The Three Genders | Greek Grammar

Every noun in Greek belongs to one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is one of the first big adjustments for an English speaker, because English nouns have no gender at all — a "book," a "street," and a "child" are all just the. In Greek, each of those words carries a gender that you have to know, because it decides the shape of the little words around it: the article, any adjective, and any pronoun that refers back to it. Get the gender right and the whole sentence agrees; get it wrong and everything downstream is wrong too.

The article is the giveaway

The clearest sign of a noun's gender is the word for "the" in front of it. Greek has three:

ο (masculine) — ο δρόμος (the street)
η (feminine) — η ώρα (the hour)
το (neuter) — το βιβλίο (the book)

Ο δρόμος είναι κλειστός.

o dhrómos íne klistós

The street is closed.

Η ώρα είναι τρεις.

i óra íne tris

It's three o'clock.

Το βιβλίο είναι στο τραπέζι.

to vivlío íne sto trapézi

The book is on the table.

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The single most useful habit you can build in Greek: never learn a noun by itself — learn it with its article. Store "ο δρόμος," not "δρόμος." The article is the gender label, and if you memorize them together from day one you will save yourself a thousand corrections later. Flashcards without the article are half-finished.

Ending clues that usually work

You are not left guessing blindly — the ending of a noun points strongly to its gender. These are the three big patterns to start with (the reliability details, with exceptions, are on Predicting gender from endings):

Ending	Usual gender	Article	Example
-ος	masculine	ο	ο δρόμος (street), ο άνθρωπος (person)
-α	feminine	η	η ώρα (hour), η μέρα (day)
-η	feminine	η	η νίκη (victory), η αγάπη (love)
-ο	neuter	το	το βιβλίο (book), το δώρο (gift)
-ι	neuter	το	το παιδί (child), το σπίτι (house)
-μα	neuter	το	το όνομα (name), το γράμμα (letter)

Πού είναι το παιδί;

pu íne to pedhí

Where is the child?

Ξέρεις το όνομά της;

kséris to ónomá tis

Do you know her name?

"A / an" shows gender too

The definite article is not the only gender flag — the word for "a/an" changes with gender as well. Greek has three forms of the indefinite article, and they double as the word for "one":

ένας (masculine) — ένας φίλος (a friend)
μια / μία (feminine) — μια φίλη (a friend). The unstressed μια is the plain article; the two-syllable μία leans on the one meaning (μία ώρα = "one hour").
ένα (neuter) — ένα βιβλίο (a book)

Θέλω έναν καφέ, παρακαλώ.

thélo énan kafé, parakaló

I'd like a coffee, please.

Έχω μια ερώτηση.

écho mia erótisi

I have a question.

So a noun carries its gender through both articles at once: ο/ένας δρόμος, η/μια ώρα, το/ένα βιβλίο. (In the masculine, the accusative form is έναν — Θέλω *έναν καφέ* — and that final -ν then follows the usual retention rules: it is kept before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ, and often dropped elsewhere. See the final -ν.)

Gender is grammatical, not biological

Here is the point that surprises every learner: gender in Greek is a property of the word, not of the thing in the world. It often lines up with biological sex for people (ο άντρας "the man" is masculine, η γυναίκα "the woman" is feminine) — but not always. The words for "girl" and "boy" are both neuter, because they end in the neuter diminutive -ι:

Το κορίτσι παίζει στην αυλή.

to korítsi pézi stin avlí

The girl is playing in the yard.

Το αγόρι τρώει ένα μήλο.

to aghóri trói éna mílo

The boy is eating an apple.

Yes — το κορίτσι, το αγόρι. It feels strange coming from English, but the ending wins: an -ι word is neuter, whatever it names. So resist the urge to reason "a girl is female, so it must be feminine." In Greek, the grammar is decided by the shape of the word.

Why gender matters: everything must agree

Gender is not just a label sitting on the noun — it spreads to the words that go with it. An adjective changes its ending to match its noun, and a pronoun changes to match what it refers to. This is called agreement, and it is the whole reason you must know a noun's gender (the full rules are on Adjective–noun agreement). Everything that can stand next to a noun agrees with it, so a noun's gender reaches into four other sections of this guide at once: the article (ο / η / το), adjectives (καλός / καλή / καλό), determiners (αυτός / αυτή / αυτό, κάθε, όλος) and pronouns (τον / την / το).

Watch the adjective "tall" change shape to match:

Ο αδερφός μου είναι ψηλός.

o adherfós mu íne psilós

My brother is tall.

Η αδερφή μου είναι ψηλή.

i adherfí mu íne psilí

My sister is tall.

Το παιδί είναι ψηλό.

to pedhí íne psiló

The child is tall.

The same word — ψηλός / ψηλή / ψηλό — takes three endings, chosen entirely by the gender of the noun it describes. Pronouns do the same: αυτός (he), αυτή (she), αυτό (it).

Αυτός είναι ο φίλος μου κι αυτή είναι η φίλη μου.

aftós íne o fílos mu ki aftí íne i fíli mu

This is my (male) friend and this is my (female) friend.

The English-speaker challenge

Because English has no grammatical gender, you have nothing to transfer — every gender is new information you must attach to the word and carry with it forever. Two habits make this manageable:

Always store the article (ο / η / το) with the noun, as said above.
Trust the endings, but expect a few traps. The clues are strong, not perfect. The classic beginner trap is η οδός ("street/avenue"): it ends in -ος and looks masculine, but it is feminine.

Μένω στην οδό Ερμού.

méno stin odhó Ermú

I live on Ermou Street.

A short list of these deceptive words exists, and they are worth memorizing early precisely because they break the strongest rule you have.

Common Mistakes

1. Guessing the article instead of learning it. A masculine noun cannot take η.

❌ η δρόμος

Incorrect — δρόμος is masculine, so ο δρόμος.

✅ ο δρόμος

o dhrómos

the street

2. Giving a person their "natural" gender against the ending. -ι words are neuter, even for people.

❌ η κορίτσι

Incorrect — κορίτσι ends in -ι and is neuter: το κορίτσι.

✅ το κορίτσι

to korítsi

the girl

3. Mismatching the article to the noun's real gender. ώρα is feminine; it needs η.

❌ Ο ώρα είναι έξι.

Incorrect — ώρα is feminine: η ώρα.

✅ Η ώρα είναι έξι.

i óra íne éksi

It's six o'clock.

4. Assuming every -ος word is masculine. A small set of -ος nouns are feminine.

❌ ο οδός

Incorrect — οδός is one of the feminine -ος words: η οδός.

✅ η οδός

i odhós

the street / avenue

Where to go next: the declension classes

Gender is the first sorting question. The second is which set of endings the noun takes as it moves through the cases — its declension class. The good news is that the two questions are linked: once you know the article, you have already narrowed the choice to about five classes. Find your noun's gender and ending in the tables below and go straight to its page; each one gives the full paradigm, the stress behaviour, and the traps.

Masculine (ο)

Ending	Typical nouns	Page
-ος	ο δρόμος, ο άνθρωπος, ο φίλος	Masculine nouns in -ος — the largest and most productive class in the language; start here
-ας	ο άντρας, ο πατέρας, ο ψαράς	Masculine nouns in -ας — two subtypes, one with a plural in -ες and one in -άδες
-ης / -ες	ο μαθητής, ο ναύτης, ο πολίτης	Masculine nouns in -ης and -ες — agent and family nouns, plural -ες
-ές / -ούς / -ους	ο καφές, ο παππούς, ο νους	Contracted masculines — whose oblique cases are a bare stressed vowel (του καφέ, του παππού)
plural in -άδες / -ηδες	ο ψαράς, ο μπακάλης, ο παπάς	Imparisyllabic masculines — nouns that grow an extra syllable in the plural

Feminine (η)

Ending	Typical nouns	Page
-α	η ώρα, η γυναίκα, η θάλασσα	Feminine nouns in -α — the commonest feminine pattern of all
-η	η αγάπη, η νίκη, η τέχνη	Feminine nouns in -η — plain plural in -ες
-η with plural -εις	η πόλη, η δύναμη, η απόφαση	Learned feminines: η πόλη → οι πόλεις — looks like the class above, behaves differently in the plural
-ος	η οδός, η μέθοδος, η Κύπρος	Feminine nouns in -ος — the trap mentioned above, in full
plural in -άδες / -ούδες	η γιαγιά, η αλεπού, η μαμά	Imparisyllabic feminines — grandmothers, mums and foxes

Neuter (το)

Ending	Typical nouns	Page
-ο	το βιβλίο, το νερό, το δώρο	Neuter nouns in -ο — the friendliest class in Greek
-ι	το παιδί, το σπίτι, το κλειδί	Neuter nouns in -ι — home of the diminutive -άκι
-μα	το όνομα, το πρόβλημα, το γράμμα	Neuter nouns in -μα — with the hidden -ματ- stem (του ονόματος)
-ος	το δάσος, το μέρος, το λάθος	Learned neuters in -ος — an -ος word that is not masculine
irregular learned	το φως, το γάλα, το κρέας	Other learned neuters — whose real stem only surfaces when you decline them

The rules that cut across every class

Number and the four cases — the whole machine on one word: singular/plural × nominative, genitive, accusative, vocative.
Predicting gender from endings — how reliable each ending clue actually is, with the exception lists.
Forming the plural — every plural ending in the language in one reference.
Forming the genitive singular and the genitive plural in -ων — the two cells learners get wrong most often.
The vocative — how the ending changes when you call someone (φίλε!, Γιάννη!).
Accent shift in declension — why ο άνθρωπος becomes του ανθρώπου, applied class by class.

Nouns that break the pattern

Indeclinable nouns — το ταξί, το μπαρ, το μετρό, which never change their ending at all.
Assigning gender to loanwords — why it is το ίντερνετ but η πίτσα.
Irregular and heteroclitic nouns — the everyday handful with two stems (γάλα, φως, γυναίκα).
Nouns with two plurals — χρόνος → χρόνια / χρόνοι, where the wrong plural means the wrong thing.
Compound nouns — how Greek welds two nouns together with -ο- (ανεμόμυλος, ψαροταβέρνα) and which half takes the gender.
Mass and collective nouns — measuring out the uncountable (λίγο ψωμί, δύο καφέδες).
Declining proper names — first names and surnames take endings too (ο Γιάννης → του Γιάννη), and the feminine surname behaves unlike the masculine.

Key Takeaways

Every Greek noun is masculine (ο), feminine (η), or neuter (το) — learn the noun with its article.
Strong ending clues: -ος → masculine, -α / -η → feminine, -ο / -ι / -μα → neuter.
Gender is grammatical, not biological: το κορίτσι (girl) and το αγόρι (boy) are neuter.
Gender spreads through agreement — the article, adjectives, and pronouns all change to match — which is why knowing it is not optional.
Expect a few traps, above all η οδός, which looks masculine but is feminine.

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