English points with four frozen words — this, that, these, those — and each of them shoves the article out of the way: you say this book, never this the book. Greek does the pointing with two words, αυτός and εκείνος, and neither of them is frozen: each has eighteen forms, because it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case exactly as an adjective does. On top of that, both of them keep the article, so "this book" comes out as αυτό *το βιβλίο*, literally "this the book".
Two surprises in one construction, then. The good news is that the endings are ones you already know, and the choice between the two words is much simpler than the English four-way system suggests — in fact αυτός quietly does most of the work on its own.
Two demonstratives, not four
English splits its demonstratives twice over: once for distance (this vs that) and once for number (this vs these). Greek only needs the distance split as a separate word, because number is already carried by the ending:
| Near / in focus | Further off | |
|---|---|---|
| this / that (m.) | αυτός | εκείνος |
| this / that (f.) | αυτή | εκείνη |
| this / that (n.) | αυτό | εκείνο |
| these / those (m.) | αυτοί | εκείνοι |
| these / those (f.) | αυτές | εκείνες |
| these / those (n.) | αυτά | εκείνα |
So αυτό and αυτά both translate as "this/that" and "these/those" respectively — the number is in the ending, not in a separate word.
Αυτή η φωτογραφία είναι από τον γάμο των γονιών μου.
aftí i fotoghrafía íne apó ton ghámo ton ghonión mu
This photo is from my parents' wedding.
Πάρε αυτά τα κλειδιά και άσε τα άλλα στο συρτάρι.
páre aftá ta klidhiá ke áse ta ála sto sirtári
Take these keys and leave the others in the drawer.
αυτός is the default; εκείνος means genuinely removed
This is where the English four-way grid actively misleads. English chooses that the moment something is not in your own hand — that book you're holding, that shirt you're wearing. Greek does not. αυτός covers the whole near-and-in-focus zone, which includes anything the person you are talking to is holding, anything you have both just been discussing, and anything present in the room. εκείνος is reserved for what is really at a remove: over there, back then, the other one.
Δώσε μου αυτό το βιβλίο που κρατάς, θέλω να δω το εξώφυλλο.
dhóse mu aftó to vivlío pu kratás, thélo na dho to eksófilo
Give me that book you're holding — I want to see the cover.
Εκείνο το βιβλίο στο πάνω ράφι ήταν του παππού μου.
ekíno to vivlío sto páno ráfi ítan tu papú mu
That book on the top shelf was my grandfather's.
The first sentence has English that and Greek αυτό; only the second, where the object is physically across the room, gets εκείνο. If you reach for εκείνος every time you would say that in English, you will sound as if you are constantly gesturing at the horizon.
The same logic runs through time, and here εκείνος is very frequent, because a past period genuinely is at a distance:
Εκείνη την εποχή δεν υπήρχαν κινητά και βρισκόμασταν στην πλατεία.
ekíni tin epochí dhen ipírchan kinitá ke vriskómastan stin platía
Back then there were no mobiles and we'd meet up in the square.
Εκείνα τα χρόνια όλοι άφηναν την πόρτα ανοιχτή.
ekína ta chrónia óli áfinan tin pórta anichtí
In those years everybody left their door unlocked.
Εκείνο το καλοκαίρι δεν πήγαμε πουθενά, δεν είχαμε λεφτά.
ekíno to kalokéri dhen píghame puthená, dhen íchame leftá
That summer we didn't go anywhere — we had no money.
And it runs through attention. When two things have been mentioned, αυτός picks out the one mentioned last (English "the latter") and εκείνος the one mentioned first (English "the former") — the spatial logic mapped onto the sentence you are in the middle of.
Μιλήσαμε με τη Μαρία και την Ελένη· αυτή θα έρθει, εκείνη όχι.
milísame me ti María ke tin Eléni· aftí tha érthi, ekíni óchi
We spoke to Maria and Eleni — Eleni's coming, Maria isn't.
The full declension
αυτός declines exactly like a regular -ος / -η / -ο adjective such as καλός, with one difference: in the masculine accusative singular it keeps its final -ν (αυτόν, where the adjective has καλό).
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. sg. | αυτός | αυτή | αυτό |
| Gen. sg. | αυτού | αυτής | αυτού |
| Acc. sg. | αυτόν | αυτή(ν) | αυτό |
| Nom. pl. | αυτοί | αυτές | αυτά |
| Gen. pl. | αυτών | αυτών | αυτών |
| Acc. pl. | αυτούς | αυτές | αυτά |
εκείνος takes the identical set of endings: εκείνος, εκείνου, εκείνον / εκείνη, εκείνης, εκείνη / εκείνο, εκείνου, εκείνο, and in the plural εκείνοι, εκείνων, εκείνους / εκείνες, εκείνων, εκείνες / εκείνα, εκείνων, εκείνα. There is no vocative — you do not address a demonstrative.
Two accent facts remove all the guesswork. αυτός is stressed on its last syllable in every single form — αυτός, αυτού, αυτόν, αυτής, αυτοί, αυτών, αυτούς, αυτά — and εκείνος never moves its stress off -κεί-. So the only thing you ever have to build is the ending.
Ξέρω αυτόν τον άνθρωπο από τα φοιτητικά μου χρόνια.
kséro aftón ton ánthropo apó ta fititiká mu chrónia
I've known this man since my student days.
Η μητέρα αυτού του παιδιού μιλάει τέσσερις γλώσσες.
i mitéra aftú tu pedhiú milái téseris ghlóses
This child's mother speaks four languages.
Ο αριθμός αυτής της κυρίας δεν δουλεύει πια.
o arithmós aftís tis kirías dhen dhulévi pia
This lady's number doesn't work any more.
Οι γονείς εκείνων των παιδιών παραπονέθηκαν στον διευθυντή.
i ghonís ekínon ton pedhión paraponéthikan ston dhiefthindí
Those children's parents complained to the head teacher.
Άσε αυτές τις δικαιολογίες και πες μου την αλήθεια.
áse aftés tis dhikeoloyíes ke pes mu tin alíthia
Drop these excuses and tell me the truth.
The feminine accusative singular has two forms. αυτή (and εκείνη) is the everyday one — αυτή τη βδομάδα; αυτήν / εκείνην is careful or formal writing, and it turns up especially before a vowel. Both are correct; the shorter form is what you will hear.
The article comes too
A demonstrative in front of a noun does not replace the article — it stacks on top of it, so the shape is always demonstrative + article + noun, with all three agreeing: αυτό το βιβλίο, αυτή η γυναίκα, εκείνον τον δρόμο, αυτών των παιδιών. In prose ×αυτό βιβλίο is simply not Greek. Why the article survives, and which other determiners behave the same way, is worked out on articles with όλος, numbers and quantifiers; what happens when you pile a quantifier on top as well (όλα αυτά τα βιβλία) is on combining determiners.
Standing alone: from determiner to pronoun
Drop the noun and the same word becomes a pronoun — and now there is nothing for an article to attach to, so the article goes:
Ποιο παγωτό θέλεις, αυτό ή εκείνο με τη σοκολάτα;
pio paghotó thélis, aftó i ekíno me ti sokoláta;
Which ice cream do you want, this one or that one with the chocolate?
Εκείνος έφταιγε για όλα, εγώ απλώς ήμουν εκεί.
ekínos éfteye ya óla, eghó aplós ímun ekí
He was the one to blame for everything; I just happened to be there.
Εκείνος που έσπασε το τζάμι δεν το παραδέχτηκε ποτέ.
ekínos pu éspase to dzámi dhen to paradhéchtike poté
Whoever broke the window never owned up to it.
Notice the crucial detail in the first example: the standalone form still agrees with the gender of the noun you left out. If you are choosing between handbags (η τσάντα, feminine), the answer is Αυτή, not Αυτό — English "this one" gives you no warning at all.
The neuter αυτό has an extra job: it stands for a whole idea, statement or situation, where English says "that" or "it".
Αυτό ακριβώς εννοούσα και κανείς δεν με άκουσε.
aftó akrivós enoúsa ke kanís dhen me ákuse
That's exactly what I meant, and nobody listened to me.
Standalone αυτός is also the ordinary word for "he / she / it" as a stressed subject — which is why Greek needs no separate third-person pronoun. The pronoun side of these words, including that use, is on demonstrative pronouns, and the idea-referring αυτό on αυτό for ideas and discourse.
Reinforcing with εδώ and εκεί
Because αυτός is so broad, Greek often sharpens the pointing by adding a place adverb straight after it: αυτό εδώ ("this one here"), εκείνο εκεί ("that one over there"). This is completely ordinary spoken Greek, not baby talk, and it is what you reach for when you are physically choosing between things.
Δώσε μου αυτό εδώ, το άλλο είναι χαλασμένο.
dhóse mu aftó edhó, to álo íne chalazméno
Give me this one here — the other one's broken.
Αυτή εδώ η πολυθρόνα είναι πιο άνετη από εκείνη εκεί.
aftí edhó i polithróna íne pio áneti apó ekíni ekí
This armchair here is more comfortable than that one over there.
The adverbs themselves are on place adverbs.
After the noun: το βιβλίο αυτό
The demonstrative can also come after the noun, and then the article stands alone in front: το βιβλίο αυτό, τα στοιχεία αυτά. This is fully grammatical and quite common, but it is not neutral — it belongs to (formal) and (academic) registers: reports, legal texts, news writing, textbooks.
Τα στοιχεία αυτά δεν επιβεβαιώνονται από άλλη πηγή.
ta stichía aftá dhen epiveveónonde apó áli piyí
These figures are not confirmed by any other source. (formal / written)
Αυτά τα στοιχεία δεν βγάζουν νόημα, κάπου έχει γίνει λάθος.
aftá ta stichía dhen vgházun nóima, kápu échi yíni láthos
These figures make no sense — a mistake has been made somewhere. (neutral, everyday)
Both are correct Greek. Put the demonstrative first unless you are deliberately writing formally.
τούτος
There is a third demonstrative, τούτος / τούτη / τούτο, declined like αυτός but with fixed stress on the stem (τούτου, τούτης, τούτων, τούτους). In standard spoken Greek in Athens it is (regional) — very much alive in Cyprus, the Peloponnese and northern Greece, often in the extended form ετούτος — and where standard speakers do use it, it is (informal) and emphatic, a slightly heavier way of saying "this one right here".
Σε τούτο το χωριό όλοι ξέρουν τα πάντα για όλους.
se túto to chorió óli ksérun ta pánda ya ólus
In this village everybody knows everything about everybody. (regional / emphatic)
It also survives in (literary) set phrases such as τούτος ο κόσμος ("this world of ours"). None of this is an error — it is a real word with a narrower distribution. But αυτός is what you should produce.
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving the demonstrative in its dictionary form. It has to match the noun's gender before anything else.
❌ Αυτός η ταινία ήταν βαρετή από την αρχή.
Incorrect — ταινία is feminine, so the demonstrative is αυτή: Αυτή η ταινία.
✅ Αυτή η ταινία κράτησε τρεις ώρες και δεν έγινε απολύτως τίποτα.
aftí i tenía krátise tris óres ke dhen éyine apolítos típota
This film was three hours long and absolutely nothing happened.
2. Not putting the demonstrative into the case of the phrase. After a preposition the whole block — demonstrative, article and noun — goes accusative.
❌ Πήγαινε σε αυτός τον γιατρό, είναι πολύ καλός.
Incorrect — the demonstrative goes accusative too: σ' αυτόν τον γιατρό.
✅ Δεν συμφωνώ καθόλου μ' αυτόν τον τρόπο δουλειάς, θα μας βάλει σε μπελάδες.
dhen simfonó kathólu maftón ton trópo dhuliás, tha mas váli se beládhes
I don't agree with this way of working at all — it'll land us in trouble.
3. Forgetting the genitive. When a noun phrase is a possessor, the whole block — demonstrative, article and noun — goes genitive.
❌ Θυμάμαι το όνομα αυτό το τραγούδι αλλά όχι τον στίχο.
Incorrect — English 'of' is not a word here; the whole possessor block goes genitive: αυτού του τραγουδιού.
✅ Ο πατέρας αυτού του παιδιού φωνάζει στον διαιτητή περισσότερο από όλους τους γονείς μαζί.
o patéras aftú tu pedhiú fonázi ston dhietití perisótero apó ólus tus ghonís mazí
This child's father shouts at the referee more than all the other parents put together.
4. Using neuter αυτά as an all-purpose plural. Because English these carries no gender, learners settle on the first plural they learned.
❌ Αυτά οι γείτονες κάνουν φασαρία κάθε βράδυ.
Incorrect — γείτονες is masculine plural, so the demonstrative is αυτοί: Αυτοί οι γείτονες.
✅ Αυτοί οι φίλοι μου κρατάνε από το σχολείο και τους βλέπω ακόμα κάθε μήνα.
aftí i fíli mu kratáne apó to scholío ke tus vlépo akóma káthe mína
These friends of mine go back to school days and I still see them every month.
5. Leaving a standalone demonstrative neuter. With no noun in sight the gender still has to come from the noun you dropped.
❌ Ποια τσάντα σου αρέσει; Αυτό, με τα κόκκινα λουλούδια.
Incorrect — the missing noun τσάντα is feminine, so the standalone form is Αυτή.
✅ Από τις δύο τσάντες πήρα τελικά αυτή, γιατί ήταν η μόνη με μεγάλη τσέπη μέσα.
apó tis dhío tsándes píra teliká aftí, yatí ítan i móni me megháli tsépi mésa
Out of the two bags I ended up taking this one, because it was the only one with a big pocket inside.
Key Takeaways
- Greek has two demonstratives, not four: αυτός (near or in focus) and εκείνος (further off). Number and gender live in the ending, not in a separate word.
- αυτός is the default and covers most English that as well as this; use εκείνος only for real distance — over there, back then, the other one.
- Both decline like a -ος / -η / -ο adjective, except that the masculine accusative keeps its -ν (αυτόν, εκείνον). αυτός is end-stressed in every form; εκείνος never moves its stress.
- Before a noun the demonstrative stacks on the article: αυτό το βιβλίο, εκείνων των παιδιών. Never ×αυτό βιβλίο.
- Standing alone as a pronoun it loses the article but keeps the gender of the noun you left out (Ποια τσάντα; — Αυτή), and neuter αυτό stands for whole ideas.
- το βιβλίο αυτό (demonstrative after the noun) is correct but (formal); τούτος is (regional) or emphatic (informal). Both are real Greek — neither is what you should produce by default.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- 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'.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.