Definite Article: Full Declension | Greek Grammar

This is the single most valuable table in beginner Greek, and it is worth memorising cold — not because articles are interesting in themselves, but because the article is the piece of the noun phrase that most reliably shows case. Greek noun endings are ambiguous all over the place; the article rarely is. Learn this grid and you can parse the grammar of a sentence before you know half its nouns.

A note on the division of labour, so you are not learning the same thing twice. This page owns the paradigm — every form, in memorisation order, with the overlaps and the final-ν rule. The sister page How cases show on the article uses this same grid from the other side: it is about reading case off the article in a live sentence — why ο φίλος is a subject and τον φίλο an object at a glance, and where the system breaks down. If you want the forms, stay here. If you want to know what they do in a sentence, go there.

The whole grid

Three genders, four cases, two numbers. Twenty-four cells, but — as you will see in a moment — only twelve distinct forms fill them.

	Singular			Plural
Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.
Nominative	ο	η	το	οι	οι	τα
Genitive	του	της	του	των	των	των
Accusative	τον	τη(ν)	το	τους	τις	τα
Vocative	— the vocative takes no article in any gender or number

The same grid romanized, so you can drill it aloud without looking at the script:

Case	Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Neut. sg.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.	Neut. pl.
Nom.	o	i	to	i	i	ta
Gen.	tu	tis	tu	ton	ton	ton
Acc.	ton	ti(n)	to	tus	tis	ta

Notice that almost every form begins with τ-. The two exceptions are the ones that carry the most weight: ο (masculine nominative singular) and η / οι (feminine and the shared plural nominative). The τ-less forms are all subjects — a useful reading shortcut once you internalise it.

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Do not memorise this as twenty-four separate items. Memorise it as three columns you read down — ο-του-τον, η-της-την, το-του-το — plus the plural block, and let the overlaps below cut the real workload to about a dozen forms. Say each column out loud as a little chant; that is how Greek children learn it, and the rhythm is what makes it stick.

Drilling it, cell by cell

The grid is easier to hold if you attach each form to a real noun as you learn it. Here is every distinct form doing its job.

Masculine singular — ο σκύλος (the dog):

Ο σκύλος γαβγίζει κάθε φορά που χτυπάει το κουδούνι.

o skílos ghavyízi káthe forá pu chtipái to kudhúni

The dog barks every time the doorbell rings. (nominative)

Το λουρί του σκύλου κρέμεται πίσω από την πόρτα.

to lurí tu skílu krémete píso apó tin pórta

The dog's lead hangs behind the door. (genitive)

Βγάζω τον σκύλο βόλτα δύο φορές τη μέρα.

vgházo ton skílo vólta dhío forés ti méra

I take the dog for a walk twice a day. (accusative)

Feminine singular — η θάλασσα (the sea):

Η θάλασσα σήμερα είναι σαν λάδι.

i thálasa símera íne san ládhi

The sea is like glass today. (nominative)

Ο ήχος της θάλασσας με νανουρίζει.

o íchos tis thálasas me nanurízi

The sound of the sea lulls me to sleep. (genitive)

Βλέπω τη θάλασσα από το μπαλκόνι μου.

vlépo ti thálasa apó to balkóni mu

I can see the sea from my balcony. (accusative — the -ν drops before θ)

Neuter singular — το βουνό (the mountain):

Το βουνό χιονίζει ήδη από τον Νοέμβρη.

to vunó chionízi ídhi apó ton Noémvri

It's already snowing on the mountain from November. (nominative)

Ο αέρας του βουνού είναι καθαρός.

o aéras tu vunú íne katharós

The mountain air is clean. (genitive — same του as the masculine)

Plural, all three genders — οι φίλοι, οι φίλες, τα παιδιά:

Οι φίλοι μου κι εγώ πάμε για μπάνιο κάθε Κυριακή.

i fíli mu ki eghó páme ya bánio káthe Kiriakí

My friends and I go for a swim every Sunday. (masc. nom. pl.)

Κάλεσα τους φίλους και τις φίλες μου στα γενέθλιά μου.

kálesa tus fílus ke tis fíles mu sta yenéthliá mu

I invited my friends — the guys and the girls — to my birthday. (masc. and fem. acc. pl. side by side)

Τα ποδήλατα των παιδιών είναι κλειδωμένα στην αποθήκη.

ta podhílata ton pedhión íne klidhoména stin apothíki

The children's bikes are locked up in the storeroom. (neut. nom. pl. + gen. pl.)

The three overlaps you have to watch

Twelve forms cover twenty-four cells because several forms do double duty. Three of those overlaps cause the great majority of reading errors, and it pays to meet them head-on.

1. του is both masculine and neuter genitive singular

Του serves ο σκύλος → *του σκύλου and το βουνό → του βουνού alike. On its own, του does not tell you the gender — you need the noun. In practice this is almost never a problem, because the noun ending resolves it, but it does mean του* is one of the busiest words in Greek: genitive of two genders and the "him/it" and "his/its" clitic.

Το χρώμα του τοίχου δεν ταιριάζει με του πατώματος.

to chróma tu tíchu dhen teriázi me tu patómatos

The colour of the wall doesn't match the colour of the floor. (masculine του, then neuter του)

2. οι is both masculine and feminine nominative plural

Οι φίλοι (masc.) and οι φίλες (fem.) share the same article. Only the neuter breaks away, with τα. So in the plural nominative, the article distinguishes neuter-from-the-rest, but not masculine-from-feminine — the noun ending has to do that.

Οι γονείς και οι δασκάλες συζήτησαν για ώρα.

i ghonís ke i dhaskáles sizítisan ya óra

The parents and the (female) teachers talked for a long time. (masc. οι, then fem. οι)

3. το is the neuter nominative AND accusative

Every neuter noun has the same article for subject and object: το παιδί is "the child" whether it does the seeing or gets seen, and the same holds in the plural (τα). This is not sloppiness — it is inherited straight from Proto-Indo-European, and it is why, with two neuter nouns in a sentence, only word order tells you which is which. (Watch the masculine trap here too: the accusative τον minus its -ν would become the neuter το — which is exactly why the masculine keeps its -ν, as the next section explains.)

Το ποτάμι τροφοδοτεί το φράγμα όλο τον χρόνο.

to potámi trofodhotí to frághma ólo ton chróno

The river feeds the dam all year round. (subject and object neuter, both το — word order decides)

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Two more look-alike pairs are worth burning in now because they are different case and number, not just spelling: της (feminine genitive singular) versus τις (feminine accusative plural), and του (genitive singular) versus τους (masculine accusative plural). Της φίλης is "of the friend"; τις φίλες is "the friends (object)". Mishearing one for the other flips both the case and the number.

The final-ν: when τον and την keep their -ν

Two accusative singular forms have a movable -ν — a final -ν that stays or drops depending on the sound that follows. This is the one mechanical rule in the whole paradigm, and learners trip on it constantly.

The -ν stays before a vowel and before the stops and clusters κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ. It drops before every other consonant (β, γ, δ, ζ, θ, λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, φ, χ).

	-ν kept	-ν dropped
Masc. τον	always — see below	never
Fem. την	την Κυριακή, την πόρτα, την τσάντα, την Αθήνα	τη θάλασσα, τη δουλειά, τη Μαρία, τη γάτα

The reason is phonetic. Before a plosive the -ν fuses with the following sound and often voices it — την πόρτα is heard as timbórta — so it earns its place. Before a fricative or liquid it would just sit there, so it goes.

Έκλεισα την πόρτα αλλά άφησα τη γάτα μέσα.

éklisa tin pórta alá áfisa ti gháta mésa

I shut the door but left the cat inside. (την before π, then τη before γ)

Πήρα την τσάντα και ξέχασα τη ζακέτα.

píra tin tsánda ke kséchasa ti zakéta

I grabbed the bag and forgot the jacket. (την before τσ, then τη before ζ)

The masculine τον is different: it keeps its -ν in every context. The reason is the overlap you just met — strip the -ν and τον becomes το, the neuter article, and Είδα το φίλο would read as a neuter. So modern usage keeps it always: τον δρόμο, τον Γιώργο, τον φίλο μου. Older books sometimes dropped it by the same phonetic rule as the feminine, and you will see το δρόμο in mid-twentieth-century printing, but current practice is uniform. The full treatment, including the same rule as it applies to the object clitics and to δε(ν)/μη(ν), is on The final-ν rule.

Είδα τον Δημήτρη στη στάση και τον χαιρέτησα.

ídha ton Dhimítri sti stási ke ton cherétisa

I saw Dimitris at the bus stop and said hello. (τον kept before δ, where the feminine would drop it)

What the vocative does instead

The bottom row of the grid is empty for a reason: the vocative takes no article at all. You talk about a person with the article (ο Γιάννης έφυγε) and to them without it (Γιάννη, πού πας;). This is total across the language — there is no such thing as ×ο Γιάννη! as a way of calling someone. How the noun itself changes in the vocative is a separate story, on The vocative case.

Παιδιά, κατεβαίνουμε στην επόμενη στάση!

pedhiá, katevénume stin epómeni stási

Kids, we're getting off at the next stop!

Do not forget: σε eats the accusative article

The accusative forms τον, τη(ν), το, τους, τις, τα almost never appear after the preposition σε — because σε fuses with them into στον, στη(ν), στο, στους, στις, στα. The fused word still carries the same gender, number and (accusative) case; it is just written as one word, obligatorily. Full set on Preposition + article: στον, στη, στο.

Άφησα τα ψώνια στην κουζίνα και βγήκα ξανά.

áfisa ta psónia stin kuzína ke vyíka ksaná

I left the shopping in the kitchen and went out again.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the nominative article where the case is genitive or accusative. The form has to match the job.

❌ Το χρώμα ο τοίχος είναι πολύ σκούρο.

Incorrect — the possessor is genitive: του τοίχου.

✅ Το χρώμα του τοίχου είναι πολύ σκούρο.

to chróma tu tíchu íne polí skúro

The colour of the wall is very dark.

2. Dropping the -ν on τον. The masculine accusative keeps it always, or it collapses into the neuter.

❌ Είδα το γιατρό μου χθες το πρωί.

Incorrect — masculine accusative keeps the -ν: τον γιατρό.

✅ Είδα τον γιατρό μου χθες το πρωί.

ídha ton yatró mu chthes to proí

I saw my doctor yesterday morning.

3. Keeping the -ν on την before the wrong consonant. Before β, γ, δ, ζ, θ, λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, φ, χ it drops.

❌ Άκουσα την φωνή σου από τον διάδρομο.

Incorrect — before φ the -ν drops: τη φωνή.

✅ Άκουσα τη φωνή σου από τον διάδρομο.

ákusa ti foní su apó ton dhiádhromo

I heard your voice from the corridor.

4. Confusing της (gen. sg.) and τις (acc. pl.). Different case, different number.

❌ Μάζεψα της βαλίτσες από τον διάδρομο.

Incorrect — accusative plural is τις: τις βαλίτσες.

✅ Μάζεψα τις βαλίτσες από τον διάδρομο.

mázepsa tis valítses apó ton dhiádhromo

I gathered up the suitcases from the hallway.

5. Using τους for the genitive plural. All three genders share των in the genitive plural; τους is masculine accusative plural.

❌ Το μέλλον τους παιδιών μάς απασχολεί όλους.

Incorrect — genitive plural is των: των παιδιών.

✅ Το μέλλον των παιδιών μάς απασχολεί όλους.

to mélon ton pedhión mas apascholí ólus

The children's future concerns us all.

Key Takeaways

The definite article has twenty-four cells but only twelve distinct forms: ο/του/τον · η/της/την · το/του/το (sg.) and οι/των/τους · οι/των/τις · τα/των/τα (pl.).
The vocative takes no article — the whole bottom row is empty.
Three overlaps to watch: του is masc. and neut. genitive singular; οι is masc. and fem. nominative plural; το/τα is the neuter's nominative and accusative.
Two confusable pairs: της (fem. gen. sg.) vs τις (fem. acc. pl.), and του (gen. sg.) vs τους (masc. acc. pl.).
τον keeps its -ν always (else it becomes neuter το); την keeps it before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, otherwise τη.
The accusative forms fuse with σε: στον, στη(ν), στο, στους, στις, στα.
For what these forms do in a sentence — reading subject vs object off the article — see How cases show on the article.

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