Distributives: ανά, ο καθένας | Greek Grammar

A distributive expression spreads a quantity across the members of a set: two euros per kilo, one doctor per thousand inhabitants, fifteen euros each, they filed in one by one. English mostly handles this with the single preposition per plus a scattering of idioms. Greek splits the work between a learned preposition, a bare accusative article, a distributive use of από, and reduplication — and choosing between them is largely a question of register, not of meaning.

The universal quantifier κάθε ("each, every") belongs to this territory too, but it has its own page: see κάθε and καθένας for its behaviour and for the declension of the pronoun καθένας. This page is about the expressions that distribute a rate or a portion.

ανά: "per", and where it lives

ανά is a preposition inherited from the older learned language, and it governs the accusative. In its distributive use — the rate sense — it attaches to a bare noun with no article: ανά κιλό, ανά άτομο, ανά μήνα, ανά χίλιους κατοίκους. (The article does appear in its other, spatial sense — ανά τον κόσμο, ανά την Ελλάδα, "throughout" — which is not a rate.)

Το εισιτήριο κοστίζει δώδεκα ευρώ ανά άτομο.

to isitírio kostízi dhódheka evró aná átomo

The ticket costs twelve euros per person.

Στο χωριό αναλογεί ένας γιατρός ανά χίλιους κατοίκους.

sto chorió analoyí énas yatrós aná chílius katíkus

In the village there is one doctor per thousand inhabitants.

Its home ground is (formal) and (academic) writing: price lists, signage, statistics, technical specifications, official notices, news reports. Ανά τακτά χρονικά διαστήματα ("at regular intervals"), ανά κατηγορία ("by category"), ανά περιοχή ("by region") are the kind of company it keeps. It also survives in a handful of frozen phrases that are not formal at all, because nobody parses them any more — ανά πάσα στιγμή ("at any moment"), ανά τον κόσμο ("all over the world"), ανά χείρας ("to hand").

Μπορεί να χτυπήσει το τηλέφωνο ανά πάσα στιγμή.

borí na chtipísi to tiléfono aná pása stighmí

The phone could ring at any moment.

Related to it, and equally (formal), is the learned phrase κατά κεφαλήν ("per capita"), which is what economics and journalism use for income and consumption figures.

The everyday version: the accusative article

In speech Greek almost never says ανά. It uses the definite article in the accusative in front of the unit noun, and that article does exactly the work of English per or a:

δύο ευρώ το κιλό · τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα · ογδόντα χιλιόμετρα την ώρα · εξήντα ευρώ τη νύχτα

The article agrees with the unit noun's gender, and the case is the accusative of measure and duration — the same accusative that gives όλη μέρα and δύο χρόνια, set out on accusative of time and duration.

Οι ντομάτες πάνε δύο ευρώ το κιλό αυτή την εποχή.

i domátes páne dhío evró to kiló aftí tin epochí

Tomatoes are going for two euros a kilo at this time of year.

Πηγαίνω γυμναστήριο τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα.

piyéno yimnastírio tris forés tin evdhomádha

I go to the gym three times a week.

The two are not competing for the same slot in the language; they are the same content in two registers. Compare:

Οι πατάτες είναι ένα ευρώ το κιλό, πάρε τρία.

i patátes íne éna evró to kiló, páre tría

The potatoes are a euro a kilo — take three. (everyday speech, at the market)

Τιμή πώλησης: ένα ευρώ και πενήντα λεπτά ανά κιλό.

timí pólisis: éna evró ke penínda leptá aná kiló

Retail price: one euro fifty per kilo. (written price list / label)

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Neither of those is more correct than the other. If you are talking, say το κιλό; if you are writing a sign, a report or a table, write ανά κιλό. Using ανά at the greengrocer's will be understood perfectly and will make you sound like a government circular — which is a register mismatch, not a grammar error.

Distributive από: "one each"

This is the construction native speakers actually reach for, and it is invisible to English speakers because English marks it with a floating each at the end of the clause. από + numeral distributes that number over the participants:

Δώσε στα παιδιά από ένα παγωτό.

dhóse sta pedhiá apó éna paghotó

Give the children an ice cream each.

Ήπιαμε από δύο ποτήρια κρασί και μας πήρε ο ύπνος.

ípiame apó dhío potíria krasí ke mas píre o ípnos

We had two glasses of wine each and dropped off to sleep.

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When you want to say "one each", do not go hunting for a word meaning each — put από in front of the numeral. Πήραμε από δύο, δώσε τους από ένα, φάγαμε από μία μερίδα. This is what natives say and what learners almost never produce, because English buries the same idea in a floating each at the end of the sentence.

Note that this από has nothing to do with the from / of preposition it looks like; the numeral and its noun keep whatever case the sentence gives them, and από simply adds the distributive reading. It works with από ένα right up to από πέντε and with vaguer quantities too: πάρτε από λίγο ("take a bit each"). The numerals themselves, including their distributive forms, are on distributive numbers.

ο καθένας as a distributive tag

ο καθένας ("each one") can be added at the end of a clause to spell out that the quantity applies per person. In this use it is an appositive tag and stays in the nominative, agreeing with the subject rather than with whatever it counts:

Πληρώσαμε δεκαπέντε ευρώ ο καθένας για το φαγητό.

plirósame dhekapénde evró o kathénas ya to fayitó

We paid fifteen euros each for the food.

Πήραν από δύο κομμάτια τούρτα ο καθένας και δεν έμεινε τίποτα.

píran apó dhío komátia túrta o kathénas ke dhen émine típota

They took two slices of cake each and there was nothing left.

Both of those pair the tag with distributive από, which is the usual pattern: από does the distributing, ο καθένας makes the unit explicit. Where the phrase is an object of a preposition it takes the case the preposition demands — έδωσα ένα στον καθένα — and the full declension of καθένας is on κάθε and καθένας.

Reduplication: ένας ένας, λίγο λίγο

Greek forms distributives by simply saying the word twice. This is completely ordinary, in every register, and it covers ground English handles with one by one, in twos, bit by bit, step by step.

ένας ένας / μία μία / ένα ένα — one by one. It agrees with what it distributes over, so the gender and case of the pair change.
δυο δυο, τρεις τρεις — in twos, in threes.
λίγο λίγο — little by little. σιγά σιγά — slowly, gradually. βήμα βήμα — step by step. κομμάτι κομμάτι — piece by piece.

Τα παιδιά μπήκαν ένα ένα στην αίθουσα χωρίς φασαρία.

ta pedhiá bíkan éna éna stin éthusa chorís fasaría

The children came into the hall one by one without a fuss.

Λίγο λίγο μάζεψε λεφτά και άνοιξε δικό του μαγαζί.

lígho lígho mázepse leftá ke ánikse dhikó tu maghazí

Bit by bit he saved up and opened his own shop.

Σιγά σιγά θα τα καταφέρεις, μην τα παρατάς τώρα.

sighá sighá tha ta kataféris, min ta paratás tóra

You'll get there gradually — don't give up now.

The pair is normally written as two separate words; the hyphenated spellings σιγά-σιγά and ένας-ένας also circulate widely and neither is treated as an error.

One trap: inserting κι between the two words produces a completely different expression. ένας κι ένας does not mean "one by one" at all — it means hand-picked, each one outstanding, as though the set had been sorted through and only the best kept. It applies to things as readily as to people, and — like English a fine bunch — it is very often turned round and used ironically.

Τα ροδάκινα ήταν ένα κι ένα, τα καλύτερα που έχω φάει.

ta rodhákina ítan éna ki éna, ta kalítera pu écho fái

The peaches were superb, every single one — the best I've ever had.

Οι συνεργάτες του είναι ένας κι ένας, καλύτερα να μην μπλέξεις.

i sinerghátes tu íne énas ki énas, kalítera na min bléksis

His associates are a fine bunch — better not get involved. (ironic: the literal 'each one outstanding' is meant as its opposite)

Percentages and other fossils

"Per cent" is τοις εκατό, where τοις is a surviving dative plural article — a fragment of a case Greek otherwise lost, frozen inside a phrase everybody uses daily without noticing. The same fossil turns up in τοις μετρητοίς ("in cash").

Το ενοίκιο ανέβηκε δέκα τοις εκατό μέσα σε έναν χρόνο.

to eníkio anévike dhéka tis ekató mésa se énan chróno

The rent went up ten per cent in a single year.

Other survivals of the same kind are collected on fossilised dative expressions, and the wider stock of learned relics in modern Greek on katharevousa relics.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting an article after ανά. ανά takes a bare noun; the article is what the everyday construction uses instead of ανά.

❌ Η τιμή είναι τρία ευρώ ανά το κιλό.

Incorrect — in a rate, ανά takes a bare noun: ανά κιλό. With the article you drop ανά: τρία ευρώ το κιλό.

✅ Στον τιμοκατάλογο γράφει τρία ευρώ ανά κιλό.

ston timokatálogho ghráfi tría evró aná kiló

The price list says three euros per kilo.

2. Using για for "per". English for/per person pulls learners towards για, which in Greek means "for the benefit of" and gives the wrong sentence.

❌ Το μενού είναι είκοσι ευρώ για άτομο.

Incorrect — the distributive is the accusative article: είκοσι ευρώ το άτομο (or, in writing, ανά άτομο).

✅ Το μενού είναι είκοσι ευρώ το άτομο και περιλαμβάνει κρασί.

to menú íne íkosi evró to átomo ke perilamváni krasí

The set menu is twenty euros a head and includes wine.

3. Leaving the unit noun in the nominative. English gives no case cue, so learners copy the dictionary form.

❌ Έχουμε μάθημα μία φορά η εβδομάδα.

Incorrect — the distributive article is accusative: μία φορά την εβδομάδα.

✅ Έχουμε μάθημα μία φορά την εβδομάδα, κάθε Τρίτη.

échume máthima mía forá tin evdhomádha, káthe Tríti

We have a class once a week, every Tuesday.

4. Using κάθε in a price. English each kilo points at κάθε, but a rate takes the article.

❌ Τα πορτοκάλια είναι ένα ευρώ κάθε κιλό.

Incorrect — κάθε distributes over intervals (κάθε δύο μέρες, κάθε δέκα χιλιόμετρα), not over a price unit: ένα ευρώ το κιλό.

✅ Τα πορτοκάλια είναι ένα ευρώ το κιλό και είναι πεντανόστιμα.

ta portokália íne éna evró to kiló ke íne pendanóstima

The oranges are a euro a kilo and they're delicious.

5. Freezing the reduplicated pair in the neuter. ένα ένα is not an adverb — it agrees.

❌ Οι επιβάτες κατέβηκαν ένα ένα από το λεωφορείο.

Incorrect — the subject is masculine plural, so the pair is ένας ένας.

✅ Οι επιβάτες κατέβηκαν ένας ένας από το λεωφορείο.

i epivátes katévikan énas énas apó to leoforío

The passengers got off the bus one by one.

Key Takeaways

ανά governs the accusative and takes a bare noun (ανά κιλό, ανά άτομο). It is (formal) — signage, price lists, statistics, reports — plus a few frozen phrases (ανά πάσα στιγμή, ανά τον κόσμο).
In speech the same job is done by the accusative definite article: δύο ευρώ το κιλό, τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα, ογδόντα χιλιόμετρα την ώρα. Same meaning, different world.
από + numeral is the everyday "each / apiece": πήραμε από δύο, δώσε τους από ένα. English marks this with a floating each; Greek marks it on the numeral.
ο καθένας tags a clause to make the per-person unit explicit and stays in the nominative: πληρώσαμε δεκαπέντε ευρώ ο καθένας.
Reduplication distributes: ένας ένας, δυο δυο, λίγο λίγο, σιγά σιγά, βήμα βήμα — and the numeral pair agrees with what it distributes over.
ένας κι ένας, with κι in the middle, is a different expression altogether: "hand-picked, each one outstanding" — used of things as well as people, and very often ironically.

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