Coffee, grandpa, dad, mind: four of the words you meet earliest in Greek, and all four decline in a way no other masculine class does. Their singular is contracted — the genitive, accusative and vocative are not stem + ending but a single bare stressed vowel: του καφέ, του παππού, του μπαμπά, του νου. Nothing is added, and nothing ever moves.
These nouns also build a -δ- plural (οι καφέδες, οι παππούδες, οι μπαμπάδες), and that side of them — the whole four-class system, the genitive plural, how to spot an imparisyllabic noun in the wild — is the subject of Imparisyllabic masculines. This page stays in the singular, where the real oddity lives, and adds the shortest member of the family, ο νους, which has no everyday plural at all.
What "contracted" actually means
In the big classes, each case is a stem plus a visible ending: δρόμ-ος, δρόμ-ου, δρόμ-ο; άντρ-ας, άντρ-α. You can point at the two pieces. Here you cannot. The endings fused with the final vowel of the stem centuries ago — νους is the ancient νόος pulled together into one syllable; παππούς comes from πάππος; καφές entered from Turkish kahve with the shape already fixed — and what survives in the modern language is a word that simply ends in a stressed vowel, with a -ς stuck on for the nominative and nothing else.
The consequence is worth sitting with. English at least marks possession on the noun itself — dad → dad's — so an English speaker's instinct is that a genitive should be visible somewhere on the word. Here it is not: three of the four singular forms are identical in sound and spelling, and only the little word in front of them tells you which case you are in.
| Case | Form | What tells you the case |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ο καφές | the -ς, plus the article ο |
| Genitive | του καφέ | the article του only |
| Accusative | τον καφέ | the article τον only |
| Vocative | καφέ | no article at all |
So in this class the article is not decoration — it is the case marking. Drop it and the sentence loses the information the noun itself refuses to carry.
ο καφές — the anchor noun
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ο καφές | οι καφέδες |
| Genitive | του καφέ | των καφέδων |
| Accusative | τον καφέ | τους καφέδες |
| Vocative | καφέ | καφέδες |
The singular endings are -ές / -έ / -έ / -έ, and the accent never leaves that -έ-: in the singular it is the last syllable, in the plural it becomes the next-to-last (καφέδες, καφέδων) without moving a millimetre in the word. There is no accent shift to memorise anywhere in this class — a genuine mercy compared with the -ος class, where ο άνθρωπος becomes των ανθρώπων.
The same shape covers a whole shelf of Turkish-era food and household words: ο κεφτές (meatball) → του κεφτέ, ο μεζές (small dish) → του μεζέ, ο τενεκές (tin can) → του τενεκέ.
Ο καφές σου κρύωσε, να σου φτιάξω άλλον;
o kafés su kríose, na su ftiákso álon;
Your coffee's gone cold — shall I make you another?
Η μυρωδιά του καφέ γεμίζει όλο το σπίτι το πρωί.
i mirodhiá tu kafé yemízi ólo to spíti to proí
The smell of coffee fills the whole house in the morning.
Πάμε για κανένα μεζέ και μια μπίρα μετά τη δουλειά;
páme ya kanéna mezé ke mia bíra metá ti dhuliá;
Shall we go for a meze and a beer after work?
Φορούσε ένα καφέ παλτό και κρατούσε τον καφέ της.
forúse éna kafé paltó ke kratúse ton kafé tis
She was wearing a brown coat and holding her coffee.
The other two vowels, briefly
ο παππούς (grandpa) is the -ούς member: παππούς / παππού / παππού / παππού, plural παππούδες / παππούδων / παππούδες — its plural paradigm sits in full as Class 3 of Imparisyllabic masculines. Watch the spelling: the double -ππ- of παππούς (it descends from πάππος) is the trap in writing, because ο παπάς, "the priest", looks and sounds close but has a single -π-. Both are oxytone, both take a -δ- plural (παππούδες / παπάδες), and the two sit one keystroke apart — enough to produce a sentence about the wrong old man entirely.
Το σπίτι του παππού μου είναι στο χωριό, δίπλα στην εκκλησία.
to spíti tu papú mu íne sto chorió, dhípla stin eklisía
My grandfather's house is in the village, next to the church.
ο μπαμπάς (dad, informal) is the -άς member — μπαμπάς / μπαμπά / μπαμπά / μπαμπά, plural μπαμπάδες — and it behaves exactly like ο ψαράς on masculine nouns in -ας. What to notice is again the emptiness of the genitive: English puts an audible mark on dad's, while του μπαμπά puts nothing on the noun at all. Another everyday member is ο μπαρμπάς ("old fellow", also "uncle" — informal, rural).
Πες του μπαμπά σου να με πάρει τηλέφωνο το βράδυ.
pes tu babá su na me pári tiléfono to vrádhi
Tell your dad to give me a call this evening.
Ο μπαμπάς μου μαγειρεύει καλύτερα από όλους.
o babás mu mayirévi kalítera apó ólus
My dad cooks better than anyone.
ο νους — the shortest contracted noun
ο νους ("mind, wits") is this pattern reduced to its bones. One syllable in every case, and the -ς again marks the nominative alone:
| Case | Singular |
|---|---|
| Nominative | ο νους |
| Genitive | του νου |
| Accusative | τον νου |
| Vocative | νου (not used in practice) |
A plural exists on paper — οι νόες, των νόων (learned) — but you will not hear it in conversation, and you should not build one. When Modern Greek needs a countable "mind(s)", it reaches for the neuter το μυαλό / τα μυαλά instead: τα μυαλά των παιδιών, not ×οι νόες των παιδιών. Two more nouns share the shape in high registers — ο πλους (voyage) and ο ρους (flow, as in ο ρους της ιστορίας) — but they live only in (literary) and (formal) set phrases.
What νους really is, in practice, is an idiom carrier. Learn it inside the phrases:
Έχε τον νου σου στα παιδιά όσο είμαι στο μαγαζί.
éche ton nu su sta pedhiá óso íme sto maghazí
Keep an eye on the kids while I'm at the shop.
Δεν μου πάει ο νους σε τέτοια πράγματα.
dhen mu pái o nus se tétia prághmata
Things like that just don't occur to me.
Ούτε που μου πέρασε από τον νου.
úte pu mu pérase apó ton nu
It never even crossed my mind.
Ο νους μου είναι αλλού σήμερα, συγγνώμη.
o nus mu íne alú símera, sighnómi
My mind is elsewhere today, sorry.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping the -ς in the genitive or accusative singular. The oblique singular is the bare stressed vowel; the -ς is nominative-only.
❌ Η γεύση του καφές είναι πικρή.
Incorrect — the genitive is του καφέ, without -ς.
✅ Η γεύση του καφέ είναι πικρή.
i yéfsi tu kafé íne pikrí
The taste of the coffee is bitter.
2. Carrying that -ς into a fixed phrase with νους. Idioms are where this error surfaces most often, because learners recite them from hearing.
❌ Έχε τον νους σου στα παιδιά.
Incorrect — the accusative of ο νους is τον νου: έχε τον νου σου.
✅ Έχε τον νου σου στα παιδιά.
éche ton nu su sta pedhiá
Keep an eye on the kids.
3. Using the singular as if it were the plural. The plural of these nouns is a longer word, not the same word with a different article.
❌ Ο σερβιτόρος έφερε τους καφές μας.
Incorrect — the plural is καφέδες: τους καφέδες μας.
✅ Ο σερβιτόρος έφερε τους καφέδες μας.
o servitóros éfere tus kafédhes mas
The waiter brought our coffees.
4. Writing παππούς with a single -π-. ×του παπού isn't a Greek word at all — and the single -π- pulls you towards ο παπάς, "the priest", whose genitive is του παπά.
❌ Το ρολόι του παπού μου είναι εκατό χρόνων.
Incorrect — grandpa is spelled with -ππ-: του παππού μου.
✅ Το ρολόι του παππού μου είναι εκατό χρονών.
to rolói tu papú mu íne ekató chronón
My grandfather's watch is a hundred years old.
5. Translating "he lost his mind" word for word with νους. Every individual word is real; the sentence is not one Greek produces.
❌ Έχασε τον έλεγχο του νου του.
No Greek says this — it's a word-for-word calque of the English. Greek says Έχασε τα λογικά του.
✅ Έχασε τα λογικά του.
échase ta loyiká tu
He lost his mind.
Key Takeaways
- These nouns have a contracted singular: genitive, accusative and vocative are a bare stressed vowel — του καφέ, του παππού, του μπαμπά, του νου — with the -ς marking the nominative only.
- Because three singular forms are identical, the article carries the case: ο καφές / του καφέ / τον καφέ.
- The accent never moves, in the singular or the plural (καφές → καφέδες → καφέδων).
- The -δ- plural these nouns take (καφέδες, παππούδες, μπαμπάδες) is treated in full on Imparisyllabic masculines.
- ο παππούς (grandpa, -ππ-) is not ο παπάς (priest, single -π-).
- ο νους has no everyday plural — use το μυαλό / τα μυαλά — and lives mainly in idioms: έχε τον νου σου, δεν μου πάει ο νους, ούτε που μου πέρασε από τον νου.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Imparisyllabic Masculines (-άδες, -ούδες)B1 — A large family of masculine nouns — ο ψαράς, ο καφές, ο παππούς, ο μπακάλης — that grows an extra syllable in the plural (οι ψαράδες, οι καφέδες), a pattern English has almost nowhere.
- Masculine Nouns in -αςA2 — The two -ας masculine types: parisyllabic nouns like ο άντρας and ο πατέρας (plural -ες) versus imparisyllabic occupational nouns like ο ψαράς and ο παπάς (plural -άδες), with the genitive singular in bare -α that trips up learners.
- Forming the Genitive SingularB1 — The genitive singular ending for every regular noun class — masculine -ος→-ου, -ας→-α, -ης→-η; feminine -α→-ας, -η→-ης; neuter -ο→-ου, -ι→-ιού, -μα→-ματος, -ος→-ους — with the article του/της/του and the classic trap of over-keeping the -ς on masculines.
- Irregular and Heteroclitic NounsB2 — The handful of everyday nouns — γάλα, κρέας, φως, νους, παιδί, χέρι, γυναίκα — that hide a second stem or borrow endings from two different paradigms, and exactly which forms you have to commit to memory.
- Indeclinable Adjectives (Colors, Loans)B1 — The adjectives that never change form — loan colours μπλε, καφέ, ροζ, γκρι, μοβ and the -ί colours πορτοκαλί, plus loans like σικ and ρετρό — set against the native colours (κόκκινος, μαύρος) that decline normally.