English hands its nouns over with no gender attached, so when a word like internet, laptop or pizza crosses into Greek, the language has to invent a gender for it on the spot. It cannot decline to: you physically cannot say the word in a sentence without an article, and the article is gendered.
Greek does this so consistently that the outcome is almost always predictable. This page gives you the procedure — a default, two overrides, and the register question of whether to use the loan at all.
The default: neuter
Unless something pulls it another way, a borrowed noun becomes neuter. This is not arbitrary. Neuter is the unmarked gender in Greek, the one the language reaches for whenever a thing has no grammatical hook — which is why it is also the gender of nominalised anything: το «όχι» (the "no"), το γιατί (the why), το να λες ψέματα (the lying).
| Loan | Meaning | Loan | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| το ίντερνετ | the internet | το σάιτ | website |
| το ίμεϊλ | το λινκ | link | |
| το λάπτοπ | laptop | το κλικ | click |
| το τάμπλετ | tablet | το μπλογκ | blog |
| το σμαρτφόν | smartphone | το σινεμά | cinema |
| το τοστ | toasted sandwich | το πάρκινγκ | car park |
| το κρουασάν | croissant | το σούσι | sushi |
Most of these are also indeclinable — one frozen form for every case and number — which is a separate property covered on Indeclinable Nouns. Gender and declinability travel together but are not the same thing.
Δεν έχω ίντερνετ στο σπίτι εδώ και δύο μέρες.
dhen écho índernet sto spíti edhó ke dhío méres
I've had no internet at home for two days.
Σου έστειλα ένα ίμεϊλ χθες το βράδυ, το είδες;
su éstila éna ímeil chthes to vrádhi, to ídhes;
I sent you an email last night, did you see it?
Ξέχασα το λάπτοπ μου στο γραφείο και δούλεψα από το κινητό.
kséchasa to láptop mu sto ghrafío ke dhúlepsa apó to kinitó
I left my laptop at the office and worked off my phone.
Έκανα κλικ στο λινκ και δεν άνοιξε τίποτα.
ékana klik sto link ke dhen ánikse típota
I clicked the link and nothing opened.
Override 1: the ending
If the borrowed word happens to end in a shape Greek already uses, the ending usually wins and the word is absorbed into the matching declension — gender, endings, plural and all. This is close to automatic for -α and -ο; -ι is the row that will let you down, and the note under the table explains why.
| Ending | Gender | Examples | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| -α | feminine | η μπίρα, η πίτσα, η σάλτσα, η κάμερα, η βεράντα, η τσάντα | οι μπίρες, οι πίτσες |
| -ο | neuter | το τσιγάρο, το παλτό, το ρολό, το κιλό | τα τσιγάρα, τα παλτά |
| -ι | neuter | το μπαλκόνι, το τζάμι, το ρολόι, το κουτί | τα μπαλκόνια, τα τζάμια (older loans only) |
| -ές / -άς | masculine | ο καφές, ο φραπές, ο μπακλαβάς, ο μεζές | οι καφέδες, οι φραπέδες |
This is why η μπίρα is feminine and το μπαρ is neuter although both came from the same corner of Europe: μπίρα arrived wearing an -α, so Greek treated it as one of its own; μπαρ arrived wearing nothing Greek recognises, so it got the default and stayed frozen.
The -ι row needs a warning. For -α and -ο the ending really does decide, and you can trust it. For -ι it decides the gender (neuter either way) but not whether the word declines. The old -ι loans inflect like any native neuter — το μπαλκόνι → τα μπαλκόνια, το τζάμι → τα τζάμια, το κουτί → τα κουτιά — while the recent ones sit on exactly the same ending and refuse to move: το σούσι (in the neuter table above), and το πάρτι, το ουίσκι, το σέλφι over on Indeclinable Nouns. There is no ×τα σούσια and no ×τα πάρτια. What separates the two groups is not the ending but the age of the loan — which is the point of the time-depth note at the end of this section.
Θέλεις μια μπίρα ή προτιμάς κρασί;
thélis mia bíra i protimás krasí;
Do you want a beer or would you rather have wine?
Πάρε δύο πίτσες, θα έρθουν και οι άλλοι.
páre dhío pítses, tha érthun ke i áli
Get two pizzas, the others are coming too.
Μου φτιάχνεις έναν καφέ όσο ετοιμάζομαι;
mu ftiáchnis énan kafé óso etimázome;
Would you make me a coffee while I get ready?
Notice how deeply the older loans are integrated. το τζάμι (window pane), το ρολόι (clock), η ντουλάπα (wardrobe), ο μεζές and το κουτί are all borrowings — mostly Turkish and Italian — and none of them feels foreign to a Greek speaker any more. Time depth is the best single predictor: a loan that has been in the language for two centuries has been fully digested; one that arrived with the smartphone has not. That is precisely why το μπαλκόνι and το ουίσκι part company although they end in the same letter — two hundred years against one or two generations.
Override 2: semantic analogy
The second override is meaning. If the borrowed thing belongs to a category with an obvious Greek head noun, it can take that noun's gender even against the neuter default.
Coffee drinks are masculine, because ο καφές is masculine:
Έναν εσπρέσο διπλό και έναν καπουτσίνο, παρακαλώ.
énan espréso dhipló ke énan kaputsíno, parakaló
One double espresso and one cappuccino, please.
Companies and brands tend to be feminine, because η εταιρεία ("the company") is feminine — Greeks say η Microsoft, η Apple, η Google. Broadcasters are feminine for the same reason (η ΕΡΤ, from η ραδιοφωνία / η τηλεόραση), and newspapers are feminine from η εφημερίδα.
Music genres lean feminine from η μουσική: η τζαζ, η ροκ (though το ροκ is also widely heard — this one is genuinely unsettled).
People take natural gender, always: ο σεφ / η σεφ, ο μάνατζερ / η μάνατζερ, ο ντιτζέι / η ντιτζέι.
Machines sometimes follow their Greek counterpart. ο σέρβερ is usually masculine, on the model of ο υπολογιστής / ο εξυπηρετητής; το σέρβερ is also heard, and neither will get you corrected.
Έπεσε πάλι ο σέρβερ και δεν μπορούμε να μπούμε στο σύστημα.
épese páli o sérver ke dhen borúme na búme sto sístima
The server has gone down again and we can't get into the system.
Η εταιρεία ανακοίνωσε ότι το σάιτ θα είναι εκτός λειτουργίας το σαββατοκύριακο.
i etería anakínose óti to sáit tha íne ektós lituryías to savatokíriako
The company announced that the site will be down over the weekend.
Loan versus native word: a register choice
Very often Greek has both the borrowing and a home-grown word for the same thing, and the pair splits by register rather than by meaning. The native word is what appears on signs, in official documents and in careful speech; the loan is what everybody actually says.
| Loan (informal, everyday) | Native word (formal, official) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| το κομπιούτερ | ο υπολογιστής | computer |
| το ασανσέρ | ο ανελκυστήρας | lift, elevator |
| το πάρκινγκ | ο χώρος στάθμευσης | car park |
| το πρίντερ | ο εκτυπωτής | printer |
| το ίμεϊλ / το μέιλ | το ηλεκτρονικό ταχυδρομείο | |
| το σμαρτφόν | το κινητό | smartphone / mobile |
Two of these deserve a warning. ο υπολογιστής is not a stiff bureaucratic word — it is completely normal in speech, and arguably commoner than το κομπιούτερ nowadays. And nobody in Greece says το σμαρτφόν in conversation; the everyday word is simply το κινητό. Learning the loan is useful for reading, but do not assume it is the natural choice.
Ο ανελκυστήρας είναι εκτός λειτουργίας.
o anelkistíras íne ektós lituryías
The lift is out of order.
Ρε συ, το ασανσέρ χάλασε πάλι, θα ανέβουμε με τα πόδια.
re si, to asansér chálase páli, tha anévume me ta pódhia
Mate, the lift's broken again, we'll have to walk up.
Χρησιμοποιώ τον υπολογιστή μου κυρίως για δουλειά.
chrisimopió ton ipoloyistí mu kiríos ya dhuliá
I use my computer mainly for work.
How a loan gets naturalised
Greek has two productive ways of dragging a frozen borrowing into the grammar.
Add a Greek suffix. το μπαρ is indeclinable, but το μπαράκι (diminutive) declines fully: τα μπαράκια, στα μπαράκια. το τοστ is frozen, but η τοστιέρα (the machine) is a normal feminine noun.
Make it a verb. This is where English loans are absorbed fastest, because Greek verb morphology grabs anything: κλικάρω (to click), ποστάρω (to post), σερφάρω (to surf), σκανάρω (to scan), τσεκάρω (to check) — all informal, all conjugating perfectly normally.
Θα το ποστάρω αργότερα, τώρα δεν προλαβαίνω.
tha to postáro arghótera, tóra dhen prolavéno
I'll post it later, I haven't got time right now.
Common Mistakes
1. Guessing masculine because the thing feels "big" or "technical".
❌ Ο ίντερνετ σήμερα είναι πολύ αργός.
Incorrect — the loan is neuter: το ίντερνετ … αργό.
✅ Το ίντερνετ σήμερα είναι πολύ αργό.
to índernet símera íne polí arghó
The internet is really slow today.
2. Treating an absorbed loan as if it were frozen. If it ends in -α or -ο, it declines.
❌ Θέλω δύο μπίρα και ένα τοστ.
Incorrect — μπίρα is fully declined: δύο μπίρες.
✅ Θέλω δύο μπίρες και ένα τοστ.
thélo dhío bíres ke éna tost
I'd like two beers and a toasted sandwich.
3. Dropping the article because English does. English says "problems with internet"; Greek cannot.
❌ Έχω πρόβλημα με ίντερνετ εδώ και μια βδομάδα.
Incorrect — the definite article is obligatory: με το ίντερνετ.
✅ Έχω πρόβλημα με το ίντερνετ εδώ και μια βδομάδα.
écho próvlima me to índernet edhó ke mia vdhomádha
I've been having a problem with the internet for a week.
4. Making a coffee drink neuter. Semantic analogy with ο καφές governs the whole coffee vocabulary, and masculine is the café standard. This one is a norm rather than a hard rule, though — the neuter default is widely heard from Greeks too — so treat it as a register choice you can always win by going masculine.
Θα ήθελα έναν εσπρέσο, παρακαλώ.
tha íthela énan espréso, parakaló
I'd like an espresso, please. (the café standard: masculine, on the model of ο καφές)
Θα ήθελα ένα εσπρέσο, παρακαλώ.
tha íthela éna espréso, parakaló
I'd like an espresso, please. (widely heard, the loan falling back on the neuter default — understood everywhere, but the masculine is never wrong)
5. Carrying the source language's gender across. Italian la pizza is feminine and Greek agrees, but that is luck; French le cinéma is masculine and Greek does not agree.
❌ Ο σινεμά έχει κλείσει εδώ και χρόνια.
Incorrect — Greek assigns neuter regardless of the source gender: το σινεμά.
✅ Το σινεμά έχει κλείσει εδώ και χρόνια.
to sinemá échi klísi edhó ke chrónia
The cinema has been closed for years.
Key Takeaways
- Default: neuter. Neuter is Greek's unmarked gender, so any borrowing with no grammatical hook lands there — το ίντερνετ, το λάπτοπ, το σάιτ, το κρουασάν.
- Override 1 — the ending. A loan ending in -α becomes feminine and declines (η μπίρα, η πίτσα); -ο / -ι neuter (το τσιγάρο, το μπαλκόνι); -ές / -άς masculine (ο καφές, ο μεζές). -ι fixes the gender but not the declension: old -ι loans inflect (μπαλκόνι, τζάμι, κουτί), recent ones stay frozen (σούσι, πάρτι, ουίσκι, σέλφι).
- Override 2 — semantic analogy. Coffee drinks are masculine (ο εσπρέσο, from ο καφές); companies, stations and newspapers feminine (η εταιρεία, η εφημερίδα); people take natural gender (ο σεφ / η σεφ).
- Time depth predicts integration: Turkish and Italian loans of two hundred years ago are fully declined and invisible; recent English loans stay frozen.
- Many loans have a native rival and the pair splits by register: το ασανσέρ (informal) vs ο ανελκυστήρας (formal); το πάρκινγκ vs ο χώρος στάθμευσης. Sometimes the native word wins outright — say το κινητό, not το σμαρτφόν.
- Greek naturalises a loan by suffixing it (το μπαράκι, η τοστιέρα) or by verbing it (κλικάρω, ποστάρω, σερφάρω — all informal).
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Indeclinable Nouns (Loanwords)B1 — A small but very common group — το ταξί, το μπαρ, το σινεμά, το μετρό — that never changes its ending: the article alone carries gender, case and number, and this page shows exactly how that works and which words belong to the club.
- Predicting Gender from EndingsA2 — A decision table for guessing a Greek noun's gender from its nominative ending — -μα and -ση/-ξη/-ψη are near-certain, -ας/-ης point masculine, -ι/-ο neuter, while -ος is the one ending that can be all three genders.