Neuter nouns ending in -ι are everywhere in daily Greek: το παιδί (the child), το σπίτι (the house), το ψωμί (the bread), το κορίτσι (the girl), το αγόρι (the boy). Like all neuters they follow the golden rule — nominative, accusative and vocative are identical — but they add two features worth mastering early: a stressed genitive -ιού and a plural -ια that is squeezed into a single syllable. Get the pronunciation right here and a huge chunk of everyday vocabulary falls into place.
The paradigm
The endings are -ι for nom/acc/voc singular, -ιού for the genitive singular, -ια for nom/acc/voc plural, and -ιών for the genitive plural. Here is το παιδί:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | το παιδί | τα παιδιά |
| Genitive | του παιδιού | των παιδιών |
| Accusative | το παιδί | τα παιδιά |
| Vocative | παιδί | παιδιά |
Notice the golden rule at work: το παιδί (subject) and το παιδί (object) are the same, and the plural τα παιδιά covers subject, object and address alike.
Το παιδί κοιμάται ήδη.
to pedhí kimáte ídhi
The child is already asleep.
Τα παιδιά παίζουν στην αυλή.
ta pedhiá pézun stin avlí
The kids are playing in the yard.
Το ποδήλατο του παιδιού χάλασε πάλι.
to podhílato tu pedhiú chálase páli
The child's bike broke again. (genitive singular)
Τα δωμάτια των παιδιών είναι στον πάνω όροφο.
ta dhomátia ton pedhión íne ston páno órofo
The children's rooms are on the upper floor. (genitive plural)
Synizesis: -ια and -ιού are one syllable, not two
This is the pronunciation point that trips people up. When you write παιδιά, it looks like three syllables (πα-ι-δι-ά). But the -ι- next to the following vowel doesn't get its own beat — it collapses into a glide [y], and παιδιά comes out as two syllables: pe-dhyá. Greek grammar calls this synizesis ("sitting together"). The same thing happens to the genitive: παιδιού = pe-dhyú, not "pe-dhi-ú".
Τα παιδιά θέλουν παγωτό.
ta pedhiá thélun paghotó
The children want ice cream.
So when you see the plural ending -ια on one of these nouns, read it as a single "-ya" sound: αγόρι → αγόρια (a-ghó-rya), κορίτσι → κορίτσια (ko-rí-tsya), σπίτι → σπίτια (spí-tya). You can read more about this on the elision and synizesis page.
The accent: watch where the stress lands in the genitive
Some -ι nouns are stressed on the ending itself (oxytone: παιδί, ψωμί, κλειδί) and some on the stem (paroxytone: σπίτι, κορίτσι, αγόρι). This matters because the genitive of the paroxytone type shifts the accent onto the ending — but the nominative/accusative plural does not.
Compare το σπίτι carefully:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | το σπίτι | τα σπίτια |
| Genitive | του σπιτιού | των σπιτιών |
| Accusative | το σπίτι | τα σπίτια |
| Vocative | σπίτι | σπίτια |
The stress in σπίτι and σπίτια sits on the σπί-; but in the genitive σπιτιού and σπιτιών it jumps to the final syllable. This split — plural on the stem, genitive on the ending — is the single most useful thing to memorise about the paroxytone -ι nouns, because writing σπιτιά for the plural or σπίτιου for the genitive are both classic errors.
Το σπίτι μας είναι κοντά στη θάλασσα.
to spíti mas íne kondá sti thálasa
Our house is near the sea.
Η πόρτα του σπιτιού είναι κόκκινη.
i pórta tu spityú íne kókini
The door of the house is red. (accent on -ού)
Το κορίτσι διαβάζει ένα παραμύθι.
to korítsi dhiavázi éna paramíthi
The girl is reading a fairy tale.
Τα αγόρια θέλουν να παίξουν μπάλα στο πάρκο.
ta aghória thélun na péksun bála sto párko
The boys want to play ball in the park.
Πήρα φρέσκο ψωμί από τον φούρνο.
píra frésko psomí apó ton fúrno
I got fresh bread from the bakery.
The diminutive -άκι lives in this class
Greek loves diminutives — little, affectionate versions of a word — and the most common diminutive suffix, -άκι, produces a neuter -ι noun. So σπίτι → σπιτάκι (a little house / cosy home), παιδί → παιδάκι (a small kid), σκύλος → σκυλάκι (a puppy), καφές → καφεδάκι (a nice little coffee). Every -άκι word declines exactly like the paroxytone σπίτι: του σπιτακιού, τα σπιτάκια, των σπιτακιών.
Τι γλυκό σπιτάκι έχετε!
ti ghlikó spitáki échete
What a cute little house you have!
Πάμε για ένα καφεδάκι;
páme ya éna kafedháki;
Shall we go for a little coffee;
Because -άκι can be tacked onto almost any noun, this class is genuinely open-ended — you'll coin new -άκι words as you go, and they all decline the same way. For the spelling details (why it's -άκι with -αι-, not -άκη) see diminutive spellings, and for how diminutives are formed and what they mean, see diminutives.
Common Mistakes
❌ Το ποδήλατο του παιδίου είναι καινούριο.
to podhílato tu pedhíu íne kenúrio
Incorrect — the genitive is -ιού, not the -ου of the -ο class.
✅ Το ποδήλατο του παιδιού είναι καινούριο.
to podhílato tu pedhiú íne kenúrio
The child's bike is new.
Don't borrow the genitive -ου from the -ο class. A -ι noun takes -ιού in the genitive: παιδί → παιδιού, ψωμί → ψωμιού.
❌ Τα σπιτιά στο χωριό είναι παλιά.
ta spityá sto chorió íne palyá
Incorrect — the plural keeps the stress on the stem: σπίτια.
✅ Τα σπίτια στο χωριό είναι παλιά.
ta spítia sto chorió íne palyá
The houses in the village are old.
The plural of σπίτι is σπίτια (stress on σπί-), not σπιτιά. The end-stress belongs only to the genitive (σπιτιού, σπιτιών).
❌ Η κορίτσι τραγουδάει ωραία.
i korítsi traghudhái oréa
Incorrect — neuter nouns take το, even for a female person.
✅ Το κορίτσι τραγουδάει ωραία.
to korítsi traghudhái oréa
The girl sings beautifully.
Grammatical gender is not biological sex: το κορίτσι (girl) and το αγόρι (boy) are both neuter, so they take το and neuter agreement — a real surprise for English speakers.
❌ Έχω τρία σκυλάκη στο σπίτι.
ého tría skiláki sto spíti
Incorrect — the plural of -άκι is -άκια.
✅ Έχω τρία σκυλάκια στο σπίτι.
ého tría skilákia sto spíti
I have three puppies at home.
Key Takeaways
- Nom = acc = voc (the neuter golden rule); learn the singular and the plural, and the object forms come free.
- Singular genitive -ιού, plural -ια, genitive plural -ιών — all with the -ι- pronounced as a glide (synizesis).
- Paroxytones like σπίτι, κορίτσι, αγόρι shift the accent to the ending in the genitive (σπιτιού, σπιτιών) but keep it on the stem in the plural (σπίτια).
- The productive diminutive -άκι is a member of this class and declines like σπίτι.
- Neuter gender is grammatical: το κορίτσι, το αγόρι take το regardless of the person's sex.
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Start learning Greek→Related Topics
- Neuter Nouns in -οA1 — The friendliest noun class in Greek: neuter -ο nouns (το βιβλίο, το νερό) where the nominative, accusative and vocative are always identical, so in the singular only the genitive -ου stands apart.
- Spelling Diminutive SuffixesB1 — Greek loves little-word suffixes — σπιτάκι, μανούλα, κοπελίτσα — and each has a fixed spelling learners get wrong: -άκι with iota (and it's neuter), -ούλα with ου, -ίτσα with τσ, plus the stress that always lands on the suffix.
- Elision and SynizesisB1 — Why σε αυτό becomes σ' αυτό, από εδώ becomes απ' εδώ, and θα έρθω becomes θα 'ρθω — and why μια is one syllable ('mya'), not two. The vowel-smoothing that makes spoken Greek flow; full forms sound stiff.
- Neuter Nouns in -μαA2 — The productive -μα class (το πρόβλημα, το όνομα, το γράμμα) whose real stem is the hidden -ματ- that surfaces in every case except the nominative: το όνομα → του ονόματος. Miss the -ματ- and you say *του ονόμα.