In Greek, επίθετα means ‘adjectives’, and ρήματα means ‘verbs’. Put these words together, and we get επιρρήματα, or ‘adverbs’.
The same is true of English. While adjectives describe nouns (the angry man), adverbs describe verbs (the man shouted angrily).
Many (though not all!) English adverbs end with –ly:
- angrily
- bravely
- certainly
In Modern Greek, many επιρρήματα end with –ως:
- μήπως
- ίσως
- βεβαίως
Note that this is the same sound as the common masculine noun ending -ος, which appears in words like ο λογαριασμός (the bill/cheque).
Μήπως
Our first adverb, μήπως, is commonly used when asking someone for something.
For example, μήπως έχετε τυρόπιτα; (Do you perhaps have cheese pie?)
In English, it is perfectly normal to leave the word ‘perhaps’ out when asking a question like this. But in Greek, μήπως performs an important softening function. You could also think of it as similar to ‘Do you, by any chance, cheese pie?
Sometimes, you might see μήπως translated as ‘maybe’, but it is more useful to think of it as ‘by any chance’. The word μήπως is only used to express questions or worries. If, instead, you want to say you might go somewhere or do something, a totally different word is used, ίσως.
Listen to this Linguatree video to discover more about the difference:
Right now, all you need to remember is that μήπως is useful for asking polite questions: Μήπως έχετε…;
But it’s also useful to memorise this word with the translation ‘by any chance‘, to avoid any confusion with ίσως later.
Βεβαίως
While μήπως is often used by customers to politely ask for something, βεβαίως (certainly) is often used by staff to respond positively.
Listen out for both of these adverbs in the Μήπως έχετε… dialogue on page 50 of Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1, then complete the exercises below.
If you have a conversation partner, try acting out the scenario at the bottom of the page. If not, simply try reading the dialogue out loud.
greek_ciwm2e