Και and Κι

Remember the conversation between Maria and Victoria, Πόσον καιρό είσαι εδώ?

Let’s hear another conversation on the same topics, between Nikos and John.

Did you understand more than when you listened to Maria and Victoria?

Before you try answering the questions at the bottom of the page, let’s take a look at one of the aspects of the conversation in depth:

Κι = Και

You may have noticed an abbreviated form of the word και (and) sometimes used: κι.

It’s especially common in the phrase έτσι κι έτσι (so-so, literally ‘this way and this way’), which often runs so quickly together it sounds like ‘etsy-ketsy’.

Έτσι κι έτσι

On page 5 of Λοιπόν, τι λες; (Well, what do you say?), we saw that έτσι κι έτσι means ‘so-so’ when answering Τι κάνεις; – you can think of it as halfway between Πολύ καλά and Χάλια! In line 6 of the conversation between Nikos and John, John says έτσι κι έτσι to describe his level of Greek ability as ‘so-so’. It’s a way for him to politely deflect Nikos’ praise πολύ καλά.

Κι εγώ

On page 36 of Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1 there is a note indicating that κι = και in other phrases, too, such as η μητέρα μου κι εγώ (my mother and I), which could have equally been written η μητέρα μου και εγώ.

Notice that in both phrases, the word following κι begins with a vowel: έτσι κι έτσι and κι εγώ.

As the Online Greek Tutor explains, και may become κι when followed by a vowel:

Rewrite the sentences in activity N on page 15 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1 workbook, then underline every instance of και or κι you find in the dialogue and questions on page 44 of Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1.

Now, answer the true/false questions at the bottom of the page. Note that σωστό means ‘correct’ and λάθος means ‘incorrect’ – you may have heard the word used in the video above to mean ‘mistake’.