 | "από τις επτά" vs. "στις επτά" |
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Γεια σας, Ποια είναι η διαφορά μεταξύ «από τις επτά» και «στις επτά»; Την φράση «από τις επτά» την βρήκα στο επόμενο παράδειγμα πρότασης: «Για να είμαι στο σχολείο στην ώρα μου, πρέπει να ξυπνώ από τις επτά.» Does it mean "before seven"? Thank you for any replies in advance! |
| Re: "από τις επτά" vs. "στις επτά" |
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Szabolcs, When relating to time, "σε" means simply "at", when used with hours (other time indications use the accusative case). "στις επτά": at 7 o'clock. "Από", on the other hand, means "since", and is the opposite of "ως": until. Now, it may seem weird to say "I have to wake up since 7 o'clock". It's probably even ungrammatical in English. In Greek on the other hand, it's a normal construction. I'm not sure I can explain it right, but it's as if they are taking the future point of view of arriving at school on time. The sentence could probably be more accurately translated as: "in order for me to be at school on time, I'll have to have been up since 7 o'clock", although it's a bit awkward in English. Another way to look at it is that using "στις επτά" would make the sentence a simple statement of fact: "I have to wake up at 7". Using "από τις επτά" connects it back to the reason why the person has to wake up so early. Less than a statement of fact, it becomes the result of a condition. I've noticed that Greek sometimes uses "ως" in a similar way, but this time connecting to events happening before the timed event. It can be a bit difficult to understand at first, but you get used to it. |
| Re: "από τις επτά" vs. "στις επτά" |
| Thanks for the useful explanation, Christophe! |
| Re: "από τις επτά" vs. "στις επτά" |
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Just to add a bit, I've just remembered that "από" can also mean "by", in as far as I know all the senses of the word: - I take someone by the hand: κρατάω κάποιον από το χέρι. - I need to pass by the bank: χρειάζομαι να περάσω από την τράπεζα. - This was written by me: αυτό γράφτηκε από μένα. So it may be that you could translate " πρέπει να ξυπνώ από τις 7" as "I have to wake up by 7 o'clock". I'm just not completely sure that you can use "by" in that sense in English (not my native language). My original explanation is still valid though. Basically, "από" can mean anything between "from", "since" and "by", so just take the meaning you feel fits best in the sentence you're trying to understand  . |
| Re: "από τις επτά" vs. "στις επτά" |
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Not a native speaker either, but I think "I need to be up by 7" is used in English. However, that means "I need to be up at 7 the latest", and from what I gathered from you explanation, the Greek phrase has a different nuance. The funny thing about this by-από correspondence is that I'm pretty sure that in many languages these four examples would be expressed with four different constructs At least I have always thought of these uses of by as separate ones.Thanks again! (And I wonder why the system didn't send me a notification e-mail about your most recent reply...) |
