# Greek phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2003, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244 "2003-04-12T12:21:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/1 "2003-04-12T12:21:39Z")
Near the end of my sophomore year in high school there was a rather irreverent fellow I’ll call Russ, who wrote next to his picture in the Sophomore Section of my yearbook, this phrase: _Na par tho theoulo!_ Just as I printed it here. For the record, he was not Greek. I never did find out what it meant. He died in Vietnam in 1968. ☹ 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/2 "2003-04-12T12:26:44Z")
Before anyone else does it: Google doesn’t know the phrase. Therefore, neither do I. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mudcrutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@mudcrutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudcrutch)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/3 "2003-04-12T15:01:35Z")
"640K ought to be enou… oh G **r** eek phrases. nevermind. carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/4 "2003-04-12T17:30:40Z")
I know Ancient Greek fairly well, and that doesn’t look like it to me. So maybe it’s Modern Greek, or maybe he had just heard it aloud and was misremembering it? As stands, it cannot be an _Ancient_ Greek phrase. _Nai, para to theon_ would roughly mean “Yes, by god” in Ancient Greek, but that’s not exactly what you have there. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/5 "2003-04-13T05:22:31Z")
This looks like Liturgical Greek or New Testament Greek. And, from what little I know, it does mean “Yes, by God.” Brief hijack: Why do so many folks who study NT or Church Greek in the USA but aren’t themselves in a Greek-using Church insist on using the Erasmian (mis)pronunciation? It is so painful to hear “ha-gee-a so-fee-a” when it is pronounced “a-ya so-fya”. (Of course, that isn’t as bad as when that particular building is called “The Church of Saint Sophia”, when it actually is “The Church of Holy Wisdom”.) ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-phrases/168244/6 "2003-04-18T13:58:48Z")
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I hadn’t seen **Dogface** ’s question. It’s probably because they’ve been taught their Greek by scholars of Ancient (Classical) Greek, where the Erasmian pronunciation is considered correct. It’s a big enough deal for a school to even have Ancient Greek without having two whole kinds. So there’s a differentiation in what you read at later levels but not in the beginning class where you’re taught the basics like pronunciation.