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  5. "Πού είναι το μπολ μου;"

"Πού είναι το μπολ μου;"

Translation:Where is my bowl?

September 28, 2016



I have been racking my brain about the word " μπολ "

I have been speaking Greek my entire life as a Greek American living with my grandparents . I am trying to think of other words for bowl. How would we say "a bowl of fruit" in greek. I can't imagine my grandmother using the word "μπολ"

She would probably say " μια πιατελα φρουτα" but that really means platter of course.

Any Greek speakers who can think of a better word for bowl???

I know they use Κυπελλο in some instances when bowl is used in terms of a trophy.

Sorry for the long post but μπολ sounds like it is derived from English or French and I can't imagine it is an original Greek word. But maybe I am wrong.

Thank you in advance to any helpful linguists out there.

  • 135

Bowl is from english, of course. Synonyms of μπολ are κυπελλάκι, κεσές-κεσεδάκι, τσανάκα or κουπάκι. These word are used differently though. Κεσές & τσανάκα are used for the yogurt bowl, mostly and κυπελλάκι-κουπάκι is somewhat smaller than a bowl.


thanks, using your examples I did some searches and I also just found another word " γαβαδα "

  • 135

Oh yes, γαβάθα is a large bowl.


OOOH Thank you Doulingo! I spent a solid 25 minutes poking around the web trying to find out if there was an actual Greek word for Bowl!

What's really crazy to me is that (as best I can tell) even all of those Greek words listed are lone words! Το τσανάκι και το κεσές are from Turkish (maybe originally Persian?) Tο γαβάθα is apparently a latin lone according to Wiktionary. Κυπελλάκι is truly an ancient Greek word, but really it means cup more than it does bowl. And I can't find a thing on the etymology of κουπάκι.

Anyway sorry for the long post, but what a strangely mundane item to not have a clearly traceable native word!

Cheers all!


μπολ μου sounds odd to me. Where did the y-glide come from?


It threw me too. I think it comes from the μ. You have to open your mouth before closing your lips to make an "m" sound.


Sometimes, in some languages, it would appear that, when certain consonants occur next to one another, speakers unconsciously feel compelled to insert an extra vowel. (At any rate, that is what I've see happen at times in Irish, and that is what appears to be happening here.)


It's an artifact of the computer voice. This is not how it's actually said in Greek.

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