 | πως και που - interrogation |
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Hello, I am confused about the interrogative pronouns πως & που. I don't know how to determine when to use one or the other. Maybe this has already been explained somewhere in the course? I have forgotten!  |
| Re: πως και που - interrogation |
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You use the interrogatives πώς (how?) and πού (where?) just as in English: Πώς πηγαίνεις στο γραφείο; = How are you going to the office? -or- How do you go to the office (in general)? Πηγαίνω με λεωφορείο. = I go by bus. -and- Πού μένεις; = Where do you live? Μένω στο Τορόντο. = I live in Toronto. See Lesson 3 for πού and Lesson 14 for πώς. Regards, Greg Brush |
| Απάντηση: Re: πως και που - interrogation |
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Dear Greg and Victoria, Same Question as Victoria but when do we use , που/ότι regarding the uses of "that"? Also when we are saying the man/men, girl/s "who" said /did ------must we always go through the declinations of "ο οποιος " or can we bluff it by by using " που/οπου " or something similar? Regards and thanks. Pico. |
| Re: Απάντηση: Re: πως και που - interrogation |
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Pico, που means "that" only when introducing a relative subclause, i.e. a clause completing another noun. It means "that", "who", "which", etc... as in "the book that I bought...": το βιβλίο που αγόρασα... Ότι means "that" when introducing an completive subclause, i.e. a clause completing a verb (form instance for indirect speech: "I told him that...": του είπε ότι...) . An alternative to ότι is πως (note, no accent, it is different from the question word πώς meaning "how?"), which can be used wherever ότι is used. So the rule is simple: που after a noun, ότι/πως after a verb (in reality, there are a few other cases, but don't bother with that yet, and focus on this rule). As for your second question, one point is that you don't "bluff" it. Που is a valid relative pronoun in Greek, just as valid as ο οποίος, η οποία, το οποίο. So it's not "bluffing", it's just using a normal structure of the language. But if your question is about when to use που and when to use ο οποίος, etc... the rule is relatively simple: use που as long as the result is unambiguous. The problem with που is that it is invariable, and can't be used with a preposition. So it can only be used unambiguously when the antecedent (the noun completed by the relative subclause) is the subject or object of the relative subclause:
So the rule for use of που or ο οποίος, etc... is: use που whenever you can, and switch to ο οποίος to disambiguate complicated relative clauses, especially when you need to use a preposition with the relative pronoun. |
| Απάντηση: Re: Απάντηση: Re: πως και που - interrogation |
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Christophe, What can I say but thanks a lot ; Haven,t managed to inwardly digest fully as I,ve only just glanced through and I wanted to write my appreciation of you taking the time out to write such a detailed and helpful reply , and after reading through again when you,ve a spare minute you may as well fix the global financial situation. Thanks again, Regards, Pico. |
