# first



## BrendaP

If I want to say "First, I want to....." ,  would I use "πρώτα, θέλω να...."   or   "αρχικά, θέλω να...." ?  Or, something else?


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## artion

Πρώτα, αρχικά, κατ' αρχάς are OK for "first".


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## ireney

Hi there!

Let's see. 
To say "First I want to X" you can go with "πρώτα θέλω να"

If you want to emphasize that this is the first thing you want to do, you can use "πρώτ' απ' όλα (_πρώτο από όλα_ but we never use it without the contractions) Like a "First let's wash all the chairs and then we can see where we'll put them" kind of situation.

If you want to say that the first thing you do is the first stage of something you can use "αρχικά". Say someone asks you what you want to do with a certain room. You have no idea but you do know it needs to be painted. "Αρχικά θέλω να το βάψω. Μετά βλέπουμε". Or you do know what you want to do with it but it's going to take time and/or money to go past the first stage: "Αρχικά θέλω να το βάψω. Μετά θα αγοράσω έπιπλά και μετά θα...."


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## BrendaP

Thanks soooo much to both of you.  Don't know what I'd do without this place!!


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## amiramir

Thanks for asking this question-- I always get confused. 

In addition to the suggestions above, what about prwtwn? (or prwton, I can't remember which) How is this used correctly?

Thanks.


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## Vana-Titania

_*what about prwton?*_ example: Αν κόψω το κάπνισμα(που δε νομίζω), πρώτον κάνω καλό στην υγεία μου δεύτερον μου περισσεύουν χρήματα. like   first ->second.


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## amiramir

wonderful, thank you.


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## Acestor

Hi. I think you're better off using *αρχικά* (=στην αρχή, at first) in a past tense sentence rather than doing one thing first, another thing next in the future, e.g.
Αρχικά δεν ήθελαν ούτε να τ' ακούσουν. At first they didn't even want to hear about it.


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## Vana-Titania

Well,come to think of it, amiramir asked for the use of "πρώτον" in the sense of "do something first then..", that is , situations that enable actions in an order. I guess my example with smoking had arguments about a topic. I should have thought of a better one.


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