Quantifiers: πολύς, λίγος, αρκετός | Greek Grammar

English makes you choose your quantifier by countability. Much goes with stuff you measure, many with things you count, and picking the wrong one — much children — is instantly wrong. Greek asks you nothing of the kind: one word, πολύς, covers both, and the noun's own number tells you which English word to reach for when you translate. What Greek asks instead is the thing English never asks — that the quantifier agree in gender, number and case with what it quantifies. So the effort moves from choosing a word to inflecting one, and that is the whole job of this page.

The three-way series and its endings

The workhorses are πολύς (much / many / a lot of), λίγος (little / few / a bit of) and αρκετός (enough — and, just as often, quite a lot of). They are all adjectives in the grammatical sense: they sit in front of the noun and copy its gender, number and case.

	πολύς — much / many	λίγος — little / few	αρκετός — enough
Masc. sg.	πολύς αέρας	λίγος αέρας	αρκετός αέρας
Fem. sg.	πολλή ζέστη	λίγη ζέστη	αρκετή ζέστη
Neut. sg.	πολύ νερό	λίγο νερό	αρκετό νερό
Masc. pl.	πολλοί φίλοι	λίγοι φίλοι	αρκετοί φίλοι
Fem. pl.	πολλές μέρες	λίγες μέρες	αρκετές μέρες
Neut. pl.	πολλά παιδιά	λίγα παιδιά	αρκετά παιδιά

λίγος and αρκετός are perfectly regular -ος / -η / -ο adjectives; if you can inflect καλός, you can inflect them, genitives and all (λίγου, λίγης, αρκετών). πολύς is the one irregular member: the λ is single in exactly two forms, πολύς and πολύ, and doubles everywhere else — πολλή, πολλού, πολλής, πολλοί, πολλές, πολλά, πολλών, πολλούς. That spelling law, and the reason natives get it wrong too (the double λ is silent), is set out on the irregular adjective πολύς.

Μπαίνει πολύς αέρας από το παράθυρο, κλείσ' το λίγο.

béni polís aéras apó to paráthiro, klís to lígho

There's a real draught coming in through the window — shut it a bit.

Έχει πολλή υγρασία σήμερα και δεν στεγνώνουν τα ρούχα.

échi polí ighrasía símera ke dhen steghnónun ta rúcha

It's very humid today and the washing isn't drying.

Πολλοί γείτονες παραπονέθηκαν για τη μουσική τα μεσάνυχτα.

polí yítones paraponéthikan ya ti musikí ta mesánichta

A lot of the neighbours complained about the music at midnight.

Πέρασαν πολλές μέρες μέχρι να μου απαντήσει το γραφείο.

pérasan polés méres méchri na mu apandísi to ghrafío

Days and days went by before the office got back to me.

Mass or count: the noun decides, not the quantifier

Here is the mental switch. In English the quantifier encodes countability; in Greek the noun's number does, and the quantifier simply agrees. Put πολύς in front of a singular noun and you have said much; put it in front of a plural and you have said many. Same word, two English translations.

Greek	English	What changed
πολύ νερό	a lot of water / much water	neuter singular → mass reading
πολλά παιδιά	a lot of children / many children	neuter plural → count reading
λίγο ψωμί	a bit of bread	singular → mass
λίγα ψωμιά	a few loaves	plural → countable items

Δεν έμεινε πολύ κρασί, μόνο ένα ποτήρι.

dhen émine polí krasí, móno éna potíri

There isn't much wine left — just one glass.

Στο ψυγείο έχει πολλά νερά, πάρε ένα για τον δρόμο.

sto psiyío échi polá nerá, páre éna ya ton dhrómo

There are plenty of bottles of water in the fridge — take one for the road.

That second sentence is worth a second look: νερά, the plural of a mass noun, has shifted to meaning bottles/glasses of water — portions, not quantity. Greek pluralises substances far more readily than English, and when it does, the plural means either portions or varieties; the mechanics are on mass and collective nouns.

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Do not translate "much" and "many" as two different Greek words — there is only one, and its shape is dictated by the noun, not by the English. Build it in this order: what gender is the noun? singular or plural? what case? Then stamp that triple onto πολύς. The commonest real-world slip is flattening everything to the neuter πολύ, which makes ×πολύ ζέστη instead of πολλή ζέστη.

λίγος: "a little", "few", and the softener λίγο

λίγος is the low end of the scale. In the singular it is a little / a bit of; in the plural it means few — and note that Greek λίγοι leans negative, like English few rather than a few. If you mean the friendly a few, Greek usually reaches for μερικοί or the informal κάνα δυο / δυο-τρεις instead; that division of labour is on μερικοί, κάποιος, κάτι.

Θέλω λίγο χρόνο να το σκεφτώ πριν σου απαντήσω.

thélo lígho chróno na to skeftó prin su apandíso

I need a bit of time to think it over before I answer you.

Έχει μείνει λίγη τυρόπιτα από το πρωί, θες;

échi míni líyi tirópita apó to proí, thes;

There's a bit of cheese pie left from this morning — do you want it?

Λίγοι άνθρωποι ξέρουν αυτή την παραλία, γι' αυτό τη λατρεύω.

líyi ánthropi ksérun aftí tin paralía, yaftó ti latrévo

Few people know this beach, which is exactly why I love it.

Alongside the quantifier there is an invariable λίγο meaning a bit, slightly, for a moment — an adverb, so it never agrees with anything. It is one of the most useful words in spoken Greek, because Greeks use it to soften requests and statements the way English uses just or a bit: Περίμενε λίγο ("hang on a second"), Είμαι λίγο κουρασμένος ("I'm a bit tired"). The diminutive λιγάκι softens it further still.

Κάνε λιγάκι στην άκρη να περάσει το καροτσάκι.

káne ligháki stin ákri na perási to karotsáki

Move over a bit so the pram can get past.

The same split runs through the whole series: πολύς / λίγος / αρκετός are quantifiers that agree, while πολύ / λίγο / αρκετά double as invariable adverbs of degree. Since the neuter singular of a quantifier and its adverb look identical, only the job in the sentence tells them apart — λίγο νερό (a little water, quantifier) versus λίγο κρύο (slightly cold, adverb). The πολύ half of that contrast, which is the trickiest, is treated in full on πολύς.

αρκετός: "enough" — but also "quite a lot"

αρκετός is built on the verb αρκεί ("it suffices"), so enough is its core sense. But learners are regularly thrown by the fact that it slides, without warning, into a plain quite a lot of / a fair number of — a mid-scale quantity with no implication of sufficiency at all. Both senses are entirely ordinary; context does the disambiguating.

Δεν έχουμε αρκετές καρέκλες για δώδεκα άτομα.

dhen échume arketés karékles ya dhódheka átoma

We don't have enough chairs for twelve people.

Είχε αρκετό κόσμο στη συναυλία, παρόλο που έβρεχε.

íche arketó kózmo sti sinavlía, parólo pu évreche

There were quite a lot of people at the concert, even though it was raining.

The adverb αρκετά likewise means both enough and fairly, quite, and on its own, as an exclamation, it is the Greek for "that's enough!"

Το ξενοδοχείο ήταν αρκετά καλό για την τιμή του.

to ksenodhochío ítan arketá kaló ya tin timí tu

The hotel was quite good for the price.

Αρκετά με τα παράπονα, ας κάνουμε κάτι επιτέλους.

arketá me ta parápona, as kánume káti epitélus

Enough with the complaining — let's actually do something.

One more member of the family, κάμποσος (κάμποση, κάμποσο), means a fair amount of / quite a few and is (informal) — thoroughly normal in speech, out of place in a report, where αρκετός or σημαντικός αριθμός would go instead. Its close cousin μπόλικος ("plenty of") is (informal) too and carries a warm, generous flavour: μπόλικο λάδι στη σαλάτα.

Έχει κάμποσο καιρό που δεν τους έχω δει.

échi kámboso keró pu dhen tus écho dhi

It's been quite a while since I saw them.

Asking the quantity: πόσος

The question word matching this series is πόσος / πόση / πόσο, and — unlike English how much, which never changes — it agrees like any other quantifier. That means Greek makes you decide the gender and number before you can even ask the question.

Πόσα λεφτά έδωσες τελικά για το αυτοκίνητο;

pósa leftá édhoses teliká ya to aftokínito;

How much did you end up paying for the car?

Πόση ώρα περιμένεις; Έχω κολλήσει στην κίνηση.

pósi óra periménis; écho kolísi stin kínisi

How long have you been waiting? I'm stuck in traffic.

Note πόσα λεφτά — "money" is grammatically plural in Greek (τα λεφτά), so how much money comes out as a plural how many. And there is an invariable adverb πόσο here as well, the one in the single most useful shopping question, Πόσο κάνει; ("How much is it?"). The rest of the interrogative determiners — ποιος, τι, πόσος together — are on interrogative determiners.

The bottom of the scale: καθόλου

For a flat zero, Greek does not use λίγος at all but the invariable καθόλου ("at all"). In a statement it must be paired with δεν — καθόλου on its own is never a negation:

Δεν έχω καθόλου όρεξη για μαγείρεμα, ας πάρουμε κάτι έξω.

dhen écho kathólu óreksi ya mayírema, as párume káti ékso

I don't feel like cooking at all — let's get something out.

That δεν is not optional politeness; it is Greek's negative concord, the same machinery that makes Δεν ήρθε κανένας the only way to say "nobody came". That is the subject of κανένας. In a question, though, καθόλου stands on its own and means "any at all", exactly the way τίποτα does.

Έχεις καθόλου ψιλά για το εισιτήριο;

échis kathólu psilá ya to isitírio;

Have you got any change at all for the ticket?

At the top of the scale, "more" and "most" are handled by **περισσότερος** (and, in everyday speech, the equally correct **πιο πολύς**), with **λιγότερος** as the counterpart at the bottom — see [irregular comparison](/grammar/greek/adjectives/irregular-comparison).

Common Mistakes

1. Flattening the quantifier to the neuter πολύ. With a feminine noun you need πολλή, and this is by some distance the most frequent error at A2.

❌ Κάνει πολύ ζέστη για περπάτημα το μεσημέρι.

Incorrect — ζέστη is feminine, so the quantifier is πολλή ζέστη.

✅ Κάνει πολλή ζέστη για περπάτημα, ας βγούμε το απόγευμα.

káni polí zésti ya perpátima, as vghúme to apóyevma

It's far too hot for a walk — let's go out in the evening.

2. Using the neuter singular λίγο with a plural noun. A plural count noun needs a plural quantifier.

❌ Ήρθαν λίγο φίλοι στα γενέθλιά μου.

Incorrect — a masculine plural noun takes λίγοι: λίγοι φίλοι.

✅ Ήρθαν λίγοι φίλοι στα γενέθλιά μου, αλλά περάσαμε τέλεια.

írthan líyi fíli sta yenéthliá mu, alá perásame télia

Only a few friends came to my birthday, but we had a great time.

3. Treating αρκετά as if it were the quantifier. αρκετά is the adverb (and the neuter plural); a feminine plural noun demands αρκετές.

❌ Έμεινα στο νησί αρκετά μέρες.

Incorrect — μέρες is feminine plural: αρκετές μέρες.

✅ Έμεινα στο νησί αρκετές μέρες παραπάνω απ' ό,τι σχεδίαζα.

émina sto nisí arketés méres parapáno ap' óti schedhíaza

I stayed on the island several days longer than I'd planned.

4. Leaving πόσος uninflected. English how much / how many never changes shape, so learners freeze πόσο.

❌ Πόσο χρόνια μένεις στην Αθήνα;

Incorrect — χρόνια is neuter plural: Πόσα χρόνια;

✅ Πόσα χρόνια μένεις στην Αθήνα; Μου φαίνεσαι σαν ντόπιος.

pósa chrónia ménis stin Athína; mu fénese san dópios

How many years have you lived in Athens? You come across like a local.

5. Over-agreeing the adverb. The mirror-image error: when λίγο modifies an adjective it is the invariable adverb and must not agree.

❌ Είμαι λίγος κουρασμένος σήμερα.

Incorrect — modifying an adjective, λίγο is an invariable adverb: λίγο κουρασμένος.

✅ Είμαι λίγο κουρασμένος, θα φύγω από τη δουλειά πιο νωρίς.

íme lígho kurazménos, tha fígho apó ti dhuliá pio norís

I'm a bit tired — I'll leave work a little earlier.

Key Takeaways

One Greek word covers both English much and many: πολύς. The noun's number carries the countability (πολύ νερό = much water, πολλά παιδιά = many children), and the quantifier just agrees.
λίγος and αρκετός are regular -ος / -η / -ο adjectives; πολύς is irregular, with a single λ only in πολύς and πολύ and a double λ in every other form.
λίγοι means few (with the negative tilt of English few); for a friendly a few, use μερικοί or informal κάνα δυο.
αρκετός means enough and quite a lot of — two senses separated only by context; αρκετά as an exclamation is "that's enough!"
Each quantifier has an invariable adverb twin — πολύ, λίγο, αρκετά, πόσο — which modifies adjectives and verbs and never agrees: λίγο κρύο, αρκετά καλό.
πόσος agrees too (Πόση ώρα; Πόσα χρόνια;), and zero quantity is καθόλου with an obligatory δεν.
κάμποσος and μπόλικος are (informal) members of the same series; keep them for speech.

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