What does “ta leo monos mou, ta akouo monos mou” mean in Greek?
Σκηνή σε κομμωτήριο στο Ηράκλειο
B2 Greek listening practice · Standard Greek · Picked for people who know more
Greek has a complete one-line phrase for “nobody is listening to me”: τα λέω μόνος μου, τα ακούω μόνος μου (“I’m saying it to myself, I’m hearing it myself”). The line is said with a sigh or a small smile, half-frustrated and half-resigned. Greeks pull it out in family arguments and meetings where someone has stopped listening.
This clip drops the phrase into a haircut scene set in a Heraklion (Crete) salon: the speaker rambles about meeting someone, realizes the listener has tuned out, and delivers the line. Cretan Greek tends to soften certain consonants, giving the phrase a regional accent, but the idiom itself travels across the Greek-speaking world.
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How common in Greek
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Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-GR 2017 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Greek family dramas and prime-time sitcoms (Παρά Πέντε, Στο Παρά Πέντε)
- ▸In Greek workplace arguments and political debate panels
- ▸In Greek stand-up comedy about not being heard
- ▸In Greek literature on Cretan rural life (Nikos Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek)
- ▸In Greek family WhatsApp chats when someone is being ignored