 | The plural of συγγενής |
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I found out today that the plural of συγγενής is συγγενείς. I thought it was συγγενές analogically with φοιτητής - φοιτητές. Is this irregolarity or is there some rule I don't know? Another question. |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
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It's not an irregularity. It's just that συγγενής doesn't belong to the same group as φοιτητής. Φοιτητής is a masculine noun, with plural -ές, and a feminine equivalent φοιτήτρια. Συγγενής is technically an adjective, that just happens to be used mostly as a noun, as all adjectives can do in Greek. It belongs to a small group of adjectives borrowed nearly as is from Ancient Greek via the Puristic language. Those adjectives have only 2 groups of endings, unlike other adjectives with 3 groups. They have one common paradigm for the masculine and feminine gender (-ής, uncommon genitive -ούς, plural -είς), and an separate paradigm for the neuter gender (-ές, uncommon genitive -ούς, plural -ή). Another common adjective from this group is ασθενής, ασθενές: sick, ill, used mostly as a noun to mean "patient". You can check here for a full paradigm. For your other question, I can't really answer you. However, δεν το συζητώ literally means "I don't talk", or "I don't discuss", so in the right context I can see very well that it could mean "I don't take no for an answer". |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
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Thank you very much for this detailed answer!!! I'm always very curious abt the etymology of words as well as abt the origin of grammatical forms. As for the context of Δεν το συζητω, I'm reading this novel (well, to be precise I'm TRYING to read this novel ;) ) by an young Greek author, Xristina Kostanοglou in which one of the characters invites another one to her sister's wedding and says "Θα έρθεις, δεν το συζητώ". |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
| In that case, you can simply translate it as "you'll come, no discussion". Greek people like to use verbs where in English people use nominal expressions. So, while it could be translated as "I won't take no for an answer" here, you don't need to. Simply translating it as "I'm not discussing it", while awkward in English, still gives the right impression. |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
| If you're interested, you can find the full declension pattern of this type of adjectives here on Google Books. (Hopefully access is not geographically restricted.) |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
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Thank you very much for this online grammar book!!! It will be very useful to me. The Greek Grammar that I have is for beginners and gives you only general and superficial information abt Greek grammar. I was going to ask abt the plural of -ης -ης -ες verbs, now I found it in the online grammar. So thank you. |
| Re: The plural of συγγενής |
Glad you found it in the book  I meant to link to the relevant chapter directly, but copied the wrong URL by accident.Unfortunately Google only let us view so many pages before they block access, but Google Books is still useful for looking up small things in grammar books. |
