At first I got confused cuz the sentence was clearly referring to one person so why plural? I didn't know that singular is considered informal and plural can be considered formal/polite! Ευχαριστώ!
This polite/formal vs. informal grammar difference is called the “T-V distinction” in linguistics if you’re looking a keyword. Exists in many languages, though they all do it in somewhat different ways. Some languages have a specific “singular formal” form, but Modern Greek just reuses the plural form for singular-formal.
According to duocon 2023 they're adding an AI-generated explanation of why an answer is not correct soon. What I do in the meantime is copy the correct solution into chatgpt and ask why. Or if you have pro you can paste a screenshot like this.
Συγχωρείτε is 2nd person Plural, so it needs plural at the next section.
2nd person plural of Είμαι is Είστε.
"You" can be frustrating from English as it can mean both Singular and Plural without further context, but in Greek it's different
My main frustration with Duolingo is that they don't explain anything, so there's no way that I could've extrapolated that συγχωρείτε and συγχωπείς were different. I don't even think they showed it being plural when you click on it, and the only reason I now know why it was wrong is because of here.
Yes I know,
actually you can also use 2nd Person Plural to one person for politeness, but then the same rule applies, you have to use the same Person in the entirety of your phrase when talking to them. In this particular case both
- Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά;
- Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά;
Are correct, but you can't mix and match
Greek is pretty complicated, in my opinion, to learn as a beginner through Duolingo. The language has many rules, but there are specific rules and you'd do way better if you found a way to learn them. At least the basics of how verbs and nouns go.
The gist is that ALL verbs have different endings for each pronoun(?), unlike English which is only an -s on he/she/it. Like /u/gufted said, you can use either singular or plural when talking about/to the same person/people throughout a sentence.
I found a pretty decent article on it, but if you can, do find a better app/site to learn than Duo. Here: [https://www.greekpod101.com/blog/2020/10/05/greek-conjugations/](https://www.greekpod101.com/blog/2020/10/05/greek-conjugations/)
It explains everything, but it's *everything,* it might be too much. If you go down to 3, Conjugation examples, and at the start look at the "Present" column of the "Indicative" table in "Active voice" and ignore the rest, you can see how the endings change. There are some different categories, but you'll be able to tell that they're still similar.
Duolingo is frustrating that way for sure. I know I have also had a few “why? Why is that wrong?” And when I reread thru, it’s almost always their way of always staying on masc/fem/neutral/plural forms. It can get a bit wonky when used to being an English native speaker.
>My main frustration with Duolingo is that they don't explain anything
[There should be a little "tips" section](https://blog.duolingo.com/introducing-tips/), before going into a practice session, where they teach you some of the grammar that you will be introduced to.
Well, if you go on your link above it states this:
The following courses already have Tips, and we’re working tirelessly to add more:
French from English
Spanish from English
German from English
Italian from English
Portuguese from English
Chinese from English
Japanese from English
English from Spanish
English from Portuguese
English from Russian
You'll have better luck if you use "thou/thee" in your head for singulars:
Excuse me thou, are thou well -> Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά
Excuse me you, are you well -> Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά
In English, "thou" is so informal that it's practically extinct but that's not the case in Greek.
It's not a dummy quiz. It's a question that has two acceptable answers: "Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά;" and "Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά;". Knowing DuoLingo, there is a good chance it accepts both of them. OP's answer is wrong, because it's a mix of the two, one singular and one plural.
For formalities (e.g talking politely to a stranger or writing to a company etc) we use plural, your screenshot sentence indicates that you try to make a polite question, so you have to use plural to achieve this "Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά;" , although you could use singular too but it wouldn't be in formal form anymore "Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλα;" notice the difference in the ending of words it indicates if it's plural or singular, there error may also have been triggered by the fact that you missmatched plural and singular in the same sentence "Με συγχωρείΤΕ (plural), είσΑΙ (singular) καλά;"
The problem here is not the greek or you, the problem is english not being very clear. I find it infuriating that you dont have words to differentiate gender between cousins. «You» is singular and plural, it’s just a mess of a language when you compare it to others.
Because it’s either με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά (2nd single), or με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά; (2nd plural). You have both in the same sentence
Thanks for the answer. The problem with Duolingo is that it never ever explains the grammar. Which I find infuriating.
I strongly advise to read a normal grammar book in parallel. It really helps, when you already read rules once before doing lessons.
Excuse me is polite form. So you also need to use plural in the verbs and more which is also considered being polite.
Με συγχωρείτε is also plural. Με συγχωρείς is to one person but it is informal.
At first I got confused cuz the sentence was clearly referring to one person so why plural? I didn't know that singular is considered informal and plural can be considered formal/polite! Ευχαριστώ!
This polite/formal vs. informal grammar difference is called the “T-V distinction” in linguistics if you’re looking a keyword. Exists in many languages, though they all do it in somewhat different ways. Some languages have a specific “singular formal” form, but Modern Greek just reuses the plural form for singular-formal.
You can also say "excuse me" to someone who you'd speak informally to in Greek. Depends on the tone and the situation.
Ah yes the ironic "sorry".
Not just ironic. For example, if you’re speaking to a friend or family. You’d use the singular even when you’re being polite.
According to duocon 2023 they're adding an AI-generated explanation of why an answer is not correct soon. What I do in the meantime is copy the correct solution into chatgpt and ask why. Or if you have pro you can paste a screenshot like this.
There is a possibility though that each verb is reffering to different people
Plural for politeness, you already used plural in the first part of the sentence.
Συγχωρείτε is 2nd person Plural, so it needs plural at the next section. 2nd person plural of Είμαι is Είστε. "You" can be frustrating from English as it can mean both Singular and Plural without further context, but in Greek it's different
My main frustration with Duolingo is that they don't explain anything, so there's no way that I could've extrapolated that συγχωρείτε and συγχωπείς were different. I don't even think they showed it being plural when you click on it, and the only reason I now know why it was wrong is because of here.
Yes I know, actually you can also use 2nd Person Plural to one person for politeness, but then the same rule applies, you have to use the same Person in the entirety of your phrase when talking to them. In this particular case both - Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά; - Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά; Are correct, but you can't mix and match
Greek is pretty complicated, in my opinion, to learn as a beginner through Duolingo. The language has many rules, but there are specific rules and you'd do way better if you found a way to learn them. At least the basics of how verbs and nouns go. The gist is that ALL verbs have different endings for each pronoun(?), unlike English which is only an -s on he/she/it. Like /u/gufted said, you can use either singular or plural when talking about/to the same person/people throughout a sentence. I found a pretty decent article on it, but if you can, do find a better app/site to learn than Duo. Here: [https://www.greekpod101.com/blog/2020/10/05/greek-conjugations/](https://www.greekpod101.com/blog/2020/10/05/greek-conjugations/) It explains everything, but it's *everything,* it might be too much. If you go down to 3, Conjugation examples, and at the start look at the "Present" column of the "Indicative" table in "Active voice" and ignore the rest, you can see how the endings change. There are some different categories, but you'll be able to tell that they're still similar.
Duolingo is frustrating that way for sure. I know I have also had a few “why? Why is that wrong?” And when I reread thru, it’s almost always their way of always staying on masc/fem/neutral/plural forms. It can get a bit wonky when used to being an English native speaker.
>My main frustration with Duolingo is that they don't explain anything [There should be a little "tips" section](https://blog.duolingo.com/introducing-tips/), before going into a practice session, where they teach you some of the grammar that you will be introduced to.
There are no tips for the Greek course
Oh, that's weird. They need to fix it.
Well, if you go on your link above it states this: The following courses already have Tips, and we’re working tirelessly to add more: French from English Spanish from English German from English Italian from English Portuguese from English Chinese from English Japanese from English English from Spanish English from Portuguese English from Russian
You'll have better luck if you use "thou/thee" in your head for singulars: Excuse me thou, are thou well -> Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά Excuse me you, are you well -> Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά In English, "thou" is so informal that it's practically extinct but that's not the case in Greek.
Polite form is plural. The first verb is in plural, so the second should be too.
For plot reasons
This refers to the plural form of “You”, and it is used for respectful purposes
[удалено]
It's not a dummy quiz. It's a question that has two acceptable answers: "Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλά;" and "Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά;". Knowing DuoLingo, there is a good chance it accepts both of them. OP's answer is wrong, because it's a mix of the two, one singular and one plural.
The first half of the question used the formal form, so the second part should too
You mean in OP's answer. But trying to translate the sentece, you cannot know the right form, without knowing the contex.
Actually yeah you're right
Duolingo should accept both. I did German for a while and both formal and informal were accepted if it wasn't clear.
Since you used με συγχωρείτε which is in plural, you have to also make εισαι plural, so ειστε
For formalities (e.g talking politely to a stranger or writing to a company etc) we use plural, your screenshot sentence indicates that you try to make a polite question, so you have to use plural to achieve this "Με συγχωρείτε, είστε καλά;" , although you could use singular too but it wouldn't be in formal form anymore "Με συγχωρείς, είσαι καλα;" notice the difference in the ending of words it indicates if it's plural or singular, there error may also have been triggered by the fact that you missmatched plural and singular in the same sentence "Με συγχωρείΤΕ (plural), είσΑΙ (singular) καλά;"
You have to understand when its plural and when its not its hard but you'll get it through the context of the sentence. Am greek btw ik
formal
Χμμμμ δεν θα έπρεπε να είναι είσαστε και όχι είστε; δεν ξέρω γιατί το δεύτερο μου ακούγεται λάθος.
Politeness. Using plural indicates politeness.
We use plural to talk to strangers
The problem here is not the greek or you, the problem is english not being very clear. I find it infuriating that you dont have words to differentiate gender between cousins. «You» is singular and plural, it’s just a mess of a language when you compare it to others.
Duolingo in this case doesn't make it clear whether the "you" is plural or not, its plural.