Breakdown of Μετά τον καβγά ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον και ήπιαμε καφέ μαζί.
Questions & Answers about Μετά τον καβγά ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον και ήπιαμε καφέ μαζί.
Ο καβγάς is the nominative (dictionary form) of the noun “argument / fight.”
After the preposition μετά (“after”), Greek uses the accusative case. So:
- Nominative: ο καβγάς – “the fight” (as subject)
- Accusative: τον καβγά – “the fight” (as object, or after many prepositions)
Because τον καβγά depends on μετά, it must be in the accusative, not the nominative. Hence Μετά τον καβγά = “After the fight/argument.”
Both are possible here.
- Μετά τον καβγά – perfectly correct and slightly more compact / neutral.
- Μετά από τον καβγά – also very common, especially in everyday speech.
In modern Greek:
- With events or nouns, both are generally fine:
- Μετά το μάθημα / Μετά από το μάθημα – “after the lesson”
- With time periods, μετά από is very frequent:
- Μετά από δύο ώρες – “after two hours”
In this sentence, Μετά τον καβγά and Μετά από τον καβγά mean the same thing.
Ζητήσαμε is the aorist (simple past) of the verb ζητάω / ζητώ (“to ask for, to request”).
- Present: ζητάμε – “we ask / we are asking”
- Aorist: ζητήσαμε – “we asked / we requested (once, completed)”
So here ζητήσαμε = “we (once) asked / we (once) requested.”
In the expression ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη, this becomes “we apologized.” The aorist is used because it refers to a single, completed action in the past.
Greek usually expresses “to apologize” with the construction:
- ζητάω συγγνώμη (από κάποιον)
Literally: “I ask for forgiveness (from someone).”
So:
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη – literally “we asked for forgiveness”
- Natural English: “we apologized”
There is no single everyday verb that directly corresponds to “apologize” in the same way; this collocation ζητάω + συγγνώμη is the standard way to say it.
Ο ένας από τον άλλον is a common way to say “each other / one another.”
Breakdown:
- ο ένας – “the one” (masculine nominative singular; agrees with the subject “we,” assumed to be masculine or mixed group)
- από – “from”
- τον άλλον – “the other” (masculine accusative singular, object of the preposition από)
Literally: “the one from the other,” i.e. “each (one) from the other,” which corresponds to English “each other.”
So:
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον
“we apologized to each other” (literally: “we asked forgiveness, the one from the other”).
All three involve the idea “each other,” but the preposition depends on the verb and the relationship:
ο ένας τον άλλον – no preposition; direct object
- Used when the verb directly takes the object:
- αγαπάμε ο ένας τον άλλον – “we love each other”
- βλέπουμε ο ένας τον άλλον – “we see each other”
- Used when the verb directly takes the object:
ο ένας στον άλλον – with σε (“to”)
- Used with verbs that naturally take σε:
- μιλάμε ο ένας στον άλλον – “we talk to each other”
- γράφουμε ο ένας στον άλλον – “we write to each other”
- Used with verbs that naturally take σε:
ο ένας από τον άλλον – with από (“from”)
- Used with verbs that normally take από:
- ζητάω συγγνώμη από κάποιον – “I apologize to someone”
- So: ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον – “we apologized to each other”
- Used with verbs that normally take από:
So the choice (τον / σε / από) follows the normal pattern of the verb.
Yes. The pronouns agree in gender with the subject:
- Mixed group or all men:
- ο ένας από τον άλλον
- All women:
- η μία από την άλλη
Examples:
- Μετά τον καβγά ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη η μία από την άλλη.
“After the argument, we (women) apologized to each other.”
In everyday speech, however, people often default to the masculine ο ένας από τον άλλον, especially if the gender is not emphasized.
Greek is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (like “I, you, we”) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person and number.
- ζητήσαμε – the ending -σαμε clearly indicates “we (1st person plural)”
- ήπιαμε – the ending -αμε also indicates “we”
So:
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη = “we apologized”
- Saying Εμείς ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη adds emphasis, like “We apologized (not someone else).”
In this sentence, the plain ζητήσαμε and ήπιαμε already encode “we,” so εμείς is not needed.
Ήπιαμε is the aorist (simple past) of πίνω (“to drink”).
- Present: πίνουμε – “we drink / we are drinking”
- Aorist: ήπιαμε – “we drank” (one completed event)
- Imperfect: πίναμε – “we were drinking / we used to drink” (ongoing or repeated in the past)
In the sentence:
- ήπιαμε καφέ μαζί – “we drank coffee together” (one finished action after the argument)
If you said:
- πίναμε καφέ μαζί – this would focus on the duration or repeated nature: “we were drinking coffee together” / “we used to drink coffee together.”
Καφές is masculine:
- Nominative: ο καφές
- Accusative: (έναν) καφέ
In the sentence, καφέ is used without an article, which often has a more general or “some” meaning:
- ήπιαμε καφέ – “we drank coffee” (an unspecified amount / in general)
- ήπιαμε έναν καφέ – “we drank a (single) coffee / one coffee”
- ήπιαμε τον καφέ – “we drank the coffee” (a specific coffee already known in the context)
So the bare καφέ is like English “we drank coffee” (not focusing on number or particular coffee).
Greek word order is relatively flexible, but not every permutation sounds natural.
The neutral, most natural order here is:
- Μετά τον καβγά ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον και ήπιαμε καφέ μαζί.
You could move some elements for emphasis, e.g.:
- Μετά τον καβγά ο ένας από τον άλλον ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη
This is possible but sounds more marked / slightly awkward; the standard place for ο ένας από τον άλλον here is after συγγνώμη.
What tends to stay more fixed is:
- Prepositional phrase Μετά τον καβγά at the beginning (or sometimes at the end).
- Verb and its object (ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη) staying close together.
So small changes are allowed, but the original word order is the most natural.
Συγγνώμη by itself is a common word meaning:
- “sorry”
- “excuse me”
- “pardon”
You can say:
- Συγγνώμη! – “Sorry!” / “Excuse me!”
In ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη, the word is the same noun συγγνώμη (“forgiveness / excuse”), but now it’s the object of the verb ζητήσαμε:
- Literally: “we asked for forgiveness”
- Idiomatically: “we apologized”
So the meaning is consistent; the difference is just whether συγγνώμη stands alone as an interjection, or appears as a noun in the verb phrase ζητάω συγγνώμη.
Yes, you can, with a very similar meaning:
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη ο ένας από τον άλλον
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη μεταξύ μας
Both essentially mean “we apologized to each other.”
Μεταξύ μας literally means “between us” and is often used to express mutual action inside a group:
- Τα βρήκαμε μεταξύ μας. – “We settled things between us.”
- Τα μοιραστήκαμε μεταξύ μας. – “We shared them among ourselves.”
So:
- ζητήσαμε συγγνώμη μεταξύ μας – “we apologized among ourselves / to each other,” a bit more collective-sounding but functionally the same in this context.