# de se egrapsa soy esteila sto yahoo den tis phres? 5 foto kiolas



## Norni

hi everyone,

Could anyone help me to translate this Greek text into English?

"de se egrapsa soy esteila sto yahoo den tis phres? 5 foto kiolas"

Thank you very much!


----------



## parakseno

> "de se egrapsa soy esteila sto yahoo den tis phres? 5 foto kiolas"



Well, something doesn't sound quite right in this sentence... but I shall give it a try...

I didn't write I sent [them] to you on yahoo didn't you get them? 5 photos already.


----------



## ireney

Norni I bet he/she should have sent you the photos earlier and you mentioned it or something? 

He/she says " I didn't neglet (not bother about) you ...." the rest of parakseno's translation is perfect. He just missed the slang use of "grafo"/write.


----------



## parakseno

> He/she says " I didn't neglet (not bother about) you ...." the rest of parakseno's translation is perfect. He just missed the slang use of "grafo"/write.



Oh, didn't know about that one either... That's why it was ΣΕ έγραψα and not σου έγραψα? It should've been a Dative there, and since Dative no longer exists in Modern Greek one can use the genitive or the accusative (but I always saw the accusative with σε)... or am I wrong here?


----------



## ireney

It's slang, you are not _supposed_ to know all the slang words of a language you're learning! I mean, I'm studying English for years and there are still slang words/expressions I don't know.  Parakseno it depends on where you are from. No, I mean it.

In the common dialect of Modern Greek, it's genitive. In Northern Greek however, they use accusative in dative's place (σε είπα, με έφτιαξε, τον αγόρασε) which sometimes makes for funny, intentional misunderstandings from us Southerners (Greece being huge enough to have North and South distinctly marked but that's another issue althogether ) 

In this case, with the slang use of grafo, accusative is the norm since it's not the indirect subject in this case. 

P.S. of course sometimes the dative has been "replaced" by accusative + σε (στον, στην κλπ) but that's another matter I guess.


----------



## parakseno

So Genitive for Dative is the correct way... The Accusative + σε is more colloquial?


----------



## ireney

No, it depends.

Look at the following

Του είπα ψέματα
Είπα ψέματα σε αυτόν (σ'αυτόν)

Της έδωσα ένα χαστούκι
Έδωσα ένα χαστούκι στην Άννα.

As you can see, when we use the personal pronoun we use genitive. When we don't it's se+ accusative. Why? Go figure. It's probably the result of the "confusion" created by the abandonment of the dative.

People from Northern Greek don't follow us in this confusion. They use the accusative with the personal pronoun too.

None of the two variations can be considered more colloquial really. If someone, either in formal writing or informal speech, has mentioned the name he/she refers to before, he/she'll use the personal pronoun (in genitive) and if not the se+accusative.


----------



## parakseno

Thanks for making it more clear to me. I was something I used more counting on the "it sounds right" criteria and I was never certain whether it was REALLY correct. The book I learned from presented both ways of expressing the Dative, but without much explanation...
Thanks again!


----------



## modus.irrealis

The gen. vs. σε + acc. discussion reminds me of a question I used to have -- you have to use the gen. if you also use the pronoun, right? So you have to say

Της Μαρίας της έδωσα ένα ρολόι

and you can't say

Στην Μαρία της έδωσα ένα ρολόι?


----------



## ireney

Yeap! You got it modus. In this case it's just because the pronoun here is "ungrammatical" or "superfluous" if you wish. You've already mention who you gave the watch to. The personal pronoun is not necessary. 

It can only be considered as emphasis (or whatever else you want to call it) so it has to "agree" with Maria's case so to speak.


----------

