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Useful Greek Words and phrasesNote: when we speak we stress specific syllables of a word. When you are speaking you don't even think about it - you simply do it naturally because that's how everyone pronounces it. For example, we say "indepéndence", putting the stress on the third syllable (the second "e"). If we say "indépendence" it sounds strange. Likewise if we say "insuránce" instead of "insúrance". Try saying these words with the stress in the wrong place. It sounds very odd, doesn't it. In fact if someone speaks a sentence full of words with the stress on the wrong syllable, it is not easy to understand! Well, the Greeks have the same problem when we try to speak their language so it is important to stress the correct syllable, even though it sounds strange to us. If you get it wrong, you won't be understood. Some words will even have the wrong meaning if you stress them incorrectly! Look at the first two words in the list. Pronounciation: we have used "X" to depict the "ch" sound as in Scottish "loch" and "dh" to depict the heavy "th" sound used in "this" but not in "athlete". In English, an "e" at the end of a word is not pronounced but might modify the preceding vowel. In Greek the "e" is pronounced as in "bet" so we depict this sound with "eh", below. For example: "neh" sounds like "net" without the "t".
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