Greek to Vietnamese: a number and a book need a counting construction, not a copied plural ending
A Greek dictionary count is rebuilt in the target
Greek δύο λεξικά means two dictionaries: a numeral precedes a plural noun. Vietnamese commonly places a classifier between the numeral and the item in a specified count. The classifier is not an extra dictionary, and the target noun does not need a Greek-style plural ending to preserve the quantity.
Northern Illinois University’s Vietnamese lesson illustrates ba quyển từ điển for three dictionaries, with cuốn as an alternative volume classifier. Its example identifies physical dictionary volumes. A translation should not select the most general object classifier merely because the source word λεξικό refers to a thing.
Count copies, volumes, and languages separately
An original Greek phrase such as τρία λεξικά can refer to three separate dictionaries. A larger description might instead identify one dictionary in three volumes. Those counts concern different objects. The target classifier does not remove the need to establish whether the Greek numeral counts works, copies, or volumes in the source situation.
This is particularly relevant to a school supply list. Two copies of one bilingual dictionary are not the same request as two dictionaries for different languages. The translated noun phrase should preserve that difference rather than infer a distinction between dictionary titles from the classifier alone.
The lesson also illustrates a general object classifier with tables and television sets. A source inventory can contain the same numeral before different Greek plural nouns, but Vietnamese may organize those items through different counting expressions. Repeating one classifier across the list for visual consistency can lose the distinctions the teaching examples demonstrate.
Descriptions and possessors appear in a different sequence
The lesson’s outline places a number before the classifier and item, with modifiers such as a demonstrative, adjective, or possessor following the item. Greek δύο καινούρια λεξικά, two new dictionaries, places the adjective before the noun. The target phrase therefore needs reordering as well as a classifier.
If the Greek source instead says τα δύο λεξικά μου, my two dictionaries, the owner is still the speaker, not a third dictionary added after the counted pair. The Vietnamese outline shows possession in the modifier area. Source word positions cannot determine which target element performs each role.
The same lesson permits a classifier with a number or adjective when the item is understood. That matters in an exchange choosing between known volumes: a short reply equivalent to the new one need not repeat the entire dictionary noun. An omitted target item can be recoverable from context rather than missing from the translation.
These introductory patterns should not be expanded into a claim that every Vietnamese noun always requires one fixed classifier in every context. The practical task for this pair is narrower: preserve the Greek count and the kind of item counted, place descriptions in the target noun phrase, and distinguish a physical volume from a dictionary work or an additional copy.
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