Με λένε (they call me) ___
As we’ve already seen, one way of introducing yourself is to say Με λένε ___. ‘They call me ___’ (literally, ‘me they call ___’)
Το όνομά μου είναι (my name is) ___
To say ‘My name is ____’ in Greek, we need the word for ‘name’: όνομα.
In English, the word onomatopoeia describes words that sound like the things they name. For example, ‘I hear a buzz‘.
Can you guess the gender of όνομα based on its ending?
Since όνομα ends with –μα, we might (correctly!) guess that it is a neuter noun, used with the article το. Note that the definite article (ο/η/το) is always used with the names of countries and people, and with possessive pronouns like μου.
Thus, we can say Το όνομά μου είναι ___. ‘My name is ___’ (literally, (the) name of mine is ___).
Take a close look at the word όνομα when it appears together with μου in the sentence above.
Specifically, notice how it has not one, but two tonos.
What’s going on?
It’s not super vital for you to understand this finer point of Modern Greek at this stage, so feel free to get on with page 36 in Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1, but in case you’re wondering why words like όνομα seem to ‘break’ the one-tonos-per-word rule (spoiler: it will all make sense in a moment!) here goes:
BONUS: Double tonos in possessive phrases
As you know, every Greek word longer than a single syllable has a single ‘tonos’ to mark where the stress falls, which is always somewhere on the last three syllables:
- η αδερφή (a-ther-FI) ‘sister’, accent on the last syllable
- ο πατέρας (pa-TE-ras) ‘father’, accent on the second-to-last
- το όνομα (O-no-ma) ‘name’, accent on the third-to-last
When nouns like these are combined with a possessive pronoun like μου, they form a noun phrase which is treated as a whole unit. Consider the following sentences about your sister Eleni:
- Αυτή είναι στο σπίτι. (She is at home)
- Η Ελένη είναι στο σπίτι. (Eleni is at home)
- Η αδερφή μου είναι στο σπίτι. (My sister is at home)
Each of the above sentences refer to the same person, and grammatically, the three words ‘η αδερφή μου‘ fulfill the same function as the two words ‘η Ελένη‘, which fulfill the same function as ‘αυτή‘.
We call phrases like ‘η αδερφή μου‘ noun phrases since they play the same role as a single noun in a sentence.
Now, let’s take a look at the stress in this noun phrase.
Η αδερφή μου (i a-ther-FI mu), accent on the second-to-last syllable does not break any of the rules governing the use of tonos.
What about ο πατέρας μου?
Ο πατέρας μου (o pa-TE-ras mu), accent on the third-to-last syllable. That’s okay, too.
With the addition of μου, each word gets a new final syllable, which doesn’t pose a problem for words like αδερφή or πατέρας that are stressed on the last or second-to-last syllable.
But when a word like όνομα which is stressed on the third-to-last syllable gets a new final syllable, we run into trouble. Take a look at what would happen:
Το όνομα μου (to O-no-ma mu).
Uh-oh. The accent is now on the fourth-to-last syllable. That’s not allowed.
So, we add an extra tonos to the final syllable of the word, and it becomes:
Το όνομά μου (to O-no-MA mu).
Note that the word’s original tonos also remains in place.
You can hear and example of this double stress in this Crazy for Greek video:
We’ll look at the other possessive pronouns like σου (yours) and του (its) in detail later.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to jump in to page 36!
Pay attention to the note at the bottom of the page, which indicates that κι = και (and). We’ll cover the use of this alternate later (or, you can skip ahead and read about it now).
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