That-Clauses: ότι, πως, που

English that hides several Greek complementizers. Ότι and unaccented πως introduce information after verbs of saying, thinking, and knowing. Που is especially natural when an emotion reacts to an established fact and in some direct-perception constructions. The forms overlap in translation, but the main verb and the speaker’s perspective determine the Greek choice.

ότι and πως: reporting a proposition

After verbs such as λέω “say,” νομίζω “think,” πιστεύω “believe,” and ξέρω “know,” ότι and πως both introduce the proposition being reported or entertained.

The two forms are largely interchangeable in this use. Ότι is a very safe neutral choice in every register; πως is also standard and frequent, particularly in speech and flowing prose. Neither guarantees that the embedded proposition is objectively true: Νομίζω ότι… presents a belief, while Είπε πως… reports someone’s words. “Factual” here describes how the clause is packaged—as a proposition—rather than certifying it.

που after an emotion about a fact

When the main clause expresses an emotional response to something treated as real, Greek normally uses που. The embedded event supplies the fact that caused the feeling.

These clauses are factive: the coming, inability, and failure to inform are taken as established. This is why English that is an unreliable guide. Greek groups emotional reaction differently from neutral reporting.

Some emotion verbs can appear with another complementizer when the intended perspective changes or in more marked styles, so the selection is not a universal word-substitution ban. For ordinary production, however, χαίρομαι που and λυπάμαι που are the idiomatic anchors.

που with direct perception

With seeing or hearing an event directly, που is common in conversational Greek. It presents the event as something witnessed rather than merely inferred or reported.

An ότι-clause after a perception or discovery verb more readily packages a conclusion or piece of information: Είδα ότι η πόρτα ήταν ανοιχτή “I saw/realized that the door was open.” The boundary is sensitive to verb and context, which is why the full verb-class mapping belongs to complementizer selection.

The three verb classes

The practical classification is:

• Saying, thinking, believing, and knowing normally introduce a proposition with ότι/πως.
• Emotion about an established event, and some direct-perception constructions, favor που.
• Wanting, ordering, requesting, and aiming toward an event use να, because that event is envisaged rather than asserted.

This brief contrast only locates να in the system. The semantic and syntactic difference between asserted ότι and envisaged να is owned by να versus ότι/πως.

ότι versus ό,τι

Ότι without a comma is the complementizer “that.” Ό,τι with a comma means “whatever,” “anything that,” or “everything that.” The comma is part of the word’s standard spelling, not optional punctuation.

The two forms are pronounced alike. Only syntax and the written comma distinguish them: ότι introduces one proposition, whereas ό,τι itself fills a role such as object.

Common Mistakes

1. Accenting the complementizer πως.

2. Writing ότι when the intended meaning is “whatever.” Without the comma, the sentence may remain grammatical but mean something else.

3. Writing ό,τι when the intended meaning is factual “that.” Again, both spellings can build a sentence, but their syntax and meaning differ.

Key Takeaways

• ότι and πως are largely interchangeable after saying, thinking, believing, and knowing.
• Emotional reactions to an established fact normally use που; direct perception also favors που in conversation.
• Wanting and ordering take να; the full ότι-versus-να contrast lives on its dedicated page.
• Write complementizer πως without a tonos, but interrogative πώς with one.
• ότι means “that”; ό,τι with an internal comma means “whatever/anything that.”