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
The article realizes three cases across three genders and two numbers: eighteen cells, filled by only twelve core paradigm forms (with τη as the sound-conditioned written variant of την). The fourth case, the vocative, has no article, so the table shows it as one empty row rather than six additional forms.
| 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 nominative, so they commonly mark subjects; predicate nominatives show that “nominative” and “subject” are not identical.
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 είναι χιονισμένο από τον Νοέμβρη.
to vunó íne chionisméno apó ton Noémvri
The mountain has been snow-covered since 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 core paradigm forms cover eighteen realized 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 το χρώμα του πατώματος.
to chróma tu tíchu dhen teriázi me to chróma 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. With two neuter nouns, the article alone therefore cannot identify subject and object; neutral word order, context and meaning do that work. (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 — neutral word order identifies them here)
The final-ν: write τον throughout, τη(ν) by sound
The two accusative singular forms no longer share one neutral written rule. Masculine τον retains -ν throughout current Standard writing; feminine τη(ν) has the live movable -ν that stays or drops according to the following sound.
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 | throughout neutral current writing — see below | not in the neutral written paradigm |
| 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: neutral current writing keeps its -ν in every context. The reason is the overlap you just met — strip the -ν and τον becomes το, the neuter article. Write τον δρόμο, τον Γιώργο, τον φίλο μου. Older books sometimes applied the feminine-style spelling rule, while relaxed speech may still reduce the sound before continuants; recognize those forms without replacing the neutral written default. The full treatment, including the same split as it applies 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 before a vowel. Even relaxed speech retains it here; without it, the form collapses into neuter το.
❌ Είδα το άντρα σου χθες το πρωί.
Incorrect — before a vowel the masculine accusative must keep the -ν: τον άντρα.
✅ Είδα τον άντρα σου χθες το πρωί.
ídha ton ándra su chthes to proí
I saw your husband yesterday morning.
3. Dropping the -ν on την before a vowel. Before a vowel the -ν is required.
❌ Άκουσα τη Άννα να μιλάει στον διάδρομο.
Incorrect — before a vowel the -ν stays: την Άννα.
✅ Άκουσα την Άννα να μιλάει στον διάδρομο.
ákusa tin Ána na milái ston dhiádhromo
I heard Anna talking in 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 eighteen realized cells but only twelve core paradigm forms: ο/του/τον · η/της/την · το/του/το (sg.) and οι/των/τους · οι/των/τις · τα/των/τα (pl.); τη is the sound-conditioned variant of την, and the vocative row is empty.
- 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.).
- Neutral current writing keeps the -ν of masculine τον throughout (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.
Related Topics
- 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.
- The Final-ν Rule (τελικό ν)A2 — Modern final-ν has a split distribution: feminine τη(ν)/στη(ν) and μη(ν) follow the live sound-conditioned alternation, δεν normally keeps ν, and masculine τον/στον and έναν retain it in neutral current Standard Greek.
- 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.