Word
Φαντάζεσαι να μην είχαμε ρεπό και να έπρεπε να κάνουμε όλα αυτά μετά τη δουλειά;
Meaning
Can you imagine if we didn’t have a day off and had to do all this after work?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Φαντάζεσαι να μην είχαμε ρεπό και να έπρεπε να κάνουμε όλα αυτά μετά τη δουλειά;
και
and
η δουλειά
the work
έχω
to have
να
to
Questions & Answers about Φαντάζεσαι να μην είχαμε ρεπό και να έπρεπε να κάνουμε όλα αυτά μετά τη δουλειά;
Why does the sentence start with Φαντάζεσαι (2nd person singular)? Who is doing the imagining?
Φαντάζεσαι literally means you imagine / you’re imagining, but in this kind of question it works like English Can you imagine…? It’s addressing the listener directly (informal singular you).
The situations being imagined involve we (because of είχαμε and κάνουμε).
What exactly does Φαντάζεσαι να… mean, and why is να used here?
Φαντάζεσαι να… is a very common spoken pattern meaning Imagine… / Can you imagine… followed by a hypothetical scenario.
Greek often uses να + verb after verbs like φαντάζομαι to introduce the imagined situation.
Why is the negative να μην είχαμε using μην instead of δεν?
Because μην is the normal negation with the subjunctive-type structure introduced by να.
- δεν is used mainly with the indicative (straight statements of fact).
So after να, you typically negate with μη(ν): να μην…
Why is it να μην είχαμε (imperfect) instead of something like a present tense?