Any Greek speakers around Ibles willing to answer a Greek language question?

I know this isn't a 'how to' topic, but this forum is alive. (Just  Googled Greek Language forums and most haven't had a posting in years.) Anyway, if you know Greek and wouldn't mind answering the occasional idiot question, please PM me.  Thanks.

Comments

[RedneckEngineer]

Have you tried useing babblefish for a trasnlation? don't know if it will help but couldn't hurt to try.

[than123]

'lene' as in 'pos se lene' meaning 'how are you called', when people address to you, what do they say (your name).

[mole1]

Thanks, than123! I appreciate your input.
Just returned from Greece... my first time in Europe. Wow! Very cool place! I picked up some 'first reader' type books there and have lots more preschool level questions. One word I kept over-hearing repeatedly sounded like 'ella...ella' used in a tone we would say 'yeah... yeah'. Any clue as to what it means?

[than123]

I'm glad you liked Greece. 'ella' (έλα) means 'come' as when asking somebody to join you, or 'come on'.

[mole1]

Aha! Thank you!

Yeah, Greece was beautiful! Mostly we were in small towns, Delphi, Nafpaktos, Olympia, Naplio, Thera, Rhodes. I was a bit worried about going to Athens, but we were there four days during the elections and everything was totally calm.

Are you familiar with the 'xwpis swaibio' books published by www.patakis.gr ? I picked up a few (mostly beginning level) and hoped that with a dictionary I could figure things out. It's not going well.

Can you recommend a beginning Learn Modern Greek book that isn't centered on conversation? I've got the alphabet down and a small vocabulary. At this point I just get confused with the Romanized version of Greek words. Ideally, Greek would be in Greek and explanations would be in English.

[than123]

Sorry, I don't know anything about such books. Check this out http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/filog/

[mole1]

Thanks! Good thought, but I'm looking for something not computer dependent.

[mole1]

Babblefish worked! Well, it came up with a reasonable word anyway.
According to the fish, it means 'says'. Will try to cross check it, but I suspect that it's irregular. Thanks!

[NachoMahma]

. Ask here so we all can learn.

[mole1]

Thanks, NachoMahma. Here goes...

In the sentences: What is your son's name. What is your father called. What is your mother's name. etc. There is a word that appears in them all that I can't find in the Greek/English dictionary. Using the Roman alphabet the word is le'ne. - lambda, epsilon (accent), nu, epsilon.

I've tried working from English to Greek as well...name, call, address, label... with no results. I'm such a beginner that I don't know if it's some kind of 'helping' word, or an irregular thing or what. I'm hoping someone can give me an English translation.

[NachoMahma]

.  All I could find is: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Lene

[orksecurity]

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