sentence is "my own stories" [οι δικές μου ιστορίες]. You can tell that this phrase is the subject because the fem.nom.pl. article οι shows it's in the nominative case. 

My own stories "please me" [μ' αρέσουν], i.e. "I like my own stories". This is the normal way of saying that we_ like _something, though to an English ear it may sound like a back-to-front construction.

Putting it all together,
_
Γι΄αυτό μ' αρέσουν οι δικές μου ιστορίες.
That's why I like my own stories.
_
As you probably know, the word order in Greek is more flexible than it is in English, so you can say either _οι δικές μου ιστορίες μου αρέσουν _or _ μου αρέσουν οι δικές μου ιστορίες. _


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## zeldaj

That makes so much sense... and what you explained is also helping me understand other sentences that have been difficult for me. I need to increase my awareness and knowledge of cases (I know what they are, just not exactly how to use them when I'm reading). Looks like I'll have to get over my fear of cases if I'm to understand what I'm reading!

Thank you!


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## velisarius

Welcome to the forum, zeldaj.

Yes, you do need to gradually get accustomed to cases. There aren't that many of them in modern Greek, so don't be afraid of them.


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## Helleno File

Hi zelday, cases are one of the many joys of learning modern Greek! Back in my day if you went to Grammar School you had to learn Latin for at least a year - with six cases. That was what the "grammar" was and was taught apparently as a branch of mathematics! It strikes us English as daunting when you even have to _speak_ the cases.

The verb αρέσω which means to please is often an early way into the _genitive_ case which expresses "of" - belonging to, and also the indirect object "to" as in show to/give to/please [to] (but not go to). Velisarius has shown in beautiful colour how ερέσω works "backwards" from our point of view. If you can take it there's more in a very recent post at Μας αρέσει

Jump on in - it gets easier!


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## zeldaj

Thank you for the advice! It's true that I've felt overwhelmed by learning the cases, but I feel a lot better about them now.

Out of curiosity, do either of you know of any tables showing common case endings and articles for the nominative, genitive, and accusative cases? I have been able to find information about the use of the cases, but I haven't been able to find a good article about what the cases actually look like. At some point I want to order a Greek grammar book, but I'll probably wait until after the holidays.


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## Helleno File

Well, zeldaj.... that's a much bigger question than you realise!!!  The articles in Greek are are "παιχνιδάκι" - simple pimple! (BTW that's a noun not an adjective!) I'll give them below but a www search will quickly get them presented in a nice neat table.

The declension of nouns is something at this stage you should learn from a basic teach yourself book which will introduce them bit by bit along with words you will find useful.  To start with there are probably 5 forms (1 × M, 2 × F, 2 × N) which will cover a lot of basic, and not so basic words. That's tricky enough but unfortunately there are a whole load more of these noun patterns and a grammar will chuck them all at you in one go. In colloquial English you don't want to go there, well, not for a while! If you do want to know more post back here.

Greek articles:

1) Singular
M           F           N​Nominative                 ο             η          το
Genitive                      του        της       του
Accusative                το(ν)      τη(ν)     το

2) Plural

Nominative                 οι           οι          τα
Genitive                      των       των        των
Accusative                 τους      τις          τα

The forms with the alternative -ν are for nouns starting with a vowel or any of the following consonants: κ  π τ γκ μπ ντ ξ ψ. NB this is changing in spoken Greek but I can't find the thread here where this is fully covered.


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## zeldaj

Thanks Helleno File  The information you provided on the articles is enough to get me started, I think. Thanks for the advice regarding a grammar. I had been using an online grammar resource, but it taught all the cases, genders, and multiple verb forms at once, which is probably why I ran away scared!

I'm waiting for a copy of Assimil's Le Grec (French > Greek) to arrive from France, but I know from my experience with the Assimil French book that the grammar descriptions will lack the structure that I need.

I'll see if I can get my hands on a better step-by-step book to work with alongside Assimil and Language Transfer.


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