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Greek Grammar Guide

Welcome to the Elon.io Greek Grammar Guide. 353 topics across every area of Greek grammar, tagged by CEFR level so you can find the right page for your level.

A158 pagesA2121 pagesB1121 pagesB242 pagesC111 pagesC20 pages

Start Here (A1)

New to Greek? These are the foundation topics every beginner needs.

  • How Greek Adjectives Work — The map of the Greek adjective system — a describing word that agrees with its noun in gender, case and number and declines just like a noun, the dominant καλός/καλή/καλό pattern, the smaller classes it fans out into, and why an English speaker has to start inflecting a word that in English never changes at all.
  • Adjective Agreement — The one reflex every Greek adjective demands — copy the noun's gender, number and case onto the adjective, in the attributive slot (ο μεγάλος κήπος → του μεγάλου κήπου) and in the predicative slot after είμαι (το σπίτι είναι μεγάλο) alike — and the two English-speaker errors, leaving the adjective bare and agreeing in gender but not case.
  • Adjectives in -ος / -η / -ο — The full paradigm of the largest and most regular Greek adjective class — καλός, μικρός, ψηλός, όμορφος — declined across all four cases, both numbers and all three genders, with the useful shortcut that each gender copies a noun declension you already know, plus the vocative -ε and why these adjectives keep their accent fixed where the matching nouns shift it.
  • Definite and Indefinite Articles — The map of the Greek article system — a definite article ο/η/το that agrees in gender, case and number, an indefinite ένας/μία/ένα that is the number 'one' and has no plural, and the many places where Greek says 'the' and English says nothing at all.
  • Definite Article: Full Declension — The complete twenty-four-cell grid of the Greek definite article, drilled one form at a time — the three overlaps that trip everyone up (του for two genders, οι for two, το doubling as neuter subject and object), and the τον/την final-ν rule that decides whether the -ν stays.
  • Indefinite Article: ένας, μία, ένα — Greek's word for 'a' is literally the numeral 'one' — ένας/μία/ένα declines for gender and case, has no plural at all, and is left out far more often than English 'a', especially before professions and in predicates.
  • Preposition + Article: στον, στη, στο — σε is the one Greek preposition that fuses with the article, and it fuses obligatorily — the full grid στον/στη(ν)/στο/στους/στις/στα plus the genitive στου/στης/στων, and why από, για and με only elide instead.
  • Accusative: The Direct Object — The accusative is the case of the thing the verb acts on — Βλέπω τον Γιάννη, Τρώω το μήλο — marked by the article (ο→τον, η→την, οι→τους/τις) rather than by position, which is exactly why Greek word order can move around so freely.
  • Accusative After Prepositions — Every preposition you use in daily Greek — σε, από, με, για, μέχρι, χωρίς, προς — puts the following noun into the accusative, and σε fuses with the article to give στον, στη, στο; the genitive-taking prepositions are a small formal club you can safely postpone.
  • Genitive: Possession — Greek has no apostrophe-s and no word for 'of' — possession is built head-first, with the possessed thing coming before the genitive possessor (το σπίτι του Γιάννη), and everyday 'my/your/his' handled by the unstressed clitics μου, σου, του that trigger a second accent on the noun.
  • Nominative: The Subject — The case of the doer — how the nominative marks the subject, why the verb ending lets Greek drop it altogether, why the subject can sit after the verb without confusion, and the verbs like μου αρέσει where the English subject turns out not to be the Greek one.
  • The Greek Case System — The master map of Greek cases — nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative, what each one is for, why the ancient dative is gone and what took its place, and why the article and the adjective carry the case more visibly than the noun does.

Adjectives

Basics

  • How Greek Adjectives WorkA1 — The map of the Greek adjective system — a describing word that agrees with its noun in gender, case and number and declines just like a noun, the dominant καλός/καλή/καλό pattern, the smaller classes it fans out into, and why an English speaker has to start inflecting a word that in English never changes at all.
  • Adjective AgreementA1 — The one reflex every Greek adjective demands — copy the noun's gender, number and case onto the adjective, in the attributive slot (ο μεγάλος κήπος → του μεγάλου κήπου) and in the predicative slot after είμαι (το σπίτι είναι μεγάλο) alike — and the two English-speaker errors, leaving the adjective bare and agreeing in gender but not case.

Comparison

  • Comparative With πιοA2 — The everyday way to say 'more X' in Greek — the invariable little word πιο placed in front of any adjective (πιο ψηλός, πιο εύκολο) — why it never changes while the adjective still agrees with its noun, how to attach the thing you're comparing to with από, and how to say 'less' (λιγότερο) and 'as…as' (τόσο…όσο, εξίσου).
  • Synthetic Comparative in -τεροςB1 — Greek's one-word comparative — ψηλός → ψηλότερος, ακριβός → ακριβότερος, βαθύς → βαθύτερος — built from the adjective's own stem with -ότερος / -ύτερος, why it declines like an ordinary -ος/-η/-ο adjective and takes a fixed accent on the suffix, how it trades off against the everyday πιο, and the one rule you must never break: don't use both.
  • Relative SuperlativeB1 — How to say 'the most X of a group' in Greek — ο πιο ψηλός, η ψηλότερη, το πιο έξυπνο — built on the single insight that the superlative is just the comparative with a definite article, why the article is obligatory and agrees with the noun, how to name the group with από or the genitive, and how it differs from the 'very X' elative.
  • Absolute Superlative (Elative)B2 — How Greek says 'very / extremely X' with no comparison in sight — the everyday spoken πολύ / πάρα πολύ / υπερβολικά + adjective and the learned one-word elative in -τατος (ωραιότατος, ταχύτατος, θερμότατα), why -τατος is emphatic and formal rather than wrong, how it declines, and the lexicalized top-degree adjectives (άριστος, υπέροχος, έξοχος) that already carry the meaning.
  • Irregular ComparativesB1 — The small set of everyday adjectives whose comparatives you simply have to memorise — καλός → καλύτερος, κακός → χειρότερος, μεγάλος → μεγαλύτερος, μικρός → μικρότερος, πολύς → περισσότερος, λίγος → λιγότερος — why these highest-frequency words resist the regular -ότερος rule (exactly as English good→better, bad→worse do), and how they behave with πιο in casual speech.
  • The Object of ComparisonB1 — How to attach the second half of a comparison in Greek — από + accusative (πιο ψηλός από τον αδερφό του, από μένα) is the everyday answer, the genitive of comparison (ψηλότερος του αδερφού του) is the formal one, απ' ό,τι introduces a whole clause, and παρά sets up a rejected alternative.

Declension Classes

  • Adjectives in -ος / -η / -οA1 — The full paradigm of the largest and most regular Greek adjective class — καλός, μικρός, ψηλός, όμορφος — declined across all four cases, both numbers and all three genders, with the useful shortcut that each gender copies a noun declension you already know, plus the vocative -ε and why these adjectives keep their accent fixed where the matching nouns shift it.
  • Adjectives in -ος / -α / -οA2 — The vowel-stem variant of the -ος adjective — ωραίος/ωραία/ωραίο, νέος/νέα/νέο, κρύος/κρύα/κρύο — where the feminine ends in -α (not -η) and lands on the same spelling as the neuter plural.
  • Adjectives in -ύς / -ιά / -ύB1 — The small, high-frequency class of physical-quality adjectives — βαθύς, βαρύς, πλατύς, φαρδύς, μακρύς — with its -ιά feminine, its -ιοί / -ιές / -ιά plural, and the synizesis that squeezes -ιά into one syllable ('vathyá').
  • Two-Termination Adjectives in -ης / -ης / -εςB1 — The learned class where masculine and feminine share one form — ο/η διεθνής — and only the neuter differs (το διεθνές), with its distinctive -ούς genitive and -είς / -ή plural; common in news and academic Greek.
  • Participial Adjectives in -ων / -ουσα / -ονC1 — The learned present-active-participle class — ενδιαφέρων / ενδιαφέρουσα / ενδιαφέρον, μέλλων, παρών, ο διευθύνων σύμβουλος — with its -οντ- oblique stem (του ενδιαφέροντος), the everyday survivors like το μέλλον and το περιβάλλον, and an honest account of a register you should recognise but rarely build yourself.
  • The Irregular Adjective πολύςA2 — Greek's word for much/many — πολύς / πολλή / πολύ — the one adjective with a single-λ singular (πολύς, πολύ) and a double-λ everywhere else (πολλή, πολλοί, πολλά), plus the invariable adverb πολύ ('very').
  • Indeclinable Adjectives (Colors, Loans)B1 — The adjectives that never change form — loan colours μπλε, καφέ, ροζ, γκρι, μοβ and the -ί colours πορτοκαλί, plus loans like σικ and ρετρό — set against the native colours (κόκκινος, μαύρος) that decline normally.

Detail

  • Accent in Adjective DeclensionB2 — Where the stress sits as an adjective declines — and the good news that, unlike nouns, the everyday -ος/-η/-ο adjective keeps its accent fixed (όμορφος → του όμορφου, not ×του ομόρφου). The oxytone and -ύς classes, the learned -ής/-ές genitives that carry the stress, and the handful of formal doublets (του άγιου vs του Αγίου).
  • Color AdjectivesA2 — The practical vocabulary and grammar of Greek colours — the native ones that decline and agree (κόκκινος, μαύρος, πράσινος, γαλάζιος, καφετής) versus the loan and -ί colours that never change (μπλε, ροζ, μωβ, γκρι, καφέ, πορτοκαλί), the καφέ/καφές trap, and how to build light and dark shades (ανοιχτό, σκούρο, ανοιχτογάλαζο).
  • Passive Participles as AdjectivesB1 — The passive perfect participle in -μένος / -μένη / -μένο used as an everyday adjective for resultant states — κουρασμένος (tired), χαλασμένος (broken), κλεισμένος (shut), αγαπημένος (beloved) — how it's built from verbs, how it declines and agrees, why the accent is glued to the -μέ-, and how it differs from the -τος verbal adjective (κλειστός) and the eventive passive.

Usage

  • Adjective PositionA2 — Where a Greek adjective sits and what that choice means — the default before the noun (ένα ωραίο σπίτι), the emphatic doubled-article order after it (το σπίτι το ωραίο), the affective ο καλός ο άνθρωπος, and the predicative position after είναι that asserts rather than describes.
  • Predicative AdjectivesA2 — The adjective after a linking verb — Ο καφές είναι κρύος, Η σούπα είναι κρύα, Τα παιδιά είναι κουρασμένα — where it drops the article, takes the nominative and agrees in gender and number with the subject, plus the object-predicate twist (Τη βρήκα αλλαγμένη) that agrees with an accusative instead.
  • Adjectives Used as NounsB1 — Put an article on an adjective and it becomes a noun — ο μικρός (the little one), οι πλούσιοι (the rich), ένας ξένος (a stranger), τα ελληνικά (the Greek language), το κινητό (the mobile) — with gender and number choosing whether you mean a man, a woman, a class of people or a thing, and the everyday words that have frozen into the dictionary this way.
  • Stacking Multiple AdjectivesB2 — Putting several adjectives on one noun — ένα μεγάλο κόκκινο αυτοκίνητο, ένα ωραίο ελληνικό νησί, ένα μεγάλο και φωτεινό δωμάτιο — with the rule for when to link them with και and when to simply stack them, the ordering gravity that pulls classifying adjectives next to the noun, and the reminder that every single adjective in the pile must agree.

Articles

Basics

  • Definite and Indefinite ArticlesA1 — The map of the Greek article system — a definite article ο/η/το that agrees in gender, case and number, an indefinite ένας/μία/ένα that is the number 'one' and has no plural, and the many places where Greek says 'the' and English says nothing at all.
  • Definite Article: Full DeclensionA1 — The complete twenty-four-cell grid of the Greek definite article, drilled one form at a time — the three overlaps that trip everyone up (του for two genders, οι for two, το doubling as neuter subject and object), and the τον/την final-ν rule that decides whether the -ν stays.
  • Indefinite Article: ένας, μία, έναA1 — Greek's word for 'a' is literally the numeral 'one' — ένας/μία/ένα declines for gender and case, has no plural at all, and is left out far more often than English 'a', especially before professions and in predicates.
  • Preposition + Article: στον, στη, στοA1 — σε is the one Greek preposition that fuses with the article, and it fuses obligatorily — the full grid στον/στη(ν)/στο/στους/στις/στα plus the genitive στου/στης/στων, and why από, για and με only elide instead.

Syntax

  • Article + Adjective + Noun OrderA2 — The frame [article – adjective – noun] and what it means to be inside it: why το άδειο σπίτι and το σπίτι άδειο say different things, how the doubled article of ο άνθρωπος ο καλός works, and why the article alone is what turns καλύτερος into 'the best'.
  • The Article as NominalizerB1 — Greek's most productive syntactic trick — put an article in front of an adjective, an adverb, a preposition phrase, a να-clause or a quoted word and it becomes a noun: το καλό, το αύριο, τα υπέρ και τα κατά, το να λες ψέματα, το «όχι».
  • Articles With όλος, Numbers, QuantifiersB1 — The double-determiner that trips up every English speaker — όλος ο κόσμος, όλη τη μέρα, όλα τα παιδιά — plus why numbers and demonstratives keep their article (οι δύο φίλοι, αυτό το βιβλίο) while κάθε and κάποιος refuse it, and the final-ν detail that makes it όλο τον χρόνο.

Usage

  • When Greek Uses 'the' (But English Doesn't)A2 — A systematic map of the places Greek insists on the definite article and English refuses it — names, countries, abstract nouns, whole categories, body parts, days and seasons, institutions and means of transport — with the one principle that ties them together.
  • Articles With Names and PlacesA2 — Why Greek says ο Γιάννης and η Ελλάδα where English says bare 'John' and 'Greece', what the article buys you (it is the case marker), and the three contexts — direct address, naming yourself, colloquial destinations — where it disappears.
  • Article + Noun + PossessiveA2 — Greek says 'the house my' — the possessive clitic sits after the noun and the definite article stays in front, so 'my house' is το σπίτι μου, not σπίτι μου; with the invariable clitic, the accent rule that follows, and why dropping the article is one of the most persistent beginner errors.
  • Using the Indefinite ArticleA2 — When Greek actually says ένας/μία/ένα and when it says nothing at all — why Είμαι γιατρός takes no article, why Τι ωραία μέρα! takes none either, how ένας still means 'one', and why the commonest learner error on this page is putting an article in.
  • When to Omit the ArticleB1 — The other half of the article story — role predicates (Είναι δικηγόρος), verb+bare-noun activities (βλέπω τηλεόραση), manner phrases (με προσοχή), the article-less institutional πάω σχολείο, and the registers (signs, small ads, recipes) where Greek strips articles out entirely.
  • Generic vs Specific ReferenceB2 — Why Greek marks a statement about a whole class — coffee as such, Greeks as such, the human being as such — with the definite article, singular or plural, exactly where English strips it off; the fine line between the generic ο καφές (coffee in general) and the specific αυτός ο καφές (this coffee); and the register difference between the gnomic singular and the everyday plural.
  • Articles in Titles and GeographyB1 — How the definite article behaves with titles, place names and works — ο κύριος Παπαδόπουλος with both words declining, the genitive-apposition street (η οδός Ερμού, η πλατεία Συντάγματος), seas and mountains and rivers with their fixed genders, the plural-only place names (τα Ιωάννινα, τα Χανιά, οι Δελφοί), and book and film titles that keep their own article.

Cases

Accusative

  • Accusative: The Direct ObjectA1 — The accusative is the case of the thing the verb acts on — Βλέπω τον Γιάννη, Τρώω το μήλο — marked by the article (ο→τον, η→την, οι→τους/τις) rather than by position, which is exactly why Greek word order can move around so freely.
  • Accusative After PrepositionsA1 — Every preposition you use in daily Greek — σε, από, με, για, μέχρι, χωρίς, προς — puts the following noun into the accusative, and σε fuses with the article to give στον, στη, στο; the genitive-taking prepositions are a small formal club you can safely postpone.
  • Accusative for Time and DurationA2 — Greek says την Κυριακή, το πρωί, δύο ώρες and τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα with a bare accusative and no preposition at all — covering everything English needs on, in, for and per for — and this page maps exactly when to leave the preposition out and when σε or για is genuinely required.
  • Accusative for Extent and MeasureB1 — Distance, weight, price and height all stand in a bare accusative with no preposition — Περπάτησα πέντε χιλιόμετρα, Ζυγίζει δύο κιλά, Κόστισε δέκα ευρώ — plus the one measurement that escapes it (age takes the genitive: τριάντα χρονών) and the colloquial article-less destination accusative behind πάμε σπίτι and πάω δουλειά.

Choosing Case

  • Indirect Object: Genitive vs σεB1 — The decision page for recipients — genitive clitic for pronouns (Της τηλεφώνησα), σε + accusative for full nouns (Έδωσα το βιβλίο στον Γιάννη), when each rule bends, how the two combine in clitic doubling, and why northern Greek does it with the accusative instead.
  • Two Objects: Case AssignmentB1 — What happens when a verb has both a thing and a person — the thing is always accusative, the person is genitive or σε — plus the fixed genitive-before-accusative order of a double clitic, the second accent in Δώσε μού το, and the word-order trap that turns an indirect object into a possessor.

Dative Survivals

  • The Lost Dative and Its ReplacementsB2 — Why Modern Greek has four cases instead of five — what the ancient dative did, how its work was split between the genitive, σε + accusative and με + accusative, why the north and the south divided the estate differently, and why the overloaded modern genitive is the direct consequence.
  • Fossilized Dative ExpressionsC1 — The ancient dative endings still embedded in modern Greek phrases — εν ολίγοις, εν μέρει, εν γνώσει, τω όντι, εν προκειμένω and the whole εν-family — how to recognise a fossil by its ending, what register each one belongs to, and why you must never build a new one.

Genitive

  • Genitive: PossessionA1 — Greek has no apostrophe-s and no word for 'of' — possession is built head-first, with the possessed thing coming before the genitive possessor (το σπίτι του Γιάννη), and everyday 'my/your/his' handled by the unstressed clitics μου, σου, του that trigger a second accent on the noun.
  • Genitive: The Indirect ObjectA2 — The genitive's second job — marking the person something is given, said, sent or shown to — and the tiny unstressed pronouns μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους that carry it, sitting in front of the verb where English puts nothing at all.
  • Genitive After Learned PrepositionsB1 — The closed set of formal prepositions — εναντίον, υπέρ, λόγω, μεταξύ, εντός, εκτός, μέσω, αντί, πλην, διά — that take the genitive instead of the accusative, why they all come from the written language, what the everyday σε-alternatives are, and the one place where a preposition can swallow a weak pronoun.
  • Genitive of Quantity and PartitiveB1 — How Greek says 'a glass of wine' and 'one of my friends' — with juxtaposition (ένα ποτήρι κρασί) and από + accusative (ένας από τους φίλους μου) doing nearly all the work, the genitive surviving in group nouns and set phrases, and the neat trap that το ποτήρι του κρασιού means a wine glass, not a glass of wine.
  • Genitive With Adjectives and AdverbsC1 — The formal-register corner of the genitive — άξιος προσοχής, ένοχος φόνου, κατώτερος των προσδοκιών, κάτω των δώδεκα ετών — why γεμάτος now prefers the accusative, which adjectives really still govern the genitive, and the everyday adverbs (μαζί μου, δίπλα μου) that quietly do the same thing.
  • Genitive of TimeB2 — The small, mostly frozen set of time expressions Greek puts in the genitive — του χρόνου for next year, των Χριστουγέννων and του Αγίου Γεωργίου for feast days, στις 25 Μαρτίου for dates, ένα παιδί δέκα χρονών for age — plus the honest warning that της Κυριακής is not how you say 'on Sundays'.

Mechanics

  • Case Agreement Within the Noun PhraseA2 — Why Greek inflects three or four words where English inflects none — ο καλός άνθρωπος → του καλού ανθρώπου → τον καλό άνθρωπο — how to decline a whole phrase as one unit, why the endings need not look alike, and what this concord buys you in word-order freedom.
  • Case With NumbersA2 — What a numeral does to the case of the phrase around it — why τρεις μέρες but τρία παιδιά, why πέντε never changes yet στα πέντε βιβλία still shows case, and why χιλιάδες counts like a feminine noun (τρεις χιλιάδες, never τρία).
  • Case in ComparisonsB1 — How to say 'than' in Greek and what case follows — από + accusative everywhere in speech, the learned genitive of comparison (ψηλότερος του αδερφού του) in formal writing, απ' ό,τι before a clause, and the narrow job that παρά still does.
  • Case in AppositionB2 — When one noun renames another it copies its case — Είδα τον Γιάννη, τον δάσκαλο — and when it merely modifies it, the case changes to genitive; plus the apposition rules for titles, place names, ως and σαν, and pronouns like σ' εμάς τους δασκάλους.
  • Case Forms of the Weak PronounsA2 — The one decision behind every clitic pronoun in Greek — accusative με/σε/τον/την/το for what the verb acts on, genitive μου/σου/του/της for who receives or undergoes it — why μας and σας let you off the hook, and the verb lists that decide it for you.
  • Case Reference: Consolidated TablesB1 — The whole case system on one page for looking things up — a function-to-case index with links to the page that teaches each one, three fully declined noun phrases side by side, the prepositions sorted by the case they govern, and the weak-pronoun decision grid.

Nominative

  • Nominative: The SubjectA1 — The case of the doer — how the nominative marks the subject, why the verb ending lets Greek drop it altogether, why the subject can sit after the verb without confusion, and the verbs like μου αρέσει where the English subject turns out not to be the Greek one.
  • Nominative: Predicate and NamingA2 — Why both sides of είμαι share the nominative — Ο Γιάννης είναι δάσκαλος, Εγώ είμαι — how γίνομαι, φαίνομαι and μένω behave the same way, why Greek says Είναι γιατρός with no article, and the neat reason Με λένε Γιάννη is accusative instead.

Overview

  • The Greek Case SystemA1 — The master map of Greek cases — nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative, what each one is for, why the ancient dative is gone and what took its place, and why the article and the adjective carry the case more visibly than the noun does.
  • How Cases Show on the ArticleA1 — Greek noun endings are often ambiguous, so the little word in front does the real work — the full ο/του/τον, η/της/την, το/του/το grid, why ο φίλος and τον φίλο are read as subject and object at a glance, and the one place where the article can't save you.

Vocative

  • Vocative: Calling and AddressingA2 — The social half of the vocative — when Greeks use εσύ and when εσείς, who is allowed to say ρε to whom, the very Greek middle gear of κύριε Γιώργο, how to open an email, and the difference between a vocative that summons and one that softens.

Determiners

Demonstratives

  • Demonstratives: αυτός and εκείνοςA1 — Greek needs only two demonstratives where English has four — αυτός/αυτή/αυτό for whatever is near or in focus, εκείνος/εκείνη/εκείνο for whatever is further off in space, time or attention — with the full declension, the accompanying article (αυτό το βιβλίο), the same words standing alone as pronouns (Θέλω αυτό), and the regional τούτος.

Interrogative

  • Interrogative Determiners: ποιος, πόσος, τιA2 — Three question words attach directly to a noun in Greek — ποιος (which, from a known set), πόσος (how much / how many) and invariable τι (what kind of) — and two of the three decline, so you must fix the noun's gender before you can even ask. This page gives both paradigms, the ποιος-versus-τι line that English blurs, and the rule English speakers break first: an interrogative determiner takes a bare noun, never the article.

Other Determiners

  • τέτοιος and τόσοςB1 — Greek points at kinds and quantities the way it points at objects: τέτοιος is 'that sort of' and τόσος is 'that much', and both decline and agree — τέτοια προβλήματα, τόση ζέστη, τόσα λεφτά. The hard part is that τόσο is also an invariable adverb, so Είναι τόσο ωραία never agrees while Τόση ζέστη! always does.
  • άλλος: 'other/another'A2 — άλλος / άλλη / άλλο is 'other' and 'another', but its most useful job is the one English never predicts — with a mass noun or in an offer it means more: Θέλεις άλλο κρασί; The article decides everything else: άλλος καφές is another coffee, ο άλλος καφές is the other one, and την άλλη βδομάδα is next week.
  • ο ίδιος: 'same' and '-self'B1 — One Greek word covers both English 'the same' and the emphatic '-self', and the only thing separating them is how many definite articles you use: ο ίδιος πρόεδρος is the same president, ο ίδιος ο πρόεδρος is the president himself. Also the possessive frame η ίδια μου η μητέρα, the adverb Μου κάνει το ίδιο, and why ο ίδιος is not the reflexive ο εαυτός μου.

Overview

  • Determiners OverviewA1 — Greek determiners are inflected words, not frozen ones — αυτός, όλος, πολύς and ποιος all copy the noun's gender, number and case, and several of them sit on top of the definite article instead of replacing it (αυτό το βιβλίο). This page sorts the whole class by the one test that predicts most of its behaviour — does the word take the article, refuse it, or follow the noun — and routes you to the page for each member.
  • Combining DeterminersB2 — English allows one determiner per noun; Greek queues them up — όλα αυτά τα παλιά γράμματα is four words in front of one noun, all four carrying the same gender, number and case. This page gives the ordering template, works one phrase through the nominative, accusative and genitive so you can watch every element shift together, and settles where a numeral, a possessive clitic and 'both' land in the queue.

Possessives

  • Possessive Determiners (μου, σου, του)A1 — Greek marks possession with seven unstressed little words placed after the noun — το βιβλίο μου, η μητέρα σου, το σπίτι τους — none of which changes for the thing owned. This page gives the forms, then answers the question the beginner pages skip: why the same clitic can also land in front of the noun (ο καλύτερός μου φίλος) or even in front of the article (όλη μου τη ζωή).

Quantifiers

  • Quantifiers: πολύς, λίγος, αρκετόςA2 — Greek's graded quantifiers — πολύς (much/many), λίγος (little/few), αρκετός (enough and 'quite a lot'), plus informal κάμποσος — all of which agree with their noun, so that a single word covers both English 'much' and 'many': πολύ νερό but πολλά παιδιά, λίγη ζέστη but λίγες μέρες. Includes the question word πόσος and the zero-quantity καθόλου.
  • Some: μερικοί, κάποιος, κάτιB1 — The three ways Greek says 'some' — plural-only μερικοί/μερικές/μερικά for a handful of countable things, the fully declined κάποιος for a single unidentified one ('some man or other'), and invariable κάτι, which is 'something' but also, in speech, a vague plural quantifier (κάτι παιδιά) — plus why κάτι and κάποιος must become τίποτα and κανένας under negation.
  • κανένας: 'no/any' and NegationA2 — κανένας / καμιά / κανένα is Greek's 'nobody' and its 'any' in one word, and it never works alone: Δεν ήρθε κανείς needs both δεν and κανείς, because Greek stacks negatives instead of cancelling them. Full paradigm, the κανείς/κανένας doublet, the obligatory δεν even in Κανείς δεν ήρθε, and the friendly spoken reading in Πάμε για κανένα ποτό;

Universals

  • όλος: 'all' and 'whole'A2 — One Greek word covers English all, whole, everybody and everything — and the noun's number decides which: όλο το βιβλίο is 'the whole book' but όλα τα βιβλία is 'all the books'. Full paradigm of όλος (including the single genitive plural όλων), the floating use in Τα έφαγε όλα, and the idioms όλο και πιο, πάνω απ' όλα, είμαι όλος αυτιά.
  • κάθε and καθένας: 'each/every'A2 — κάθε is the one determiner in Greek that never changes shape and never takes an article — κάθε μέρα, κάθε άνθρωπος, κάθε δύο ώρες — and it forces a singular noun and a singular verb where English says 'everyone… their'. Its pronoun partner does decline (ο καθένας, του καθενός, της καθεμιάς), and with the article it is the everyday word for 'everyone'.
  • Distributives: ανά, ο καθέναςB2 — How Greek says per, apiece and one by one — the learned preposition ανά (ανά κιλό, ανά άτομο), the everyday accusative article that replaces it in speech (δύο ευρώ το κιλό), distributive από (πήραμε από δύο), the appositive ο καθένας, and reduplicated pairs like ένας ένας and λίγο λίγο. The point of the page is the register split: ανά and το κιλό say the same thing in two different worlds.

Nouns

Cross-cutting

  • Forming the PluralB1 — One reference for every plural ending in Greek — masculine -οι / -ες / -άδες / -ηδες, feminine -ες / -άδες / -ούδες / -εις / -οι, neuter -α / -ια / -ματα / -η — with the two rules that decide which -ας and which -ης noun goes where, plus the classic trap where a neuter plural in -α (τα παιδιά, 'the children') is mistaken for a feminine singular.
  • The Vocative Case (Direct Address)A2 — How to change a noun's ending when you call or address someone: masculine φίλος → φίλε, but the name Γιώργος → Γιώργο; Γιάννης → Γιάννη; Θωμάς → Θωμά; feminine and neuter usually stay put (Μαρία!, παιδί μου!). The everyday address κύριε / κυρία and the dropped article.
  • Accent Shift in DeclensionB1 — Why the stress jumps forward when you decline a noun — άνθρωπος but του ανθρώπου, αυτοκίνητο but του αυτοκινήτου, κυβέρνηση but των κυβερνήσεων. The three-syllable law applied systematically, gender by gender, with tables showing exactly which cells move.
  • Forming the Genitive SingularB1 — The genitive singular ending for every regular noun class — masculine -ος→-ου, -ας→-α, -ης→-η; feminine -α→-ας, -η→-ης; neuter -ο→-ου, -ι→-ιού, -μα→-ματος, -ος→-ους — with the article του/της/του and the classic trap of over-keeping the -ς on masculines.
  • The Genitive Plural (-ων)B1 — The plural 'of the…' form ends in -ων for almost every Greek noun (των ανθρώπων, των παιδιών, των πόλεων→-εων), and the article is always των — but the stress is the trickiest in the language, so natives often sidestep the awkward ones with από + accusative.

Feminine

  • Feminine Nouns in -αA1 — The most common feminine pattern — η γυναίκα, η ώρα, η μέρα, η θάλασσα — with its plain paradigm, the -ας genitive singular, and the one tricky cell: the accent-shifting genitive plural (η θάλασσα → των θαλασσών).
  • Feminine Nouns in -ηA1 — The second great feminine class — η αγάπη, η νίκη, η τέχνη, η ζάχαρη — declined in full, with its -ης genitive singular, its plain -ες plural, and the warning that a big learned subgroup (η πόλη → οι πόλεις) breaks the pattern.
  • Learned Feminines: η πόλη → οι πόλειςB1 — The Ancient-derived feminine class — η πόλη, η δύναμη, η τάξη, η λέξη — that ends in -η like an ordinary feminine but takes the plural -εις and the distinctive genitive plural -εων (των πόλεων). Ultra-common words you cannot avoid.
  • Feminine Nouns in -οςB1 — The counterintuitive class that looks masculine but isn't — η οδός, η μέθοδος, η άμμος, η Κύπρος. They take feminine articles and adjectives (η κεντρική οδός) yet decline exactly like masculine -ος nouns (της οδού, την οδό).
  • Imparisyllabic Feminines (-άδες, -ούδες)B1 — Oxytone feminine nouns that grow a syllable in the plural — η γιαγιά → οι γιαγιάδες, η αλεπού → οι αλεπούδες — versus the look-alike η αγελάδα that stays the same length. Home of grandmothers, mums and loan words.

Gender & Number

  • The Three GendersA1 — Every Greek noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter — and that gender, shown by its article ο / η / το, controls the adjectives and pronouns around it, so you learn each noun together with its article, not on its own.
  • Predicting Gender from EndingsA2 — A decision table for guessing a Greek noun's gender from its nominative ending — -μα and -ση/-ξη/-ψη are near-certain, -ας/-ης point masculine, -ι/-ο neuter, while -ος is the one ending that can be all three genders.
  • Number and the Four CasesA1 — Every Greek noun inflects for number (singular/plural) and for one of four cases — nominative, genitive, accusative, vocative — with the article often carrying the case even more visibly than the noun itself.

Masculine

  • Masculine Nouns in -οςA1 — The largest masculine class — nouns like ο δρόμος, ο ουρανός and ο άνθρωπος — with its full singular and plural paradigm, the accent shift that hits antepenult-stressed nouns in the genitive, and the -ε vocative.
  • Masculine Nouns in -αςA2 — The two -ας masculine types: parisyllabic nouns like ο άντρας and ο πατέρας (plural -ες) versus imparisyllabic occupational nouns like ο ψαράς and ο παπάς (plural -άδες), with the genitive singular in bare -α that trips up learners.
  • Masculine Nouns in -ης and -εςA2 — Masculine agent and family nouns like ο μαθητής, ο ναύτης and ο πολίτης — singular in -ης, plural in -ες, with an oxytone genitive plural in -ών, the -η vocative, the rival -ηδες plural of surnames and trade words, and a warning not to confuse this noun ending with the -ης two-termination adjective.
  • Contracted Masculines: ο καφές, ο παππούς, ο νουςB1 — The contracted singular of ο καφές, ο παππούς, ο μπαμπάς and ο νους — nouns whose genitive, accusative and vocative are nothing but a bare stressed vowel (του καφέ, του παππού, του νου), so the article alone carries the case.
  • Imparisyllabic Masculines (-άδες, -ούδες)B1 — A large family of masculine nouns — ο ψαράς, ο καφές, ο παππούς, ο μπακάλης — that grows an extra syllable in the plural (οι ψαράδες, οι καφέδες), a pattern English has almost nowhere.

Neuter

  • Neuter Nouns in -οA1 — The friendliest noun class in Greek: neuter -ο nouns (το βιβλίο, το νερό) where the nominative, accusative and vocative are always identical, so in the singular only the genitive -ου stands apart.
  • Neuter Nouns in -ιA1 — Neuter nouns like το παιδί and το σπίτι, whose genitive -ιού and plural -ια are pronounced as a single glide (παιδιά = 'pedhyá'). Home of the everyday diminutive -άκι.
  • Neuter Nouns in -μαA2 — The productive -μα class (το πρόβλημα, το όνομα, το γράμμα) whose real stem is the hidden -ματ- that surfaces in every case except the nominative: το όνομα → του ονόματος. Miss the -ματ- and you say *του ονόμα.
  • Learned Neuters in -οςB1 — The learned neuter class (το δάσος, το μέρος, το λάθος) whose -ος nominative looks masculine but is neuter — genitive -ους, plural -η. The article το, not the ending, tells you the gender apart from masculine ο δρόμος and feminine η οδός.
  • Other Learned NeutersC1 — The residual learned neuters whose true stem hides until you decline them — το φως / του φωτός / τα φώτα, το κρέας / του κρέατος, το γάλα / του γάλακτος, and the participial neuters το καθήκον, το προϊόν, το παρόν, το μέλλον, το γεγονός, το ον. Everyday words with irregular stems you simply have to learn.

Special

  • Indeclinable Nouns (Loanwords)B1 — A small but very common group — το ταξί, το μπαρ, το σινεμά, το μετρό — that never changes its ending: the article alone carries gender, case and number, and this page shows exactly how that works and which words belong to the club.
  • Irregular and Heteroclitic NounsB2 — The handful of everyday nouns — γάλα, κρέας, φως, νους, παιδί, χέρι, γυναίκα — that hide a second stem or borrow endings from two different paradigms, and exactly which forms you have to commit to memory.
  • Nouns With Two PluralsB2 — A set of common nouns — χρόνος, λόγος, δεσμός, βράχος, χείλος — that build two different plurals, where picking the wrong one does not sound clumsy but says something else entirely.
  • Assigning Gender to LoanwordsB1 — Every borrowed word has to be given a Greek gender before it can take an article — the default is neuter (το ίντερνετ, το λάπτοπ), but ending shape and semantic analogy override it, and this page gives you the decision procedure.
  • Compound NounsB2 — How Greek welds two nouns into one word with the linking vowel -ο- — ανεμόμυλος, νυχτοπούλι, ψαροταβέρνα — why only the last element inflects and gives the compound its gender, and when Greek uses a genitive instead.
  • Declining Greek Names and SurnamesA2 — How personal names change through the cases — Γιώργος → του Γιώργου, Γιάννης → του Γιάννη, Μαρία → της Μαρίας — why masculine surnames decline but feminine ones never do, and the reason η Παπαδοπούλου is literally a genitive that has stopped being one.
  • Mass and Collective NounsB2 — How Greek handles the stuff you cannot count — το νερό, το ψωμί, ο καφές — when those nouns suddenly go plural (δύο καφέδες), how to measure them out (ένα ποτήρι νερό, λίγο ψωμί), and why ο κόσμος translates as people yet takes a stubbornly singular verb.

Pronouns

Clitics

  • Weak (Clitic) Pronouns OverviewA1 — The complete weak series — με, σε, τον, την, το, μας, σας, τους, τις, τα and μου, σου, του, της — fourteen unstressed words that carry the object of almost every Greek sentence and every possessive. Includes the fact nobody warns you about: six of them are letter-for-letter the definite article, and only the word standing next to them tells you which is which.
  • Direct-Object Clitics (Accusative)A1 — με, σε, τον, την, το, μας, σας, τους, τις, τα — the everyday object pronoun, and it arrives before the verb, not after it. Covers the third person's agreement with the Greek noun's gender rather than with English 'it', the final -ν that is the only thing keeping τον apart from το, and the postverbal form τες that most courses never mention.
  • Indirect-Object Clitics (Genitive)A2 — μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους in front of the verb — the person something is given, said or sent to. Contrasts them with the accusative clitics on the same verbs, and covers the construction English has no name for: the genitive of the person an event simply happens to (Μου έφυγε το τρένο, Μου πάτησε το πόδι).
  • Possessive CliticsA1 — μου after a noun is 'my'; μου in front of a verb is 'to me'. Same seven words, two completely different jobs, and nothing but position to tell them apart — including the sentences where both turn up at once (Μου έφερε το βιβλίο μου). The one page in the group about reading and producing that difference.
  • Where Clitics GoA2 — One rule covers almost every weak pronoun in Greek: it stands immediately in front of the finite verb with nothing allowed in between — Το βλέπω, Δεν σε ξέρω, Θα σου το πω, Να με πάρεις. Two contexts send it behind instead. Includes the full list of what stacks in front of the verb, why an adverb can never squeeze in, and why Greek keeps the clitic with its own verb instead of moving it up.
  • Proclisis and Enclisis in DetailB1 — The complete account of clitic position: proclisis is the unconditional default with every finite verb in the standard language, and enclisis belongs to exactly two forms — the bare positive imperative and the gerund. Why those two, what the Medieval system looked like, why Cypriot Greek still uses it, and what the switch does to the written accent.
  • Clitics After a Positive CommandA2 — The everyday pattern in one line: give an order and the little pronoun jumps behind the verb — Πες μου, Δώσε μου, Πάρ' το, Άσε με, Περίμενέ με. Say the same thing in the negative and it goes straight back in front. Five commands to learn whole, and the one contrast that matters.
  • Two Clitics TogetherB1 — Greek stacks the indirect and the direct object in front of the verb as a single block — Μου το έδωσε, Σου τα άφησα, Της την πήρε — in the fixed order genitive then accusative, the mirror image of English 'gave it to me'. The order, the everyday clusters worth memorising whole, and why nothing may ever slip between the two little words.
  • Clitic Ordering and ContractionB2 — The full pre-verbal template — subordinator, then δεν/μην, then θα, then the genitive clitic, then the accusative clitic, then the verb — plus the morphophonemics that fall out of it: why μη μου το λες loses its ν but μην το κάνεις keeps it, why μου την έδωσε keeps a ν that μου τη ζήτησε drops, and the spoken contractions στο, στα and μου 'πε.
  • Clitic Doubling (Object Reduplication)B2 — Τον Γιάννη τον είδα χθες — the object is named and then said again as a clitic, and the doubling is not redundancy but a signal that the object is old news. The topic reading, the right-dislocated afterthought (Την ξέρω την ιστορία), the environments that force the clitic and the one that forbids it, and why a fronted object without a clitic means something completely different.
  • Experiencer Clitics: μου αρέσειA2 — Μου αρέσουν τα λουλούδια is 'the flowers please me' — the thing is the subject and the person is a genitive clitic. The whole αρέσει / λείπει / φαίνεται / πάει family, why μου λείπεις inverts twice, the three ways to say your head hurts, and the sister family (με νοιάζει, σε πειράζει) that takes the accusative instead.
  • The Clitic το for Clauses and 'It'B1 — Το ξέρω, Το κατάλαβα, Δεν το πιστεύω — the neuter clitic that stands for a whole idea rather than a thing, and that Greek supplies in places where English leaves the verb bare or says 'so'. Covers the το that anticipates a ότι- or να-clause, the trap of το ότι where το is the article instead, and the fact that Greek has no subject 'it' for το to be confused with.
  • Accent on Clitic ClustersC1 — When pronouns attach behind a verb, the written accent sometimes has to be repaired: Ξύπνησέ μας, Δάνεισέ μου το, Ψάχνοντάς τα, Δώσε μού το — but never ×Πές μου το and never ×Πάρε τό. The exact condition, why a proparoxytone verb takes the mark itself while a paroxytone one passes it to the pronoun, and the look-alike accent in Ο πατέρας μού το είπε.

Demonstrative

  • Demonstrative PronounsA2 — What happens to αυτός and εκείνος when you take the noun away: the ending has to remember the noun's gender (Ποια θέλεις; — Αυτή), the one-word answer has to copy the question's case (Ποιον; — Αυτόν), neuter αυτό becomes the word for anything you cannot name, and pointing at a person with Αυτός sounds a lot colder than English 'he'.
  • αυτός vs εκείνοςB2 — The B2 layer of the choice: αυτός as the unmarked way to carry a referent forward, εκείνος for someone who has drifted away from the centre of attention, why the 'former / latter' mapping only works when both pronouns appear as a pair, and the narrative Εκείνη τον κοίταξε that belongs to fiction rather than to conversation.
  • αυτό for Ideas and DiscourseB1 — The stressed αυτό and αυτά that stand for a whole statement rather than a thing — Αυτό δεν το ήξερα, Με αυτά που είπες — plus the four slots where only the strong form fits (γι' αυτό, παρ' όλα αυτά, εκτός απ' αυτό), the written με αυτόν τον τρόπο against everyday έτσι, and the forward-pointing Αυτό που με ενοχλεί είναι ότι…

Impersonal

  • Generic 'You' and Impersonal ReferenceB2 — Πας στο δημόσιο, περιμένεις δύο ώρες και σου λένε ότι λείπει ένα χαρτί — one sentence with two impersonal strategies in it. Greek's generic second-person singular (anyone, hearer included), the third-person plural for an unnamed agent (someone else, speaker excluded), the mediopassive of signage and law, formal κανείς and everyday ο κόσμος — what each one covers, who it leaves out, and which register it belongs to.
  • Impersonal and Dummy SubjectsB1 — English has two subjects that mean nothing — it and there — and Greek has neither, which produces two separate transfer errors with two separate fixes. 'It' corresponds to nothing at all (Βρέχει, Κάνει κρύο, Είναι κρίμα που…), while 'there is' is the real verb υπάρχει, which agrees, or the everyday έχει, which does not. Plus the neuter-singular adjective in Είναι δύσκολο να… and when αυτό genuinely is allowed.

Indefinite

  • Indefinite PronounsB1 — A map of Greek's indefinite pronouns rather than a lesson on any one of them: κάποιος, κάτι, μερικοί, καθένας, κανένας, τίποτα and the -δήποτε words sorted by two questions — does it inflect, and which of the three series does it belong to. Every word here has a page of its own; this one tells you which page you need, and covers the free-choice series οποιοσδήποτε / οτιδήποτε in full.
  • Negative Polarity: κανένας, τίποτα, ποτέB1 — κανένας, τίποτα, ποτέ, πουθενά and καθόλου are not negative words — they are words that need a licensing context, and negation is only the commonest one. Questions, αν-clauses, πριν-clauses, χωρίς να, comparatives and superlatives all license them too, which is why the same word comes out as 'nobody' in one sentence and 'anybody' in the next, and why adding δεν inside a χωρίς να clause breaks it.
  • κάτι vs κάποιοςB1 — Not the forms — the choice. κάποιος points at a person the speaker could name and will not; κάτι points at a thing or, far more often, an event the speaker cannot name at all, which is why Κάτι έγινε and Κάτι τρέχει have no κάποιος counterpart. Plus the neuter-singular agreement that κάτι forces on everything after it (κάτι καινούριο, κάτι το γοητευτικό) and the narrow escape hatch that lets both words survive a negation.
  • καθένας, κανένας, ο ένας τον άλλονB2 — Three words that quantify over the same group and package it three different ways: ο καθένας walks through it one member at a time, όλοι takes it as a single body, κανένας empties it. The page is the opposition itself — minimal pairs where only the quantifier changes, the collective-predicate test that ο καθένας fails, and the scope difference that makes Δεν ήρθαν όλοι and Δεν ήρθε κανένας two entirely different pieces of news.

Interrogative

  • Interrogative PronounsA2 — When a Greek question word stands with no noun after it, it becomes a pronoun — ποιος (who / which one), τι (what) and πόσος (how many) — and ποιος still agrees with the noun you both have in mind but never said. Covers the standalone forms, why case alone separates Ποιος πήρε τη Μαρία; from Ποιον πήρε η Μαρία;, and the case a one-word answer comes back in.
  • τι vs ποιοςA2 — With a noun after it the choice is closed set versus open field, but standing alone the two words split differently: τι can open a conversation out of nothing, while a bare ποιο has to point back at something already in play. Covers the noun-less contrast, the genuine overlap zone (Τι δουλειά κάνεις; against Ποια δουλειά;), and the frozen τι-expressions — Τι ώρα είναι;, Τι κάνεις;, Τι λέει; — that refuse ποιος outright.
  • Questioning Prepositional ObjectsA2 — English lets you leave a preposition dangling at the end — who did you go with? — and Greek never does: the preposition travels to the front glued to its question word, giving Με ποιον πήγες;, Σε ποιον το έδωσες;, Από πού είσαι; Covers the fronting rule, why γιατί is literally για + τι, and the rule nobody teaches — that a one-word answer has to carry the preposition back.

Overview

  • The Pronoun System: Strong vs WeakA1 — Greek says 'me' two different ways: εμένα, which is stressed and can stand on its own, and με, which is unstressed and dies without a verb to lean on. This page lays the two series side by side, names the only two skills in the system that actually take work — accusative versus genitive, and where the little words go — and routes you to every other page in the group.

Personal

  • Subject PronounsA1 — The ten forms of εγώ, εσύ, αυτός, εμείς, εσείς — all of them stressed on the final syllable, all of them optional, and the third person borrowed wholesale from the demonstrative αυτός. Includes the polite εσείς and its odd agreement (plural verb, singular adjective) when you are addressing one person.
  • When to Use (and Drop) Subject PronounsA1 — Greek verb endings already say who is doing the action, so εγώ and εσύ are left out unless you are contrasting, correcting, switching topic or answering 'who?'. This page shows exactly what the extra pronoun signals, so you stop scattering εγώ through your sentences the way English forces you to.
  • Emphatic Object PronounsA2 — εμένα, εσένα, αυτόν, εμάς — the object pronouns you can actually put weight on, used when the object is the news rather than the background. The key skill is knowing when the strong form needs a clitic beside it (Εμένα με ρώτησε) and when it stands alone (Ρώτησαν εμένα, όχι εσένα), because the two mean different things.
  • Pronouns After PrepositionsA2 — Every Greek preposition takes a strong pronoun — σ' εμένα, από σένα, μ' αυτόν, χωρίς εσάς — and a clitic after a preposition is flatly impossible. Covers the shortened forms μένα/σένα/μας/σας that dominate real speech, the elisions γι' αυτό and απ' αυτούς, and the one word that breaks the rule: μαζί μου.

Possessives

  • Emphatic Possessives: δικός μουB1 — The stressed possessive that English hides inside its intonation: δικός μου, δική μου, δικό μου agrees with the thing owned and is what Greek uses for 'mine', 'my own' and 'MY car, not yours'. Includes the predicative Αυτό είναι δικό μου, the article-less Έχω δικό μου σπίτι ('a place of my own'), and οι δικοί μου for 'my family'.
  • All the Ways to Say 'My'A2 — A decision page: one table matching every possession situation to the construction Greek uses for it — the everyday clitic το σπίτι μου, the contrastive το δικό μου σπίτι, the genitive noun το σπίτι του Γιάννη, the emotional η ίδια μου η μητέρα and the reflexive ο εαυτός μου — with a link to the page that teaches each one properly.
  • Intensive Pronouns (εγώ ο ίδιος)B2 — Greek already has a stressed pronoun for emphasis — εγώ, εσένα, αυτόν — and this page is about the second gear on top of it: the reinforcers ο ίδιος, μόνος μου, ακόμα κι εγώ and προσωπικά, how each one agrees with the pronoun it strengthens (including in case: εμένα τον ίδιο), and why Σε σένα μιλάω lands so much harder than Σου μιλάω.

Reflexive & Reciprocal

  • The Reflexive ο εαυτός μουB1 — Greek's reflexive is not a pronoun at all — it is the masculine noun εαυτός ('self') with a definite article and a possessive clitic: τον εαυτό μου, στον εαυτό σου, του εαυτού της. Why the noun stays masculine and singular whoever you are talking about, why it can take an adjective (ο παλιός μου εαυτός) and even be a subject (Δεν είναι ο εαυτός του), and how it differs from ο ίδιος and μόνος μου.
  • Reflexive Pronoun vs Middle VoiceB2 — Greek encodes 'myself' twice — with the -ομαι ending and with the noun ο εαυτός μου — and they are not free variants. The middle deletes the object slot, the pronoun fills it, and that single fact predicts every case: why an oblique self, a contrasted self or a modified self forces τον εαυτό μου, why verbs like αγαπάω leave you no choice, why the two can never be stacked, and where the learned prefix αυτο- comes in.
  • Reciprocal: 'each other'B1 — The full inventory of Greek's 'each other' devices: the verb ending, the everyday μεταξύ τους, and the precise ο ένας τον άλλον — how the phrase is built out of two slots (a nominative echo of the subject, then whatever case the verb or preposition wants), why the preposition goes in the middle, the feminine η μία την άλλη and neuter το ένα το άλλο, the genitive ο ένας του άλλου, the sequential ο ένας μετά τον άλλον, and the learned αλλήλων you read but never say.
  • The Prefix αλληλο- (mutual action)C1 — The learned reciprocal αλληλο- / αλληλ- is word-formation, not syntax: it is welded into the verb or noun before the sentence starts. Which slot is still productive (mediopassive verbs, coined live in journalism), why the prefix kills the passive reading that the bare middle leaves open, how far the nouns have drifted from 'each other' (αλληλεγγύη, αλληλογραφία, αλληλουχία), where the diaeresis in αλληλοϋποστήριξη comes from, and why αμοιβαίος is usually the better formal choice.

Relative

  • The Relative πουA2 — One tiny word covers English who, whom, which and that, and it never changes shape: που is invariable for gender, number and case, so ο άντρας που ήρθε, η γυναίκα που ήρθε and τα παιδιά που ήρθαν all use the same form. Covers why που can never be dropped the way English drops 'that', the non-noun antecedents (τη μέρα που, τώρα που, εκεί που), restrictive against non-restrictive, and the person agreement in Εσύ που ξέρεις.
  • The Relative ο οποίοςB2 — The declinable relative of written Greek: ο οποίος / η οποία / το οποίο takes its gender and number from the antecedent and its case from its own job inside the clause, so η εταιρεία της οποίας ο διευθυντής παραιτήθηκε is 'the company whose director resigned'. Full paradigm, the obligatory article, the genitive that translates English 'whose', and where the form actually lives — journalism, academic prose, law and official documents.
  • που vs ο οποίοςB2 — Both are correct Greek and the axis between them is register plus explicitness, not right and wrong: που is light, invariable and covers nine sentences out of ten; ο οποίος marks gender, number and case, which buys you clarity in writing and costs you naturalness in speech. A context-by-context table, the two places where the choice disappears, how ο οποίος fixes an ambiguous attachment, and why piling on ο οποίος in conversation backfires.
  • Relatives After PrepositionsB2 — English offers 'the city in which I live' and 'the city I live in'; Greek offers η πόλη στην οποία ζω and η πόλη που ζω — and never the stranded preposition that sits at the end of the English one. The formal strategy (preposition + ο οποίος, including the genitive-governing λόγω / εξαιτίας / μέσω), the colloquial strategy (που plus a pronoun or adverb inside the clause), όπου for places, and paired versions of the same sentence in both.
  • Resumptive Pronouns in που-ClausesC1 — Because που carries no case, a clitic inside the clause has to carry it instead: ο άνθρωπος που του μίλησα, η γυναίκα που της έδωσα το δώρο, ο συγγραφέας που διάβασα το βιβλίο του. The rule role by role — required for the genitive (indirect object and possessor) and for prepositional objects, absent for the subject and for a restrictive direct object, absent again for place and time — plus why this is not clitic doubling and where the clitic stands.
  • Free Relatives: όποιος, ό,τι, όσος, όπουB2 — Relatives with the antecedent built in — Όποιος θέλει, ας έρθει; Πάρε ό,τι θέλεις; Όσοι ήρθαν; Όπου πας. Covers the declinable όποιος and όσος, the adverbial όπου, όποτε and όπως, the -δήποτε reinforced series, the concessive όποιος κι αν, and the one spelling that trips up natives as well as learners: ό,τι ('whatever') against ότι ('that'), two words pronounced identically and separated only by a comma.

Pronunciation & Alphabet

Alphabet

  • The Greek Alphabet: 24 LettersA1 — Every one of the 24 Greek letters — its name, its sound, and its two shapes — plus the single biggest beginner trap: a handful of letters look exactly like Latin ones but sound completely different (Ρ is 'r', Η is 'i', Χ is 'ch').
  • How This Guide Romanizes GreekA1 — The exact reading aid used on every page — η/ι/υ→i, β→v, δ→dh, θ→th, χ→ch — with the one rule that matters most: the stressed syllable always carries an acute accent, because Greek stress is unpredictable from spelling.
  • Letters That Look Latin But Aren'tA1 — The letters that ambush English readers: Ρ is 'r' not 'p', Η is 'i' not 'h', Χ is 'ch' not 'x', Β is 'v' not 'b'. Learn to distrust your eyes on signs and headlines — and discover where the 'missing' b and d sounds hide.

Digraphs

  • Vowel Digraphs: αι, ει, οι, ου, υιA1 — Five two-letter combos spell single vowels: αι = 'e' (και), ει/οι/υι = 'i' (είναι, ποιος), ου = 'u' (μου). Because ει, οι, υι all collapse into 'i' with η/ι/υ, they're the root of Greek's biggest spelling headache — and the diaeresis (Μάιος) exists to un-merge them.
  • αυ and ευ: av/af, ev/efA1 — αυ and ευ never sound like English 'ow' or 'you'. They carry a hidden v/f: voiced before vowels and voiced consonants (αύριο = 'ávrio'), voiceless before voiceless consonants and word-finally (αυτός = 'aftós', ευχαριστώ = 'efcharistó').
  • Consonant Digraphs: μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζA1 — Greek has no single letter for the sounds /b/, /d/, /g/, /ts/ or /dz/ — it builds them from two-letter digraphs. If you can't find 'b' in μπύρα or 'd' in ντομάτα, this is why.
  • Voicing and PrenasalizationA2 — Why πάντα is heard as both 'pánta' and 'pánda', why δεν πειράζει comes out 'dhembirázi', and why none of this changes the spelling — the hidden pronunciation rule that turns a written ν into a voiced stop.
  • Double ConsonantsA2 — θάλασσα is said 'thálasa', άλλος is 'álos', Ελλάδα is 'Eládha' — Modern Greek pronounces a double consonant as a single sound. You must spell the two letters but say only one.

Punctuation

  • Greek Punctuation: ; and ·A1 — Two marks trip up every learner: the Greek question mark is a semicolon shape ; (Τι κάνεις;), not the Latin ?, and the Greek semicolon is a raised dot · (άνω τελεία). Everything else — commas, full stops, the guillemets «…» — is close to English.
  • Sentence IntonationB1 — Greek melody does grammatical work: statements fall, yes/no questions rise, and word order need not change — so Ήρθες. ('You came.') and Ήρθες; ('Did you come?') differ only in the final pitch. Where English inverts words, Greek leans on the tune.

Sandhi

  • The Final-ν Rule (τελικό ν)A2 — When to keep and when to drop the final ν of τον, την, δεν, μην, έναν and στην/στον. Keep it before a vowel or a stop (τον πατέρα, έναν άντρα); drop it before other consonants (τη γυναίκα, το δρόμο) — a rule that shapes both spelling and pronunciation.
  • Elision and SynizesisB1 — Why σε αυτό becomes σ' αυτό, από εδώ becomes απ' εδώ, and θα έρθω becomes θα 'ρθω — and why μια is one syllable ('mya'), not two. The vowel-smoothing that makes spoken Greek flow; full forms sound stiff.
  • Euphonic and Movable ConsonantsB1 — The little sound-smoothers of spoken Greek: και → κι before a vowel (κι εγώ, κι όμως), the σαν/σα alternation, and the movable ν. Optional, euphonic, and idiomatic — they make speech flow rather than clatter.

Sounds

  • The Five Vowel SoundsA1 — Greek has just five vowel sounds — /a e i o u/ — and every one is pure, short and fully pronounced, even unstressed. The big English-speaker error is reducing unstressed vowels to a mushy schwa; the flip side is that /i/ can be spelled six different ways.
  • Consonant SoundsA1 — The Greek consonants English speakers get wrong: δ is the soft 'th' of 'this', θ the hard 'th' of 'thin', ρ a tapped r — and π, τ, κ are unaspirated, with none of the little puff English adds. Two habits to unlearn: substituting your own 'd' and puffing your stops.
  • The 'th' Sounds: δ and θA1 — English writes both with 'th', but Greek splits them into two letters: δ is the voiced 'th' of 'this' [ð], and θ is the voiceless 'th' of 'thin' [θ]. Get the voicing backwards and δεν slides into a foreign-sounding 'den'.
  • The Letter γ (gamma)A2 — γ is never the hard 'g' of 'go'. It softens to a throaty [ɣ] before α/ο/ου (γάλα = 'ghála') and to a 'y'-glide [ʝ] before ε/ι (γεια = 'ya'). The following vowel tells you which — and the clusters γγ, γκ, γχ have their own rules.
  • The Letter χ (chi)A2 — χ is neither English 'ch' (church) nor 'x'. It's a fricative: throaty [x] like Scottish 'loch' before α/ο/ου (χαρά), and soft [ç] like the 'h' in 'huge' before ε/ι (όχι). The killer error is reading it as /ks/ — that's ξ, a completely different letter.
  • Consonant ClustersA2 — ψωμί, ξέρω, φτάνω, βγαίνω, σχολείο — Greek stacks consonants at the start of a word in ways English forbids. The fix is to stop sneaking a vowel in: say 'psomí', never 'puh-somi'.

Stress

  • Stress and the Tonos (´)A1 — The little accent over καλημέρα, νερό, άνθρωπος is the most important mark in Greek. It shows the stressed syllable — and it changes meaning: πότε ('when') vs ποτέ ('never').
  • Where the Stress FallsA2 — Greek stress is unpredictable but not lawless: it must land within the last three syllables. When an ending adds a syllable, the accent is forced to move forward — άνθρωπος but του ανθρώπου, μάθημα but μαθήματα.
  • The Second Accent (Enclitic Stress)A2 — Why ο δάσκαλός μου and το αυτοκίνητό μας carry two accents while ο φίλος μου carries only one. A real written rule that most learners — and plenty of natives — get wrong, and that competing guides skip entirely.

Spelling

Consonants

  • Which Words Take Double ConsonantsB2 — Because Greek pronounces a double consonant exactly like a single one (θάλασσα = 'thálasa'), your ear can't tell you when to write σσ, λλ, μμ or ρρ — you have to know the word. Here are the patterns and the high-frequency words to lock in.

Endings

  • Spelling Verb EndingsB1 — A verb ending is spelled by what it does, not by how it sounds. Learn the fixed spellings — active -ω, -εις, -ει; passive -ομαι, -εται — and the three homophone traps they resolve, like γράφεται (is written) vs γράφετε (you write).
  • Noun and Adjective Endings: ο/ω, η/ιB1 — Which vowel letter closes a noun or adjective is decided by its gender and case, not its sound: masculine -ος and neuter -ο take omicron, the genitive plural -ων always takes omega, and the adverb καλώς contrasts with the adjective καλός.
  • Spelling Diminutive SuffixesB1 — Greek loves little-word suffixes — σπιτάκι, μανούλα, κοπελίτσα — and each has a fixed spelling learners get wrong: -άκι with iota (and it's neuter), -ούλα with ου, -ίτσα with τσ, plus the stress that always lands on the suffix.

System

  • Greek Historical SpellingA2 — The big picture: Greek spelling is etymological, not phonetic, so a single sound is written several ways — /i/ can be η, ι, υ, ει, or οι. Pronunciation is easy; spelling is learned word by word from ancient roots. But grammatical endings are predictable, and that's your lifeline.
  • Capitalization RulesA2 — Greek capitalizes days and months (like English) but writes languages, nationality adjectives, seasons and book titles in lowercase — and it keeps the tonos on an initial capital vowel (Έλληνας, Αίγυπτος) while dropping every accent, but not the diaeresis, in ALL-CAPS text (ΕΛΛΑΔΑ, ΠΡΟΪΟΝ).
  • Abbreviations and Their Full StopsB1 — π.χ., κ.λπ., κ.ά., βλ., δηλ., π.Χ./μ.Χ., κ., τ.μ., ΔΕΗ — what each one stands for, how it is read out loud, and the spelling rules behind the dots: every cut element keeps its stop, the sentence-final stop is never doubled, and initialisms are written both with and without their dots.
  • Why Greek Dropped the Breathing MarksC1 — In 1982 Greek officially abolished the polytonic system — the two breathing marks and the three-way accent — for a single tonos, because those diacritics had marked sounds (an /h/, a pitch accent) that vanished from speech nearly two thousand years earlier.
  • Common Spelling ErrorsB1 — A proofreading checklist for the mistakes learners and natives make most: -ω vs -ο in verbs, -ται vs -τε, ει/η/ι in endings, the movable final -ν, the missing tonos, and και vs κι — each with the rule that fixes it.

Vowels

  • Spelling the /i/ Sound: η ι υ ει οιA2 — The single hardest thing about writing Greek: five different spellings — η, ι, υ, ει, οι (plus archaic υι) — all sound identical, /i/. You can't hear which one a word takes, but you can predict most of them from grammatical endings and word families. This is the page to master.
  • Spelling the /o/ Sound: ο vs ωA2 — Two letters, ο (omicron) and ω (omega), spell the identical sound /o/. Which one you write is mostly decided by the grammatical ending — verbs end -ω, neuter nouns -ο, masculines -ος — and getting it wrong can flip a verb into a noun: καλώ ('I invite') vs καλό ('good').
  • Spelling the /e/ Sound: ε vs αιA2 — The sound /e/ hides behind two spellings — plain ε (μέρα, θέλω) and the digraph αι (και, παιδί, αίμα). The good news: every passive verb ending is αι, which turns a big chunk of the guesswork into a fixed rule.

Verb Reference

Class Α (-ω) Verbs

  • γράφω (to write)A1 — γράφω is the one verb on this shelf with every slot filled — both voices, both imperatives, both participles, a verbal adjective. Card gives the complete inventory, the γράφομαι σε 'enrol' frame, the impersonal γράφει 'it says', and the five gaps that belong to the Greek verb system rather than to this verb.
  • διαβάζω (to read/study)A1 — Half of this verb's work is not reading at all: Διαβάζω για τις εξετάσεις is how you say you are studying, and σπουδάζω is not a substitute. Card gives the principal parts (διάβασα, no ε-, ζ → σ), the διαβάζω/σπουδάζω/μελετώ triple, the είμαι διαβασμένος idiom, and the frames.
  • παίζω (to play)A2 — Three -ζω verbs in one batch, three different aorists: παίζω → έπαιξα, διαβάζω → διάβασα, βάζω → έβαλα. Card gives the forms, the bare accusative that covers instruments, sports and games alike, the με-or-εναντίον question, and the slang layer (τι παίζει; δεν παίζει, παίζει να…) that παίζει has grown in the last twenty years.
  • τρέχω (to run)A2 — Beyond running, τρέχω is the verb for things that flow and things that are going wrong — Τρέχει η μύτη μου, Τρέχει το πρόγραμμα, and above all Τι τρέχει; 'what's up?'. Card gives the forms, the subjectless third person, the two participial survivals τρεχούμενος and τρέχων, and the frames.
  • φεύγω (to leave)A2 — English 'leave' splits three ways in Greek and φεύγω owns only one of them: depart, go away, never with an object. Card gives the φεύγ-/φυγ- stem pair, the φεύγω/αφήνω/ξεχνάω triple, the hortative Φύγαμε!, the gerund φεύγοντας and the euphemistic έφυγε.
  • ανοίγω (to open)A2 — The verb that opens a door and switches on a light, and that needs no reflexive marker to say the door opened by itself: Άνοιξα την πόρτα beside Άνοιξε η πόρτα. Full principal parts (άνοιξα with no augment, ανοίχτηκα, ανοιγμένος), the σε-frame for what a window looks out onto, and the line between ανοιχτός and ανοιγμένος.
  • κλείνω (to close)A2 — Close, shut, turn off, hang up, book, and — of a person — turn an age: six English verbs on one Greek form. Principal parts (έκλεισα with a plain σ, not the ξ of άνοιξα), the genitive clitic that turns Έκλεισε το τηλέφωνο into 'he hung up on me', and the κλειστό / κλεισμένο pair, where one means shut and the other means booked.
  • αρχίζω (to begin)A2 — A phase verb, so it constrains what comes after it: Άρχισε να βρέχει takes the imperfective, because what begins is an activity in progress. All five frames (accusative, να, intransitive, με, από), the aorist άρχισα with its σ, and the άρχισε / άρχιζε pair that separates 'he started' from 'he kept starting'.
  • τελειώνω (to finish)A2 — The model of the productive -ώνω class, whose aorist is always a plain -ωσα (τελείωσα, μεγάλωσα, σήκωσα). Three frames and three meanings on one form: Τελείωσα τη δουλειά (finished it), Τελείωσε το γάλα (ran out), Τελείωσα με αυτόν (done with him) — plus Τελείωσα το πανεπιστήμιο for graduating and the impatient imperative Τελείωνε!
  • στέλνω (to send)A2 — Three stems and two objects. στελν- for the present, στειλ- for έστειλα and στείλω, σταλ- for the passive στάλθηκε and σταλμένος — and the recipient frames a learner needs in week one: Σου έστειλα μήνυμα, Το έστειλα στον Γιάννη, Σου το έστειλα, with the word-order trap that turns Έστειλα τα χαρτιά του Γιάννη into somebody else's papers.
  • φέρνω (to bring)A2 — φέρνω moves a thing towards the speaker — which is why Greek needs three verbs where English has bring and take: φέρνω here, πηγαίνω there, παίρνω away with you. Principal parts (note the aorist έφερα, one ν away from the imperfect έφερνα), the frames, and the mediopassive φέρομαι, which has quietly become a different verb meaning 'behave'.
  • αφήνω (to leave/let)A2 — Four stems — αφήν-, άφησ-, αφεθ- and the odd little άσ- — doing two jobs at once: leaving a thing behind (Άφησα τα κλειδιά στο γραφείο) and letting a person act (Με άφησε να φύγω). Plus Άσε, the short imperative that stopped being an imperative and became a conversational move of its own.
  • περιμένω (to wait)A2 — One past tense for two English ones: περίμενα is both 'I waited' and 'I was waiting', because this compound never grew a perfective stem. Card gives the single paradigm, the augment hiding inside the prefix, the bare accusative object (Σε περιμένω), and the από frame for expecting something of someone.
  • πιστεύω (to believe)B1 — The strong member of the belief trio — conviction, trust, faith, against the guesswork of νομίζω and the reasoned classification of θεωρώ. Principal parts on the -εψ- perfective (πίστεψα, να πιστέψω), and the government contrast that changes the whole claim: σε πιστεύω 'I believe what you're telling me' beside πιστεύω σε σένα 'I have faith in you'.
  • νομίζω (to think/suppose)B1 — Greek's hedge. The forms take five minutes; what matters is that the imperfect νόμιζα carries a built-in 'and I was wrong' (Νόμιζα ότι ήσουν στη δουλειά — you weren't), and that Greek leaves the negative downstairs where English raises it: Νομίζω ότι δεν θα έρθει for 'I don't think he'll come'.
  • καταλαβαίνω (to understand)A2 — The aorist κατάλαβα is not only a past tense — standing alone it means 'I see, got it', and it is one of the most frequent one-word replies in spoken Greek. This card covers the pair learners reverse constantly (Δεν καταλαβαίνω against Δεν κατάλαβα), the καταλαβαίνω από frame for knowing about something, and the news-page trap where κατάλαβα meets κατέλαβα.

Essential Irregulars

  • είμαι (to be)A1 — The complete inventory of είμαι on one card — present, past, future, να-form and gerund — plus the unusually long list of forms this verb simply does not have: no aorist, no perfective stem, no perfect, no mediopassive, no participle and no plain imperative.
  • έχω (to have)A1 — The complete inventory of έχω on one card — present, the ει- past είχα, future, imperative and gerund — the slots it leaves empty (no aorist, no perfective stem, no perfect of itself, no passive), and the genuinely ambiguous έχω να construction.
  • κάνω (to do/make)A1 — The verb whose aspect contrast collapsed — present, imperfect, aorist and dependent are all κάνω/έκανα — plus its life as Greek's biggest light verb, the frames it appears in (weather, price, pretence, duration) and the passive it borrows from γίνομαι.
  • λέω (to say/tell)A1 — Four stems on one card — λέω/λες, έλεγα, είπα, πω — plus the contrast that makes this verb worth a page: Μου είπε ότι φεύγει ('he told me he is leaving') against Μου είπε να φύγω ('he told me to leave'), one word apart.
  • θέλω (to want)A2 — The full inventory of θέλω — present, the ή- imperfect ήθελα, the rare aorist θέλησα that does not mean 'I wanted', the slots this verb leaves empty, its four ways of taking a complement, and the politeness ladder θέλω → ήθελα → θα ήθελα.
  • ξέρω (to know)A2 — ξέρω has three forms and no more — present ξέρω, imperfect ήξερα, future θα ξέρω. This card lists what it has, names every slot it leaves empty, and shows which verb fills each hole: μαθαίνω for 'find out', γνωρίζω for the formal register.
  • πάω / πηγαίνω (to go)A1 — One verb with two presents: πάω is what people say, πηγαίνω is what carries the imperfect πήγαινα and the command πήγαινε. This card shows which form owns which slot, the aorist πήγα (with γ), the empty imperative slot on the πα- side, and the prepositions the verb takes.
  • έρχομαι (to come)A2 — A deponent whose past is shaped like an active verb and whose command comes from a third root: this card lists έρχομαι, ήρθα, έρθω, έλα and ερχόμενος in one place, names the four slots the verb leaves empty, and sets out the frames it takes — including μου έρχεται να, where the person is a genitive clitic.
  • βλέπω (to see)A2 — One verb for see, watch and look at — and three different complements that mean three different things: Τον βλέπω να τρέχει (an event in progress), Τον είδα που έφευγε (a sighting), Βλέπω ότι δεν κατάλαβες (a conclusion, not a sight at all). Plus the full inventory of βλεπ- and δ- forms, and why Greek sees a dream rather than having one.
  • δίνω (to give)A2 — Three stems doing three jobs — διν- for the present, δωσ- for έδωσα and δώσω, δοθ- for the passive δόθηκε and δοσμένος — and the two recipient frames that make δίνω the verb where Greek's double-object system first bites: Του έδωσα το βιβλίο beside Το έδωσα στον Γιάννη. Plus δίνω εξετάσεις, where Greek gives the exam English takes.
  • παίρνω (to take/get)A2 — The verb Greek reaches for wherever English says take, get, buy, pick up, catch or call — with the aorist πήρα and the dependent πάρω among the verb forms you will hear most often, and one genuinely ambiguous frame worth learning on purpose: Του πήρα ένα δώρο is either 'I bought him a present' or 'I took a present off him'.
  • τρώω (to eat)A2 — Two stems that share no letters — τρω- / τρωγ- against φαγ- — a present that contracts to τρως and τρώμε, and the habit English cannot copy: Έφαγες; with no object at all. Plus the γ that comes back in έτρωγα and τρώγεται, the participle φαγωμένος that describes the eater, and the idioms that turn on this verb's grammar.
  • πίνω (to drink)A2 — Four principal parts that open four different ways — πίν-, έπιν-, ήπι-, πι- — and a perfective stem two letters long, which puts πίνω's dependent among the shortest forms in the language. Full paradigms, the augment that stays in ήπιαμε but drops in πίναμε, the drinker-not-the-drink participle πιωμένος, and the toast frames.
  • βρίσκω (to find)A2 — Two verbs in one entry: active βρίσκω (find, get, judge) with the aorist βρήκα and the one-syllable dependent βρω, and the mediopassive βρίσκομαι (be located), whose aorist is βρέθηκα with an ε. Plus the warning that βρεμένος belongs to βρέχω and means 'wet'.
  • βάζω (to put)A2 — The -ζω verb that escapes the -ζω aorist split: not έβαξα, not έβασα, but έβαλα from a λ-final root. Full forms, the eight English verbs βάζω has swallowed (put, pour, turn on, enrol), the βάζω τα κλάματα frame, and why βάλθηκα is not a passive.
  • βγάζω (to take out/off)A2 — The extraction verb that covers eight English ones — take off, take out, remove, earn, produce, publish, photograph, work out. Forms identical to βάζω (έβγαλα, βγάλω, βγάλε, βγαλμένος), the naming frame Τον έβγαλαν Γιώργο, and the line between βγάζω and its intransitive twin βγαίνω.
  • μπαίνω (to enter)A2 — μπαίν- minus its -αιν- leaves μπ-, which is why the dependent is a single syllable: μπω. Full forms with the aorist μπήκα, the three slots this verb genuinely leaves empty, the σε it drops only before a bare noun, and the senses beyond 'enter' — clothes that fit, jumpers that shrink, a penny that drops, a winter that arrives.
  • βγαίνω (to go out/exit)A2 — βγαίνω is only nominally 'exit' — one small paradigm covers going out for the evening, dating someone, results being published, a sum adding up, a colour running and retiring. Card lists the paradigm, the από/σε/με frames, the idiom cluster, and the forms this verb does not have.
  • γίνομαι (to become/happen)A2 — One Greek verb covers become, happen and be-possible: Έγινε γιατρός, Τι έγινε;, Γίνεται; This card gives the paradigm — including the active-shaped aorist έγινα — the nominative predicate, the impersonal γίνεται, and the forms γίνομαι does not have.
  • μένω (to stay/live)A2 — μένω is how Greeks say where they live, how they say they stayed put, and — in a whole family of idioms — how they say something was left in a state: έμεινα από βενζίνη, έμεινε το αυτοκίνητο, έμεινα άφωνος. Paradigm, the ε→ει shift, frames and set phrases.

Verbs

Aorist (Αόριστος)

  • Aorist: Class ΑA2 — The aorist of first-conjugation (Class Α) verbs — έγραψα, έγραψες, έγραψε, γράψαμε, γράψατε, έγραψαν — built from the augment, the perfective stem, and past endings that are identical to the imperfect's. The single insight: only the stem changes (γραψ- for the aorist, γράφ- for the imperfect); everything else is the same.
  • Aorist: Class ΒA2 — The aorist of second-conjugation (Class Β) verbs — the contract verbs in -άω/-ώ. They are the most regular aorist in Greek: slot a linking vowel before the -σ- and add the past endings — αγάπησα, μίλησα, ρώτησα, περπάτησα. Covers the three linking-vowel families (-ησ-, -ασ-, -εσ-), the stress that rides the antepenult, and the -εύω lookalikes that are really Class Α.
  • Aorist Consonant Merges (-ψα, -ξα, -σα)B1 — The reading skill that unlocks the aorist: every aorist hides the same perfective -σα, and the ending you see (-ψα, -ξα or -σα) tells you what consonant it landed on. Read the merge backwards — -ψα points to a labial verb, -ξα to a velar, -σα to a dental or -νω verb — and you can recover the present of an aorist you've never met. Includes the honest -ζω split (παίζω → έπαιξα but νομίζω → νόμισα).
  • Aorist Mediopassive: -θηκαB1 — The single completed past of the -ομαι voice — αγαπήθηκα, ντύθηκα, φοβήθηκα, γεννήθηκα — built with the passive aorist endings -θηκα, -θηκες, -θηκε, -θήκαμε, -θήκατε, -θηκαν, plus the accent that shifts forward in the 1st and 2nd plural and the deponents (θυμήθηκα, κοιμήθηκα) that live here.
  • Passive Aorist Variants: -στηκα, -χτηκαB1 — The consonant-driven faces of the passive aorist: -φτηκα on labial stems (γράφτηκα, κρύφτηκα), -χτηκα on velar stems (ρίχτηκα, τυλίχτηκα), -στηκα on sibilant and dental stems (κουράστηκα, αναγκάστηκα) — each one predictable from the verb's stem consonant, exactly like the active -ψα / -ξα / -σα merges.
  • Using the AoristA2 — The aorist is Greek's default past tense: single finished actions (πήγα, είδα), events chained in a narrative (μπήκε, κάθισε, παρήγγειλε), actions with a result (έμαθα ελληνικά), and time-bounded stretches (έμεινα δύο χρόνια) — the tense that most often lines up with the English simple past, and how it splits work with the imperfect.
  • Irregular and Suppletive AoristsB1 — The dozen aorists you cannot derive and must simply know — είδα, είπα, ήρθα, ήπια, πήγα, βρήκα, μπήκα, βγήκα, πήρα, έφαγα, έδωσα, έμεινα — grouped by their shared shape, and precisely because they belong to Greek's most frequent verbs, the highest-value forms in the whole past tense.
  • Aorists of Vowel-Stem VerbsB1 — How verbs whose stem ends in a vowel form the aorist: the clean -σα type (ακούω → άκουσα), and the -αίω verbs that hide an ancient consonant and surface as -ψα or -ξα (κλαίω → έκλαψα, καίω → έκαψα, φταίω → έφταιξα), with a note on the suppletive vowel-stems (λέω → είπα, τρώω → έφαγα) handled elsewhere.
  • The Augment in the AoristA2 — The stressed ε- that appears on έγραψα, έπαιξα and έτρεξα but vanishes in γράψαμε and on longer verbs like αγόρασα and αγάπησα — the aorist augment works exactly like the imperfect one; only the stem differs.
  • Internal and η- AugmentB2 — Why the past of a compound verb lands the augment inside the word (κατάλαβα, ανέβηκα, υπέγραψα) and why a handful of verbs use η- instead of ε- (ήθελα, ήπια, ήρθα) — the two places where the augment, not the stem, is what makes a past tense look irregular.
  • Accent in the AoristB1 — Why the aorist is stressed as far back as Greek allows — έγραψα, γράψαμε, αγάπησα, αγαπήσαμε all fall on the antepenult — why short verbs need the augment to reach that syllable, and how the stress tracks the antepenult as the word lengthens.
  • Negating the PastA2 — How to say you didn't do something — put δεν in front of the past verb, exactly as in the present, with no auxiliary and no change to the verb itself; plus the clitic word order and how the aorist/imperfect aspect contrast survives negation.

Aspect

  • Imperfective vs PerfectiveA2 — The single choice at the centre of the Greek verb: is the action a stretch you are inside of (imperfective — ongoing, repeated, habitual) or one bounded event you can put a full stop after (perfective)? A crisp two-way definition, minimal pairs across the tenses, and a map into the rest of the aspect section.
  • Building the Perfective StemB1 — The productive rule that manufactures the perfective stem from the present: Class Α adds -σ- to the stem (λύνω → λύσω), Class Β inserts a linking vowel first (αγαπώ → αγαπήσω), and the -εύω verbs give -εψ- (δουλεύω → δουλέψω). This one stem then feeds the aorist, the simple future, the perfective subjunctive and the perfective imperative.
  • Perfective Consonant ChangesB1 — When the perfective -σ- lands on a consonant, the two fuse: labials (π, β, φ) give ψ, velars (κ, γ, χ) give ξ, and dentals plus most sibilants give plain σ. Learn the three merges by stem-final sound and you can read and build the aorist, the simple future and the perfective subjunctive of almost any verb — plus the honest -ζω split (παίζω → παίξω but διαβάζω → διάβασα).
  • Irregular Perfective StemsB1 — The commonest Greek verbs — see, say, eat, go, take, find, give, drink, come in, go out — build their perfective stem suppletively, swapping in a whole new form (βλέπω → δω, λέω → πω, τρώω → φάω) instead of adding -σ-. There is no rule; because these are the highest-frequency verbs, memorising the twelve or so pairs is one of the best-value things you can do in Greek.
  • Aspect in the Past: Imperfect vs AoristA2 — The past is where aspect bites first and hardest. Greek has two past tenses for the same verb: the imperfect (έγραφα — was writing, used to write, the background) and the aorist (έγραψα — wrote, a single completed event). The signature pattern is a long imperfect frame cut across by a sudden aorist — Διάβαζα όταν χτύπησε το τηλέφωνο — and it lines up almost exactly with the Spanish imperfect/preterite split.
  • Aspect in the FutureB1 — Greek keeps one future particle, θα, but forces a choice of stem underneath it: θα + perfective (θα γράψω) for a single completed future act, θα + imperfective (θα γράφω) for an ongoing, repeated or habitual future. This page shows how to pick, and why English 'will' leaves the choice invisible.
  • Aspect in the Subjunctive (να)B1 — Every να-clause forces the same aspect choice as the rest of the verb: να γράψω (perfective) is 'to write once', να γράφω (imperfective) is 'to keep writing / to write habitually'. The perfective is the default after most verbs; the imperfective is the deliberate choice for ongoing or repeated actions — and it is where English speakers slip most.
  • Aspect in the ImperativeB1 — Greek commands carry aspect too: the perfective imperative (γράψε, κλείσε, φάε) tells someone to do one thing now, while the imperfective imperative (γράφε, πρόσεχε, να τρως) tells them to do it habitually, continuously, or as a standing rule. This distinction is almost never taught to English speakers — here it is, with the Πες μου / Λέγε contrast at its centre.
  • Choosing the Right AspectB1 — The one page to bookmark: a single decision procedure for picking imperfective vs perfective in any tense or mood. Ask whether the action is one bounded event (→ perfective) or ongoing/repeated/background (→ imperfective), read the signal words, and work through ten real decisions across the past, future, subjunctive and imperative.
  • Habitual vs Single EventsB1 — The single cleanest split in the whole aspect system: a repeated or habitual action takes the imperfective (Κάθε καλοκαίρι πηγαίναμε στο νησί), a one-time completed action takes the perfective (Πέρσι πήγαμε στο νησί). This page drills that contrast across every tense, shows how frequency adverbs force the choice, and is honest about the cases where either aspect fits.
  • Aspect and Time AdverbsB2 — Time adverbs correlate strongly with aspect — κάθε μέρα, συνήθως and ενώ pull imperfective; χθες, ξαφνικά and τελικά pull perfective — but they are tells, not rules. This precision page maps which adverbs force one aspect (so that swapping it is ungrammatical) and which accept both, with a shift in meaning.

Conditional & Modality

  • The Conditional With θαB1 — Greek has no conditional endings — it builds would out of the future particle θα plus a past tense: θα έγραφα (I would write) and θα είχα γράψει (I would have written). Why a past tense is what marks unreality, how the two halves of an αν-sentence pair up, and the third job of the same shape, the future-in-the-past of Μου είπε ότι θα ερχόταν.
  • Present/Simple Conditional (θα έγραφα)B1 — θα plus the imperfect is the Greek would — θα έγραφα, θα ήμουν, θα μπορούσα. Its formation across all six persons and the key irregulars, its job in the result clause of an unreal condition (Αν ήμουν πλούσιος, θα ταξίδευα), the advice frame Στη θέση σου θα…, the hedged opinion Θα έλεγα να…, and the sharp contrast with the future θα γράψω.
  • Past Conditional (θα είχα γράψει)B2 — The full counterfactual system: θα + the pluperfect is would have done — θα είχα γράψει. The four ways an αν-sentence about the past can be built, why ξέρω and είμαι force a mixed pair, the modal counterfactuals θα έπρεπε να είχες and θα μπορούσα να είχα, and the everyday flattening of θα είχα to θα + imperfect.
  • The Conditional for PolitenessB1 — The top rung of the Greek politeness ladder: Θα ήθελα (I would like), Θα μπορούσατε να…; (could you), Θα σας πείραζε να…; (would you mind), Θα προτιμούσα (I'd rather). Why stacking θα on an imperfect buys a second layer of distance, the paradigm trap of θα θέλατε, and the formal written top end Θα σας ήμουν ευγνώμων αν…
  • Obligation: πρέπει / έπρεπεA2 — Two things the obligation frame does beyond 'must': the evidential πρέπει να είναι κουρασμένος ('he must be tired' — a deduction, not a duty, signalled by what kind of verb, and what tense, you put after να), and the way the aspect of the να-verb turns one obligation into a single instruction (Πρέπει να πάρεις) and the other into a standing rule (Πρέπει να παίρνεις) — plus the double life of Έπρεπε να, 'had to' and 'should have' in one form.
  • Possibility and Permission: μπορεί / μπορώA2 — The past and conditional half of μπορώ: μπορούσα ('was able to', a standing past ability) against the aorist μπόρεσα ('managed to'), and the conditional θα μπορούσα, which does the work of English 'could' — hypothetical ability, suggestions, polite requests, reproach — before layering into θα μπορούσα να είχα… ('I could have…').
  • Volition: θέλω να / θα ήθελαA2 — Wanting in Greek: θέλω + a noun against θέλω να + a clause, whose action you are wanting (Θέλω να φύγω vs Θέλω να φύγεις), the meaning gap between Δεν θέλω να and Θέλω να μην, the ladder from desire to settled plan (σκέφτομαι να, λέω να, σκοπεύω να, plain θα), the polite θα ήθελα, and the impersonal θέλει that means 'it takes'.
  • Wishes: μακάρι, να, αςB2 — How Greek says 'I hope' and 'I wish': μακάρι να + a non-past verb for a wish you still think can come true, μακάρι να + a past verb for one you know cannot, the bare να-blessing and the wistful ας ερχόταν, and where εύχομαι, ελπίζω and the literary είθε fit around them.
  • Counterfactual and RegretC1 — The grammar of the road not taken: μακάρι να είχα ακούσει, ας μην είχα πάει, θα έπρεπε να το είχα δει — how Greek stacks a wish particle over a pluperfect to reach a past that did not happen, why no θα may enter the wish clause, and where the factive regret of μετανιώνω που parts company with the counterfactual.

Fundamentals

  • The Greek Verb System: OverviewA1 — The master map of the Greek verb — the five things it encodes (person/number, tense, aspect, voice, mood), the two facts that shock English speakers most (there is no infinitive, and aspect forces a choice on almost every form), and where in this guide each piece is taught.
  • The Two Conjugations: -ω and -άω/-ώA1 — Every Greek verb belongs to one of two conjugation classes, and the stress on the 'I' form tells you which: unstressed -ω (γράφω, the big regular class) or stressed -άω/-ώ (αγαπώ). This page sets the two presents side by side and shows why the class is a fact you learn with the word.
  • Class Β Subtypes: αγαπάω vs μπορώA2 — Class Β splits into two paradigms that share the stressed ending but part ways in the middle persons: Β1 (αγαπάω/αγαπώ, αγαπάς, αγαπάει) with its everyday -άω doublets, and Β2 (μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί) with no -άω option. This page gives both full presents, a rule of thumb for which verb takes which, and the -άς vs -είς test that stops ×μποράω and ×αγαπείς.
  • Aspect: The Heart of the Greek VerbA2 — Aspect — whether an action is seen as ongoing/repeated (imperfective) or as a single complete whole (perfective) — is the organizing spine of the Greek verb, and the hardest thing about it for English speakers. It forces a choice in the past, the future, the subjunctive and the imperative alike, shown here on one verb: γράφω.
  • The Two Verb StemsA2 — Aspect is an idea; the two stems are where it becomes forms. Every Greek verb has an imperfective stem (present, imperfect, continuous future/subjunctive) and a perfective stem (aorist, simple future/subjunctive/imperative). This page shows how the perfective stem is built — γράφω → γράψ-, αγαπώ → αγαπήσ-, παίζω → παίξ- — and which forms draw on which.
  • Active Personal EndingsA1 — The active voice runs on just two sets of personal endings — a non-past set (-ω, -εις, -ει, -ουμε, -ετε, -ουν) and a past set (-α, -ες, -ε, -αμε, -ατε, -αν) — and each set rides both verb stems. Learn these twelve endings once and you can read the person off any active verb, which is why Greek drops its subject pronouns.
  • Mediopassive Personal EndingsA2 — The mediopassive (passive/middle) voice has its own set of personal endings that look nothing like the active — present -ομαι, -εσαι, -εται, -όμαστε, -εστε, -ονται and past -όμουν, -όσουν, -όταν, -όμασταν, -όσασταν, -ονταν. They carry a fixed αι spelling, and a whole class of everyday verbs (έρχομαι, κάθομαι, θυμάμαι) lives only in this form.
  • Active and Mediopassive VoiceA2 — Greek marks voice on the verb's ending, not with an auxiliary — active -ω versus the mediopassive -ομαι that covers passive, reflexive, reciprocal, middle and deponent meanings all at once.
  • The Tense System at a GlanceA1 — A single grid of one verb across all eight tenses plus the subjunctive — showing how just three tools (θα for futures, να for the subjunctive, έχω for perfects) build the entire Greek verb system.
  • Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, ImperativeA2 — Greek's three moods — the fact-stating indicative, the all-purpose να-subjunctive that replaces the missing infinitive, and the imperative for commands — plus the particle family θα, να and ας that drives them.
  • The Augment (past-tense ε-)A2 — Why Greek past tenses sometimes grow an extra ε- at the front (έγραψα, έπαιξα) and sometimes don't (αγόρασα, διάβασα) — the augment is really a stress-carrier, not a tense marker, and that one idea explains all its comings and goings.
  • Verb AccentuationB1 — Greek verb stress is recessive — it is pulled as far back as the three-syllable law allows, which is why γράφω becomes γράφουμε, why the past grows an augment (έγραφα), and why Class Β verbs stress the ending in the present but pull back in the aorist.
  • No Infinitive: The να-ClauseA2 — Modern Greek has no infinitive at all — there is no single word for 'to go'. In its place stands να plus a fully conjugated verb, which agrees with its own subject, so 'I want to leave' and 'I want you to leave' differ only by that verb's ending.

Future

  • The Future With θαA2 — Greek builds its entire future out of one tiny, unchanging particle — θα — set in front of a finite verb: θα γράψω, θα πάω, θα σε δω. This hub explains where θα sits, how it negates, why the verb behind it decides whether the future is simple or continuous, and how the same particle later builds the conditional and expresses probability.
  • Simple Future (θα + perfective)A2 — The everyday Greek future — θα in front of the perfective stem — for a single, bounded, completed act: θα γράψω, θα φάω, θα πάω, θα δω, θα τελειώσω. This is the default future, the form you reach for by instinct when you name one specific thing you're going to do.
  • Continuous Future (θα + imperfective)B1 — The other Greek future — θα in front of the imperfective (present) stem — for actions that will be ongoing, repeated, or habitual: θα γράφω, θα σε περιμένω, θα δουλεύω κάθε μέρα. Where English says 'will be doing' or 'will do regularly', Greek keeps θα and simply switches to the present stem.
  • Choosing Future AspectB1 — The practical decision page for θα γράψω vs θα γράφω: a one-question test, a table of signal words that tip you toward each aspect, and minimal pairs where the same sentence means two different things depending on the stem. Because English 'will' hides the choice, an English speaker has to decide it on purpose.
  • Future of είμαι and έχωA2 — The two most frequent verbs in Greek keep their present stem in the future: θα είμαι 'I will be' and θα έχω 'I will have'. Neither has a perfective aorist stem, so there is no aspect choice to make — one form covers all future reference. θα έχω also doubles as the auxiliary of the future perfect (θα έχω γράψει).
  • θα for Probability and InferenceB2 — θα is not only the future particle: put in front of a present or past verb it expresses the speaker's inference — 'he must be', 'she'll probably', 'it must have been'. Θα είναι στο σπίτι means 'he's probably home', Θα το ξέχασε means 'he must have forgotten it'. Here θα has nothing to do with future time; it marks a confident guess.

Imperative

  • The Imperative: Giving CommandsA2 — How Greek forms direct commands — the two persons (γράψε / γράψτε), the perfective-vs-imperfective aspect choice, enclitic pronouns, the μη(ν)-plus-subjunctive prohibition, and the irregulars — with links to every detailed page.
  • Perfective ImperativeA2 — The default 'do it once, now' command — built on the perfective stem with the endings -ε / -τε (γράψε / γράψτε, διάβασε / διαβάστε, μίλησε / μιλήστε), including the crucial rule that the imperative takes no augment.
  • Imperfective ImperativeB1 — The 'keep doing it / do it as a rule' command — built on the present stem with -ε (γράφε, πρόσεχε) in the 1st conjugation and -α (μίλα, κοίτα) in the 2nd, contrasted throughout with the one-shot perfective.
  • Mediopassive ImperativeB1 — Commands for -ομαι / -άμαι verbs — the reflexives, feelings and motion verbs — with singular -ου and plural -είτε (ντύσου / ντυθείτε, σκέψου / σκεφτείτε), plus the high-frequency irregulars κάτσε, σήκω, στάσου and έλα.
  • Negative Commands: μη(ν) + SubjunctiveA2 — Why Greek has no negative imperative and builds every prohibition with μη(ν) + the subjunctive — Μην το κάνεις, Μη φεύγεις — keeping the aspect contrast (Μη γράφεις vs Μη γράψεις) and moving object pronouns back in front of the verb.
  • Clitics With the ImperativeB1 — Why weak pronouns jump to the far side of a positive command (Πες μου, Δώσε μού το) — the enclitic order, the second accent, the apostrophe contraction, and the way the negative flips them straight back in front.
  • Irregular ImperativesB1 — The dozen suppletive commands you cannot derive and simply have to know — έλα, πες, δες, φάε, πιες, βρες, μπες, βγες, ανέβα, κατέβα, κάτσε — with both the singular and the plural for each.
  • First-Person Commands With ας / ναB1 — The Greek imperative is only second-person, so 'let's', 'let me' and 'let him' are built with the particles ας and να plus the subjunctive — Ας πάμε, Πάμε!, Να πάμε;, Ας φύγει — including the resigned tone of ας and the negative with μην.
  • Softening CommandsB1 — A register ladder for getting things done without a bare imperative — the polite plural, the request-question, μπορείς / μπορείτε να, the conditional θα μπορούσατε, the imperfect Ήθελα, μήπως, and παρακαλώ.

Imperfect (Παρατατικός)

  • Imperfect: Class ΑA2 — The imperfect (παρατατικός) of the big -ω verb class — έγραφα, έπαιζα, διάβαζα — built from the present stem plus the past endings -α/-ες/-ε/-αμε/-ατε/-αν, with the stress-carrying augment ε- that shows up in the singular and 3rd plural but drops out of the 1st and 2nd plural.
  • Imperfect: Class ΒA2 — The imperfect of the ending-stressed verb class (αγαπώ, μιλώ, μπορώ) is the easiest tense in Greek: every Class Β verb — B1 and B2 alike — forms it the same way, with -ούσα, -ούσες, -ούσε, -ούσαμε, -ούσατε, -ούσαν, and no augment to worry about.
  • Imperfect MediopassiveB1 — The past-continuous of the -ομαι voice — ερχόμουν, γινόταν, σκεφτόμουν — built with the mediopassive past endings -όμουν, -όσουν, -όταν, -όμασταν, -όσασταν, -ονταν, a set you learn separately from the active -α endings, plus the deponent verbs (καθόμουν, θυμόμουν) that live only here.
  • Using the ImperfectA2 — The four jobs the imperfect (παρατατικός) does — the ongoing background of a past scene, a repeated or habitual past, the description of past states and settings, and a softened, polite request — each set against the single-event aorist and mapped onto English 'was doing / used to do / would do'.
  • Imperfect of είμαι (ήμουν)A2 — The only past of είμαι — ήμουν, ήσουν, ήταν, ήμασταν, ήσασταν, ήταν — built on mediopassive-shaped endings, with ήταν covering both 'he was' and 'they were,' and its complement staying in the nominative.
  • Imperfect of έχω (είχα)A2 — The single past of έχω — είχα, είχες, είχε, είχαμε, είχατε, είχαν — covering everything English does with 'had,' and doubling as the auxiliary that builds the pluperfect (είχα γράψει).
  • The Augment in the ImperfectB1 — Why the stressed ε- appears on έγραφα and έπαιζα but vanishes in γράφαμε and παίζατε — the augment's real job of hosting the antepenultimate stress, plus its behaviour on compound verbs and its absence on Class Β.
  • The Habitual Past ('used to')A2 — How the plain imperfect renders English 'used to' and habitual 'would' — cued by παλιά, τότε, κάθε, συνήθως — and why a counted number of times switches you back to the aorist.
  • The Imperfect for PolitenessB1 — Why Ήθελα έναν καφέ is softer than Θέλω — the imperfect as a politeness-through-distance strategy for requests and wishes, alongside Μπορούσατε…; and the even more polite θα ήθελα.

Irregular Verbs

  • Irregular Verbs: PatternsB1 — Greek irregularity has one address: the perfective stem. The present of an irregular verb is almost always textbook-regular — it is δω, έφαγα, μπήκα, έστειλα that surprise you. This page sorts the whole field into five shapes (plus the impersonals) and the three verbs that have no perfective stem at all, and sends you to the page that handles each.
  • Suppletive Verbs (βλέπω→είδα)B1 — Six everyday verbs — βλέπω, λέω, τρώω, πάω, έρχομαι, παίρνω — carry two roots each, one for the present and a completely different one for everything perfective. This page puts each verb's present, aorist, να-form, command and perfect on a single card, shows which cells you actually have to memorise and which fall out of the others, and marks the two verbs where the chain breaks.
  • Vowel-Final Stems (ακούω, τρώω, λέω)B1 — Seven everyday verbs — λέω, τρώω, ακούω, πάω, κλαίω, καίω, φταίω — end their stem in a vowel, and that one fact reshapes the whole verb: a present with no ending vowel (λες, τρως, ακούς), a γ that reappears the moment you leave the present (έλεγα, άκουγα, κλαίγοντας, ακούγεται), and three different kinds of aorist inside one small class.
  • Nasal-Stem Verbs (μπαίνω, πίνω)B1 — In μαθαίνω, καταλαβαίνω, μπαίνω, πίνω and δίνω the -ν- or -αιν- belongs to the imperfective half of the verb only — it is there in μαθαίνω and μάθαινα alike, and gone from everything perfective. Drop it and the bare root underneath is the perfective stem (μάθ-, καταλάβ-, μπ-, πι-). Covers the whole family, the -ηκα aorists that look passive and are not, the causative partners in -άζω, and μαθαίνω's double life as both 'learn' and 'teach'.
  • Stem-Alternation Verbs (στέλνω→έστειλα)B2 — In στέλνω → έστειλα → στάλθηκε the root vowel itself is doing the grammar: ε in the present, ει in the perfective, α in the passive. This page works through the whole alternating set — στέλνω, πλένω, σπέρνω, δέρνω, μένω, φεύγω, πεθαίνω, φέρνω — with their dependents, commands and participles, and explains why these dependents (στείλω, πλύνω, μείνω) are more dangerous than δω or πω.
  • Irregular Class Β VerbsB2 — Class Β has the most regular aorist in Greek — and a short list of everyday verbs that refuse it. The -νάω group that drops its ν (περνάω → πέρασα, ξεχνάω → ξέχασα), the velar group that gives -ηξα / -αξα instead of -ησα (φυσάω → φύσηξα, πετάω → πέταξα, κοιτάω → κοίταξα) and pays off again in the passive (τραβήχτηκε), plus ζω, the one Class Β verb that is irregular in the present.
  • Impersonal and Weather VerbsB1 — The inventory of Greek verbs that live in the third person singular with nobody behind them: βρέχει, χιονίζει, φυσάει, αστράφτει, νυχτώνει, ξημερώνει, plus πρόκειται να, συμβαίνει and τυχαίνει. Includes their two pasts (έβρεχε against έβρεξε), the subjects that do turn up when there is one to name (Φυσάει βοριάς), and the personal lives these same verbs lead elsewhere (Φύσα τη σούπα, Βράχηκα).

Modal Particles

  • The Particles θα, να, ας, μη(ν)A2 — Four one-syllable words carry everything Greek does not do with endings: θα for the future and the conditional, να for the subjunctive, ας for 'let's', μη(ν) for prohibition. How they line up in a fixed preverbal chain, why each one picks its own negator, and why every one of them needs an aspect-marked verb behind it.
  • θα: All Its UsesB1 — One invariable particle with no meaning of its own: the form behind θα decides whether you get a future, a conditional, a future-in-the-past or a confident guess. The complete grid of θα + every tense, the strings that carry two readings and what tells them apart, where θα may and may not stand in a subordinate clause, and the peremptory θα that functions as an order.
  • να: All Its UsesB1 — The busiest word in Greek, gathered into one reference: every environment να appears in, the single property that unites them — a να-clause is never asserted — and the constructions the frame pages miss, from Τον είδα να φεύγει to σαν να and Δεν έχω τι να φορέσω.

Participles

  • The Gerund in -ονταςB1 — How to build Greek's one everyday active participle: the imperfective stem plus -οντας (γράφοντας, τρέχοντας) or, for Class Β verbs, -ώντας (μιλώντας, αγαπώντας) — why it is invariable, why the fixed accent makes -οντας forms proparoxytone and -ώντας forms paroxytone, which verbs simply have no gerund at all, and how έχοντας + απαρέμφατο fills the gap left by the missing perfective gerund.
  • Using the GerundB1 — What the -οντας form actually does in a sentence: manner (Έφυγε τρέχοντας), background and simultaneity (Περπατώντας, σκεφτόμουν), immediacy (Μπαίνοντας, κατάλαβα), means (Έμαθα ελληνικά μιλώντας) and cause (Βλέποντας ότι δεν ερχόταν κανείς) — plus the same-subject rule that makes a dangling gerund a real error, the small closed set of formulaic gerunds that legitimately break it, and the four jobs English -ing does that Greek hands to a finite clause instead.
  • Passive Participle as AdjectiveB1 — The -μένος participle living its second life as an ordinary adjective: attributive (τα μαγειρεμένα φαγητά) and predicative (είμαι κουρασμένη), agreeing with an accusative object in Βρήκα την πόρτα κλειδωμένη, taking πιο and the καλο- / φρεσκο- / μισο- prefixes like any adjective, forming -μένα adverbs — and the large group whose meaning is not passive at all (πεσμένος, φαγωμένος, πιωμένος, παντρεμένος).
  • Participle vs Perfect ConfusionB2 — Why είμαι κουρασμένος and έχω κουραστεί are not two ways of saying the same thing: one describes a state and agrees like an adjective, the other reports an event and never changes — set against the two shapes that complete the picture, the mediopassive present for a repeated event (καθαρίζεται κάθε μέρα) and the active perfect for a named agent (κάποιος έχει κλείσει την πόρτα).
  • Learned Active Participles (-ων/-οντας)C1 — The ancient active participle seen from the verb's side: one -οντ- stem, three descendants — the frozen everyday gerund -οντας, the declined learned active -ων / -ουσα / -ον (ο ισχύων νόμος, η υπάρχουσα κατάσταση), and the middle participle in -όμενος / -ούμενος (οι εργαζόμενοι, τα εισερχόμενα, ο κατηγορούμενος), which is the one corner of the system still being used to make new words — plus how these participles head whole phrases like reduced relative clauses, why they negate with μη, and the -όμενος / -μένος split between a process and a result.
  • Participle Agreement RulesB1 — Greek has four participle-shaped forms and only two of them agree — the -μένος participle and the learned -ων / -όμενος decline for gender, number AND case, while the gerund in -οντας and the -ει / -εί form after έχω never change at all. One inventory table, one two-second test for telling them apart, what the agreeing ones agree with (including the polite plural Είστε κουρασμένος; and mixed-gender subjects), and two look-alikes that are not agreement at all.
  • Gerund vs Subordinate ClauseB2 — The decision procedure: three things force you out of a gerund and into a finite clause — a different subject, a verb with no gerund, and a relation that has to be named — plus the subordinator menu (όταν, μόλις, καθώς, ενώ, αφού, πριν, επειδή, για να) with the tense each one wants, a three-step repair for a gerund that will not work, and the one job (manner) that no subordinate clause can take over.
  • Participial and Genitive-Absolute SurvivalsC1 — The high-register participial connectors of written Greek — συμπεριλαμβανομένου του ΦΠΑ, εξαιρουμένων των αργιών, λαμβανομένου υπόψη, δεδομένου ότι, δεδομένης της κατάστασης, προκειμένου να, τηρουμένων των αναλογιών — read as what they are: frozen genitive absolutes, an ancient construction that let a participial phrase carry its OWN subject. How to parse them, the one agreement rule that is still live inside them, the προκειμένου να / πρόκειται να trap, and the everyday Greek each one translates into.

Perfect Tenses

  • The Perfect TensesB1 — Greek builds every perfect analytically — the auxiliary έχω (or its past είχα, or θα έχω) plus one invariable form, the -ει απαρέμφατο. Only the auxiliary conjugates; the second word never changes, which is exactly what makes the whole system easy once you have that one form.
  • The απαρέμφατο (-ει form)B1 — The single invariable word that follows έχω in every perfect tense — γράψει, δει, πει, φάει, πάει — is the απαρέμφατο. It is the perfective stem plus a fixed -ει ending, it never changes for person, number or gender, and it is the last living fossil of the Ancient Greek infinitive.
  • The Present Perfect (έχω γράψει)B1 — έχω plus the invariable -ει form reports a completed action whose result or relevance reaches into the present — Έχω διαβάσει το βιβλίο ('I've read the book'), Δεν έχω πάει ποτέ στην Κρήτη ('I've never been to Crete'). It overlaps with English 'have done', but Greek leans on the plain aorist far more, and a stated time forces the aorist outright.
  • The Pluperfect (είχα γράψει)B1 — Swap the auxiliary from present έχω to past είχα and the perfect steps one layer back in time: είχα γράψει is 'I had written', an action already complete before some other past moment. It is the workhorse of the 'earlier past' in narration — Είχα φύγει όταν ήρθες ('I had left when you came') — and with θα in front it becomes the counterfactual 'I would have written': Αν το ήξερα, θα είχα έρθει.
  • The Future Perfect (θα έχω γράψει)B2 — Put θα in front of the present perfect and it projects into the future: θα έχω γράψει is 'I will have written', an action to be finished by some future point — Μέχρι τις πέντε θα έχω τελειώσει ('By five I'll have finished'). The very same form also does double duty as a confident inference about the present: θα έχει φύγει, 'he'll have left by now'.
  • The Perfect Subjunctive (να έχω γράψει)B2 — How Greek puts a completed action inside a να-clause — να έχω + the invariable -ει απαρέμφατο — to say 'must have finished', 'may have left' and 'I hope he's arrived', where the action is already done relative to the point the modal or emotion verb is looking at.
  • The Perfect in the PassiveB2 — Greek has two ways to build a perfect in the passive voice — είμαι + the agreeing -μένος participle for a resulting STATE (η πόρτα είναι κλεισμένη), and έχω + the invariable passive απαρέμφατο in -εί for the EVENT (έχει γραφτεί, έχω κουραστεί) — plus how to form that -θεί/-στεί/-φτεί word and why one agrees while the other never does.
  • Perfect vs AoristB1 — When to say έχω γράψει and when to say έγραψα — the aorist for a specific finished event (especially with a past-time word), the perfect for experience and results that count now, and the single most useful warning for English speakers: Greek reaches for the aorist far more than English reaches for the simple past, so stop over-using the perfect.
  • Perfect With ήδη, ακόμα, ποτέB1 — The adverbs that pull a sentence toward the present perfect — ήδη (already), δεν... ακόμα (not yet), ποτέ (ever/never), and τελευταία (lately) — where each one sits in the clause, how they map onto English already/yet/ever/never, and why ποτέ needs a δεν to mean 'never'.

Present Tense

  • Present Tense: Class Α (-ω)A1 — The full present of the big regular verb class — γράφω, παίζω, τρέχω, διαβάζω, μένω, θέλω — with its six stem-stressed endings, the -εις vs -ει spelling trap, and the fact that one Greek form covers both 'I write' and 'I am writing'.
  • Present Tense: Class Β1 (αγαπάω/-ώ)A1 — The full present of the everyday Β1 contract verbs — αγαπάω/αγαπώ, μιλάω, ρωτάω, περπατάω, κοιτάω, ξεχνάω, περνάω — with the -άω/-ώ doublet in the 'I' and 'they' forms, the fixed -άς 'you' ending, and the crossover error ×αγαπείς that spells it as if it were Class Α.
  • Present Tense: Class Β2 (μπορώ)A2 — The full present of the μπορώ type — μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί, μπορούμε, μπορείτε, μπορούν — plus οδηγώ, θεωρώ, καλώ and the slightly irregular ζω, with the -είς/-εί endings that never allow an -άω variant and the crossovers ×μποράω and ×μπορείς-for-Β1 that this class forbids.
  • Contract Verb DetailsB1 — The system behind Class Β: why these verbs stress the ending (an ancient vowel got swallowed), why Β1 kept both αγαπάω and αγαπώ while Β2 stayed contracted, the -άμε/-ούμε alternation, the near-contract irregulars λέω/ακούω/τρώω, and the lexically unpredictable Β1 aorists (γελάω→γέλασα, φυσάω→φύσηξα).
  • Present Mediopassive: -ομαιA2 — The present of the -ομαι mediopassive — πλένομαι, έρχομαι, γίνομαι — its full six-person paradigm, the passive, reflexive and deponent meanings it carries, and the fixed αι-spelling that makes -εται sound exactly like the active -ετε.
  • Present Mediopassive: -ιέμαιB1 — How the -άω verbs (Conjugation Β1, like αγαπάω) build their mediopassive present — αγαπιέμαι, αγαπιέσαι, αγαπιέται — where the -ι- glide comes from, the synizesis that keeps it one syllable, and the reciprocal 'kiss/love each other' meaning that makes -ιούνται so common.
  • Present Mediopassive: -ούμαι and -άμαιB1 — The last two mediopassive present patterns — the formal-leaning -ούμαι of Β2 verbs (θεωρούμαι), and the small but ultra-frequent set of -άμαι deponents θυμάμαι, κοιμάμαι, φοβάμαι and λυπάμαι, with their irregular three-vowel paradigm laid out in full.
  • Using the Present TenseA1 — What the Greek present actually does — right-now action, habits, general truths, situations that started in the past and still hold, scheduled near-future, and vivid narration — all from one form, because Greek has no separate progressive and no perfective present.
  • The Present of είμαι (to be)A1 — The most frequent verb in Greek — είμαι, είσαι, είναι, είμαστε, είστε, είναι — its irregular mediopassive-shaped paradigm, the single είναι that covers both 'he is' and 'they are', its uses for identity, state, location and existence, and why the word after it stays in the nominative.
  • The Present of έχω (to have)A1 — έχω, έχεις, έχει, έχουμε, έχετε, έχουν — a perfectly regular Class Α present that does three big jobs in Greek: possession, the colloquial existential έχει ('there is/are'), and, above all, the auxiliary that builds every perfect tense (έχω γράψει).
  • Negating the Present: δενA1 — How to say 'not' in the present tense — the negator δεν sits directly before the verb and its object pronouns, with no auxiliary, and negative words like τίποτα keep δεν rather than replacing it.
  • Asking Present-Tense QuestionsA1 — Greek asks yes/no questions with intonation alone — no 'do', no inversion, same word order as the statement — marked in writing by the Greek question mark ';'; wh-questions simply front the question word.
  • Spelling the Present EndingsA2 — The present-tense endings all sound like /o/, /i/, /e/ and /ete/, but each has one fixed spelling: -ω, -εις, -ει, -ουμε, -ετε, -ουν and the mediopassive -ομαι/-εσαι/-εται/-ονται — the grammar tells you the letters, not the sound.

Subjunctive (να)

  • The Subjunctive With ναA2 — να is the all-purpose particle that replaces the missing infinitive: να + a fully conjugated verb expresses purpose, wish, obligation, and possibility — everything English does with 'to + verb' or 'that + clause'.
  • Present Subjunctive (να + imperfective)A2 — να followed by the imperfective (present) stem — να γράφω, να διαβάζω — frames a subordinated action as ongoing, habitual, or repeated: θέλω να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα, μου αρέσει να περπατάω.
  • Aorist Subjunctive (να + perfective)B1 — να followed by the perfective stem — να γράψω, να δω, να φύγω — names a single, bounded action and is the default choice after most verbs; crucially it takes NO augment (να γράψω, never ×να έγραψα).
  • Aspect After ναB1 — A decision guide for να γράφω vs να γράψω: pick the perfective for a single completed act (the default) and the imperfective for something ongoing or habitual — with the diagnostic words that give the answer away and drills to build the reflex.
  • να After Modal VerbsA2 — The everyday frame [modal + να + verb] — θέλω να, μπορώ να, πρέπει να, ξέρω να, πάω να, αρχίζω να — where both verbs are fully conjugated, unlike the single infinitive of English 'want to leave'.
  • να After Emotion and EvaluationB1 — Verbs and expressions of feeling and judgement — μου αρέσει να, φοβάμαι να, χαίρομαι, λυπάμαι, αξίζει, είναι κρίμα — take a να-clause for the event itself and που for the real fact that stirs the feeling; how to tell which one you need.
  • Purpose Clauses: (για) ναA2 — How Greek says 'in order to / so that': για να spells out purpose explicitly, plain να is enough after verbs of motion, and — because there is no infinitive — the purpose verb stays fully conjugated whether the subject is the same or different.
  • Standalone να: Wishes and Softened CommandsB1 — να can open a main clause with no verb in front of it — carrying wishes and blessings (Να ζήσεις! Να 'σαι καλά), gentle advice softer than a command (Να πας στον γιατρό), and, with an accent, the pointing Νά! (there it is).
  • The Particle ας (let / let's)B1 — ας + subjunctive covers the ground the imperative can't reach: 'let's' for ourselves, 'let him / let them' for a third party, and a resigned 'so be it' — always milder and more permissive than a command, negated with μην and, with a past tense, turning into reproach.
  • Deliberative Questions With ναB1 — να + subjunctive with question intonation asks what one should or shall do — Να πάω; (Should I go?), Τι να κάνω; (What should I do?), Να σου φέρω κάτι; (Shall I bring you something?) — the everyday Greek for English 'should I / shall I', with no θα and no auxiliary.
  • να vs ότι/πως (that-Clauses)B1 — The core complementizer split — ότι and πως report something that IS the case, while να points at something wished-for, aimed-at, or merely possible — and how the same verb (λέω, ξέρω) can take either one with a change of meaning.
  • να After πριν, μέχρι, χωρίς, αντίB2 — A family of subordinators — πριν (before), μέχρι / ώσπου (until), χωρίς (without), αντί (instead of), εκτός από (except) — that switch to a full να-clause the moment a verb follows, turning what English does with 'before doing / without doing' into a conjugated Greek clause.
  • Impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί ναB1 — The two invariable modal frames — πρέπει να for obligation ('must / have to') and μπορεί να for possibility ('may / might') — where the modal never changes and the person is carried by the να-verb, plus their pasts έπρεπε να and μπορεί να + past.
  • Nominalized να-Clauses (το να...)B2 — Put the article το in front of a να-clause and the whole clause becomes a noun — Greek's equivalent of the English '-ing' subject or 'to'-infinitive: Το να μαθαίνεις γλώσσες ανοίγει μυαλά, Δεν μου αρέσει το να περιμένω, Με το να φωνάζεις δεν κερδίζεις τίποτα.

Voice

  • The Mediopassive Voice: OverviewA2 — A map of the -ομαι voice as one system marching through every tense with the same shifting endings — present -ομαι, imperfect -όμουν, aorist -θηκα, perfect έχω + -θεί / είμαι + -μένος — with routes to the detailed form pages.
  • Mediopassive Present FormsB1 — A recognition map from a verb's active conjugation class to its present mediopassive shape — Α → -ομαι, Β1 → -ιέμαι, Β2 → -ούμαι, plus the closed -άμαι deponent set — routing to the three pages that drill each full paradigm.
  • Mediopassive Imperfect (-όμουν)B1 — The past-continuous of the -ομαι voice — where -όμουν sits in the cross-tense system and the two everyday jobs it does (was being X'd / was X-ing oneself), with the full paradigm and accent details routed to the Imperfect page.
  • Mediopassive Aorist (-θηκα)B1 — The single, finished past of the whole -ομαι voice — where -θηκα sits in the cross-tense system, its everyday passive, reflexive and deponent uses, the stem-driven -φτηκα/-χτηκα/-στηκα faces, and the suppletive aorists ήρθα, έγινα, κάθισα.
  • The Passive Participle -μένοςB1 — The perfect passive participle in -μένος / -μένη / -μένο seen from the verb's side — how it is built from the passive-perfect stem (γράφω → γραμμένος, κλείνω → κλεισμένος, κουράζω → κουρασμένος), why its stem-final consonant sorts into a handful of patterns, its job as the participle half of the είμαι-perfect passive, and how it names a resulting STATE against the -θηκα aorist that names the EVENT.
  • Reflexive Use of the Middle VoiceB1 — How Greek uses the mediopassive -ομαι ending to say you do something to yourself — πλένομαι (wash), ντύνομαι (get dressed), χτενίζομαι (comb one's hair), ετοιμάζομαι (get ready) — why the ending itself is the 'myself', when the marked τον εαυτό μου is needed instead, and why body parts take active + possessive (πλένω τα χέρια μου).
  • Reciprocal Use of the Middle VoiceB1 — How the mediopassive says 'each other' — αγαπιούνται, φιλιούνται, συναντιούνται, αγκαλιάζονται, τσακώνονται, δεν μιλιούνται — and why the requirement is two parties, not a plural subject: Συναντιέμαι με τη Μαρία is just as reciprocal. Covers the singular + με construction, the two disambiguators μεταξύ τους and ο ένας τον άλλον (with the neuter το ένα το άλλο and the case forms), the actives that are reciprocal on their own, and the overlap with the plain passive.
  • Deponent Verbs (-ομαι only)B1 — The verbs that exist only in the mediopassive -ομαι form but mean something perfectly active — έρχομαι (come), κάθομαι (sit), γίνομαι (become), θυμάμαι (remember), φοβάμαι (fear), σκέφτομαι (think), εργάζομαι (work) — why there is no ×έρχω, how they conjugate like passives across the tenses, and the unpredictable aorist that is the one real difficulty.
  • Expressing the Agent (από)B1 — How to name the doer of a passive action with από + accusative — Το βιβλίο γράφτηκε από τον Σεφέρη — why Greek reuses its word for 'from' as 'by', how the agent differs from the instrument (με), and why spoken Greek usually prefers the active instead.
  • Active/Passive Verb PairsB2 — The causative–inchoative alternation that learners mistake for a passive — καίω/καίγομαι, κουράζω/κουράζομαι — plus the labile actives that need no voice change at all (σταματάω, τελειώνω, γυρίζω, ανοίγω, σπάω), the suppletive pairs ανεβάζω/ανεβαίνω, and the middles that have drifted into new words (χάνομαι, βρίσκομαι, φέρομαι).
  • Impersonal and Agentless PassivesB2 — The two ways Greek keeps the doer out of the sentence — the third-person mediopassive of signs, notices and news (Πωλείται, Ενοικιάζεται, Απαγορεύεται το κάπνισμα, Λέγεται ότι…, Παρακαλείσθε να…) and the everyday subjectless third-person plural (Μου έκλεψαν το πορτοφόλι, Λένε ότι…) that is what Greek actually says where English reaches for a passive.
  • Middle-Voice MeaningsB2 — What the -ομαι ending really encodes once you stop calling it 'the passive' — acting for your own benefit (δανείζομαι, μοιράζομαι), emotional and mental states (χαίρομαι, στεναχωριέμαι, ντρέπομαι), spontaneous events (φαίνεται, ακούγεται), and the potential middle that means 'can't be done' (δεν τρώγεται, δεν διαβάζεται) — plus the honest warning that θυμώνω and νιώθω are active.