The genitive is the case of belonging. Its most basic job — and the first one you need — is to say whose something is: Giannis's house, Maria's car, the children's toys. English gives you two ways to do this, an apostrophe-s and an of-phrase. Greek gives you neither. It has one construction, and it looks backwards to an English speaker until you see the logic.
The core pattern: possessed thing first, owner second
In Greek the noun that is owned comes first, and the owner follows it in the genitive:
| Greek | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| το σπίτι του Γιάννη | the house of-the Giannis | Giannis's house |
| το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας | the car of-the Maria | Maria's car |
| τα παιχνίδια των παιδιών | the toys of-the children | the children's toys |
| η πόρτα του σπιτιού | the door of-the house | the door of the house |
So Greek is head-first: it names the thing, then says whose it is. English can do this too (the door of the house), but for people it strongly prefers the possessor-first apostrophe-s (Giannis's house). Greek has no such option at all — there is no ×Γιάννη σπίτι in the ordinary language.
Το σπίτι του Γιάννη είναι δίπλα στο σχολείο.
to spíti tu Yáni íne dhípla sto scholío
Giannis's house is next to the school.
Πήρα το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας για ένα σαββατοκύριακο.
píra to aftokínito tis Marías ya éna savatokíriako
I borrowed Maria's car for a weekend.
Τα παιχνίδια των παιδιών είναι σκορπισμένα παντού.
ta pechnídhia ton pedhión íne skorpizména pandú
The children's toys are scattered everywhere.
Note carefully: there is no word meaning "of". English speakers scan those sentences looking for one and try to insert από or για. The genitive is the "of" — it lives in the article and the noun ending, not in a separate word.
Each noun keeps its own article
The single most useful structural observation on this page: in το σπίτι του Γιάννη, both nouns carry an article. One is the article of the possessed noun (το σπίτι, matching its gender, number and case in the sentence), the other is the genitive article of the possessor (του Γιάννη).
| Nominative | Genitive | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine sg. | ο | του |
| Feminine sg. | η | της |
| Neuter sg. | το | του |
| All genders pl. | οι / οι / τα | των |
The plural is a gift: των for every gender. And notice that masculine and neuter share του in the singular, so the only genitive article forms you have to learn at all are του, της, των.
The first article varies freely with the role of the whole phrase in the sentence — it can be nominative, accusative, or itself genitive — while the second article is locked in the genitive:
Ξέρεις τον αδερφό της Ελένης; Δουλεύει μαζί μου.
kséris ton adherfó tis Elénis; dhulévi mazí mu
Do you know Eleni's brother? He works with me.
Here τον αδερφό is accusative (the object of ξέρεις) while της Ελένης stays genitive. Two different cases, one noun phrase.
Proper names take an article too
This is where English speakers hesitate the most. Greek personal names always take the definite article, and in a possessive phrase that article goes into the genitive.
| Name (nominative) | Genitive |
|---|---|
| ο Γιάννης | του Γιάννη |
| ο Νίκος | του Νίκου |
| ο Κώστας | του Κώστα |
| η Μαρία | της Μαρίας |
| η Ελένη | της Ελένης |
| η Κατερίνα | της Κατερίνας |
Masculine names in -ης and -ας lose the -ς in the genitive (Γιάννης → Γιάννη, Κώστας → Κώστα), while names in -ος take -ου (Νίκος → Νίκου). Feminine names in -α take -ας, and those in -η take -ης.
Το κινητό του Κώστα χτυπάει συνέχεια στη σύσκεψη.
to kinitó tu Kósta chtipái sinéchia sti sískepsi
Kostas's phone keeps ringing in the meeting.
Η φίλη της αδερφής μου μένει στη Θεσσαλονίκη.
i fíli tis adherfís mu méni sti Thesaloníki
My sister's friend lives in Thessaloniki.
That last one is worth staring at: η φίλη — της αδερφής — μου chains a genitive noun and then a genitive clitic, building "my sister's friend" from the inside out. Greek stacks these very comfortably.
The everyday way to say "my": the possessive clitics
You will not usually spell out a full genitive noun phrase for my, your, his, her. Greek uses a set of tiny unstressed words — clitics — that attach after the noun:
| Clitic | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| μου | my | το σπίτι μου |
| σου | your (sg., informal) | το σπίτι σου |
| του | his / its | το σπίτι του |
| της | her | το σπίτι της |
| μας | our | το σπίτι μας |
| σας | your (pl. or formal) | το σπίτι σας |
| τους | their | το σπίτι τους |
They are genitive pronouns, and they sit in exactly the slot a genitive noun would occupy — after the noun, not before it. The noun also keeps its own definite article, which is the opposite of English: Greek says the house my, where English says my house with no article.
Ο πατέρας μου δουλεύει ακόμα, αν και βγήκε στη σύνταξη.
o patéras mu dhulévi akóma, an ke vyíke sti síndaksi
My father still works, even though he retired.
Πού είναι το κινητό σου; Σε παίρνω μισή ώρα.
pu íne to kinitó su; se pérno misí óra
Where's your phone? I've been calling you for half an hour.
Οι γονείς τους μένουν στο ίδιο χωριό με τους δικούς μου.
i ghonís tus ménun sto ídhio chorió me tus dhikús mu
Their parents live in the same village as mine.
The second accent: το αυτοκίνητό μας
Here is a detail that is invisible in speech but obligatory in writing, and it is one of the most common orthographic errors learners make. Greek allows stress only within the last three syllables of a word. A clitic attaches so tightly that it behaves like an extra syllable — so if the noun is already stressed on its third-from-last syllable, adding a clitic pushes the stress out of the legal window, and Greek repairs this by writing a second accent on the noun's final syllable.
| Noun | With clitic |
|---|---|
| το αυτοκίνητο | το αυτοκίνητό μου |
| ο δάσκαλος | ο δάσκαλός μου |
| το τηλέφωνο | το τηλέφωνό σου |
| το όνομα | το όνομά της |
| ο άνθρωπος | ο άνθρωπός μας |
Nouns stressed on the last or next-to-last syllable are unaffected: το σπίτι μου, ο φίλος μου, η δουλειά μου — no second accent, because nothing violates the three-syllable window.
One more gap to close: the syllables are counted as pronounced, not as spelled. A word whose final -ια / -ιο is said as a single syllable (synizesis) is therefore not really proparoxytone, and the rule does not bite: τα γενέθλια μου, το δίκιο μου — γε-νέ-θλια is three syllables in the mouth and δί-κιο is two, so the stress never leaves the last three and nothing has to be repaired. In practice you will often see τα γενέθλιά μου written with the second accent anyway, by people counting letters rather than syllables; nobody will mark you wrong for either.
Το αυτοκίνητό μας χάλασε πάλι, το τρίτο σέρβις φέτος.
to aftokínitó mas chálase páli, to tríto sérvis fétos
Our car has broken down again — the third service this year.
Δεν θυμάμαι το όνομά της, ντρέπομαι να ρωτήσω.
dhen thimáme to ónomá tis, drépome na rotíso
I can't remember her name and I'm embarrassed to ask.
Fronting the possessor for emphasis
Although the neutral order is possessed-then-possessor, Greek can front a genitive possessor before the whole phrase, which puts contrastive weight on the owner. This is (informal) to (neutral) in speech and very common; it is not literary or archaic.
Της Ελένης ο άντρας είναι γιατρός, όχι της Μαρίας.
tis Elénis o ándras íne yatrós, óchi tis Marías
It's Eleni's husband who's a doctor, not Maria's.
Του Γιάννη το αυτοκίνητο είναι πιο καινούριο από το δικό μου.
tu Yáni to aftokínito íne pio kenúrio apó to dhikó mu
Giannis's car is newer than mine.
Notice the shape: του Γιάννη το αυτοκίνητο — the genitive comes first, but both articles are still there, and the case marking has not changed at all. This is possible precisely because the case is marked: Greek can move the genitive around without anyone losing track of who owns what. For a genuinely emphatic possessive with a pronoun, Greek uses the stressed δικός μου form instead — see Emphatic possessives.
Beyond ownership
"Possession" is the traditional label but the relation is broader — the genitive covers any belonging to or associated with relation, including part-whole, authorship and origin.
Η πόρτα του σπιτιού είναι ανοιχτή, μπες μέσα.
i pórta tu spitiú íne anichtí, bes mésa
The door of the house is open — go on in.
Ξέχασα το όνομα του ξενοδοχείου που μου είπες.
kséchasa to ónoma tu ksenodhochíu pu mu ípes
I forgot the name of the hotel you told me about.
One caution before you generalise from των παιδιών. The genitive plural is by some distance the least-used form in the whole paradigm, and for a great many everyday nouns speakers simply avoid it — especially where the form involves a stress shift they are unsure of. What comes out instead is a paraphrase with από or σε. The genitive plural is entirely correct and normal in writing; it is the spoken language that thins it out, so do not over-produce it.
Με ξύπνησε ο θόρυβος από τα παιδιά στην αυλή.
me ksípnise o thórivos apó ta pedhiá stin avlí
The noise from the kids in the yard woke me up. (informal — in writing you would more likely see ο θόρυβος των παιδιών)
The genitive has several other jobs in Greek besides this one — indirect object, quantity, and time — and those live on their own pages; start from the case system overview.
Common Mistakes
1. Putting the possessor first, English-style. Word order is not free here: the possessed noun leads.
❌ Ο Γιάννης το σπίτι είναι μεγάλο.
Incorrect — this is not a possessive at all; it must be Το σπίτι του Γιάννη.
✅ Το σπίτι του Γιάννη είναι μεγάλο.
to spíti tu Yáni íne meghálo
Giannis's house is big.
2. Dropping the article before the name. The genitive marker lives on the article; without it there is nothing to signal possession.
❌ Το σπίτι Γιάννη είναι μεγάλο.
Incorrect — the name needs its genitive article: του Γιάννη.
✅ Το σπίτι του Γιάννη είναι μεγάλο.
to spíti tu Yáni íne meghálo
Giannis's house is big.
3. Putting the possessive clitic before the noun. μου, σου, του follow the noun; the article precedes it.
❌ Το μου σπίτι είναι μικρό.
Incorrect — the clitic goes after the noun: το σπίτι μου.
✅ Το σπίτι μου είναι μικρό.
to spíti mu íne mikró
My house is small.
4. Using από to translate "of". Several European languages build possession with a preposition; Greek does not.
❌ Το αυτοκίνητο από τη Μαρία.
Incorrect for possession — this reads 'the car from Maria'. Use της Μαρίας.
✅ Το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας.
to aftokínito tis Marías
Maria's car.
5. Omitting the second accent. With a proparoxytone noun, the extra accent is compulsory in writing.
❌ Το τηλέφωνο σου δεν χτυπάει.
Incorrect in writing — a proparoxytone noun plus a clitic needs a second accent: το τηλέφωνό σου.
✅ Το τηλέφωνό σου δεν χτυπάει.
to tiléfonó su dhen chtipái
Your phone isn't ringing.
Key Takeaways
- Greek possession is head-first: possessed noun, then possessor in the genitive — το σπίτι του Γιάννη.
- There is no word for "of" and no apostrophe-s. The case itself carries the meaning.
- Both nouns keep an article; the genitive article forms are only του, της, των (των for every gender in the plural).
- Personal names take the article too: του Νίκου, της Ελένης.
- Everyday "my/your/his" uses the possessive clitics μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους, placed after the noun, with the definite article still in front.
- A proparoxytone noun plus a clitic takes a second accent: το αυτοκίνητό μου, ο δάσκαλός μου, το όνομά της.
- The possessor can be fronted for contrast (της Ελένης ο άντρας) without any change of case.
Now practice Greek
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- 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.
- 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 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.