αυτός vs εκείνος | Greek Grammar

The near-and-far story — αυτός for what is here or in focus, εκείνος for what is genuinely removed — is told on demonstratives, and this page takes it as read. What it does not cover, and what almost no reference covers at all, is the case where nothing is anywhere: both referents are people or things that exist only in the conversation you are having. There is no room to point at, no distance in metres to measure. Greek still chooses between αυτός and εκείνος, and the choice is still meaningful — it is just measuring a different kind of distance.

That distance is discourse distance: how recently something was mentioned, how firmly it holds the listener's attention, whether the sentence is still about it. Once you can read that, a whole layer of Greek prose opens up, and you stop producing the flat, over-explicit reference chains that mark out a foreign speaker. What happens to these two words in the simpler case — a noun dropped, a thing pointed at — is on demonstrative pronouns.

The scale: nothing, then αυτός, then εκείνος

Greek's default third-person reference is not αυτός. It is nothing at all. The verb ending carries the person, so a subject that carries on unchanged from the previous clause gets no pronoun — the habit described on when to use (and drop) subject pronouns — and that silence is itself a signal. Putting an overt pronoun in says the subject has changed.

Ο Θανάσης πέρασε από τον Μιχάλη το βράδυ. Έφυγε κατά τις δώδεκα.

o Thanásis pérase apó ton Micháli to vrádhi. éfiye katá tis dhódheka

Thanasis dropped in on Michalis in the evening. He left around twelve. (no pronoun — the one who left is Thanasis, the subject we were already on)

Ο Θανάσης πέρασε από τον Μιχάλη το βράδυ. Αυτός έφυγε κατά τις δώδεκα.

o Thanásis pérase apó ton Micháli to vrádhi. aftós éfiye katá tis dhódheka

Thanasis dropped in on Michalis in the evening. Michalis left around twelve. (the overt pronoun signals a switch away from the current subject)

Two sentences, identical except for one word, and they say different things about who went home. This is the core of Greek anaphora and it is invisible to an English speaker, because English has to supply he in both cases and therefore cannot use its presence as a signal.

Η Ελένη πήγε να δει τη διευθύντρια. Αυτή ήταν σε σύσκεψη όλο το πρωί.

i Eléni píye na dhi ti dhiefthíndria. aftí ítan se sískepsi ólo to proí

Eleni went to see the manager. She'd been in a meeting all morning. (αυτή points at the manager, not at Eleni)

The same logic runs into subordinate clauses, where it produces an effect English speakers regularly trip over:

Ο Νίκος είπε ότι θα πληρώσει το λογαριασμό.

o Níkos ípe óti tha plirósi to loghariazmó

Nikos said he'd pay the bill. (no pronoun — Nikos is paying)

Ο Νίκος είπε ότι αυτός θα πληρώσει το λογαριασμό.

o Níkos ípe óti aftós tha plirósi to loghariazmó

Nikos said that he — somebody else — would pay the bill. (the overt αυτός is read as a switch away from Nikos)

The preference is strong rather than absolute: contrastive stress overrides it, and Ο Νίκος είπε ότι ΑΥΤΟΣ θα πληρώσει ("Nikos said he'd pay, not you") is ordinary Greek. But if you want the embedded subject to be the same person as the main one, the safe and natural thing is to say nothing at all. Inserting αυτός out of English habit is one of the most reliable ways to make a Greek listener ask "who?".

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Learn the ladder as three settings, not two: Ø = the same subject continues; αυτός = we are switching to another referent already in play; εκείνος = we are reaching for one that has slipped out of focus. Every one of them is a choice, including the one where you say nothing.

In object position the unmarked form is the clitic

One correction before going further, because "αυτός is the unmarked third person" is true only in the subject slot. As an object, the unmarked anaphor is the clitic τον / την / το — and a strong αυτόν in that slot is never neutral, exactly as emphatic object pronouns sets out.

Τον ξέρω χρόνια και δεν τον έχω δει ποτέ θυμωμένο.

ton kséro chrónia ke dhen ton écho dhi poté thimoméno

I've known him for years and I've never seen him angry. (the clitic is the ordinary 'him')

Αυτόν ξέρω, τον άλλον δεν τον έχω ξαναδεί ποτέ μου.

aftón kséro, ton álon dhen ton écho ksanadhí poté mu

Him I know — the other one I've never seen before in my life. (the strong form is contrastive)

εκείνος: away from the centre of attention

εκείνος reaches for a referent that is not where the listener's attention currently sits. In practice that means one of two things: someone mentioned further back, or someone who is in the sentence but is not what the sentence is about.

Πήγα στο γραφείο να βρω τον Παπαδόπουλο, αλλά εκείνος είχε ήδη φύγει.

pígha sto ghrafío na vro ton Papadhópulo, alá ekínos íche ídhi fíyi

I went to the office to find Papadopoulos, but he'd already left.

The sentence is about me — I am the subject of both halves in the speaker's mind — so εκείνος reaches away from me and lands on Papadopoulos, even though he is the most recently mentioned person. Distance here is not "how many words ago"; it is "how far from what we are currently talking about".

Της είπα ότι δεν προλαβαίνω. Εκείνη επέμενε ότι έχω χρόνο.

tis ípa óti dhen prolavéno. ekíni epémene óti écho chróno

I told her I didn't have time. She insisted that I did.

"The former" and "the latter" — and the catch

When both words appear in the same breath, picking up two referents that were named together, they split the pair by recency: αυτός takes the one named last (English the latter) and εκείνος the one named first (the former). The logic is the spatial one carried over intact — the last thing said is the one still "near" you.

Στη σύσκεψη ήταν ο Βασιλείου και ο Αντωνίου· αυτός συμφώνησε, εκείνος όχι.

sti sískepsi ítan o Vasilíu ke o Andoníu· aftós simfónise, ekínos óchi

Vasiliou and Antoniou were at the meeting — Antoniou agreed, Vasiliou didn't.

Now the catch, and it is worth being honest about it rather than pretending the system is tidier than it is. That mapping holds only when the two pronouns come as a pair. A lone εκείνος, with no αυτός opposite it, is not doing "former/latter" at all — it is doing the job in the previous section, reaching away from whatever the sentence is currently about. And those two jobs can point in opposite directions: in Πήγα να βρω τον Παπαδόπουλο, αλλά εκείνος…, a "former/latter" reading would have sent εκείνος to the first-mentioned person, which is me — and εκείνος cannot mean the speaker.

This is exactly why careful Greek writing does not lean on the contrast when money or blame is involved. It repeats the name, or numbers the referents:

Ο πρώτος υπέγραψε αμέσως, ο δεύτερος ζήτησε προθεσμία μιας εβδομάδας.

o prótos ipéghrapse amésos, o dhéfteros zítise prothezmía mias evdhomádhas

The first signed straight away; the second asked for a week's grace.

There is also a (formal) pair inherited from older written Greek, ο μεν … ο δε, which does the former/latter job unambiguously. You will meet it in editorials, legal prose and academic writing; you do not need to produce it.

Συναντήθηκαν ο υπουργός και ο δήμαρχος· ο μεν ζήτησε παράταση, ο δε αρνήθηκε κατηγορηματικά.

sinandíthikan o ipurghós ke o dhímarchos· o men zítise parátasi, o dhe arníthike katighorimatiká

The minister and the mayor met — the former asked for an extension, the latter flatly refused. (formal / written)

The narrative εκείνος

In fiction, and in journalism that is trying to sound like fiction, εκείνος / εκείνη becomes a stylistic device: it keeps a character at arm's length and gives the sentence a certain gravity. This is very common in Greek novels and in translated ones, and it is one of the clearest register markers in the language.

Εκείνη τον κοίταξε για λίγο και μετά γύρισε το κεφάλι της στο παράθυρο.

ekíni ton kítakse ya lígho ke metá yírise to kefáli tis sto paráthiro

She looked at him for a moment, then turned her head to the window. (literary)

Capitalised Εκείνος has one further, specialised use: in religious writing it refers to God, on exactly the same distancing logic (literary / religious).

Εκείνος γνωρίζει τι έχει η καρδιά του καθενός μας.

ekínos ghnorízi ti échi i kardhiá tu kathenós mas

He knows what is in each of our hearts. (literary / religious)

One warning for anyone arriving from Ancient Greek: ο αυτός meant the same (archaic), and it survives only in fossils. In the modern language αυτός ο… means this…, and the same is ο ίδιος — see ο ίδιος.

The whole continuation scale in one table

Device	What it signals	Register
nothing at all	the same subject carries on	neutral — the default in subject position
clitic τον / την / το	an object already known	neutral — the default in object position
αυτός	switch to another referent already in play	neutral
εκείνος	reach for one that has slipped out of focus; distance	marked; (literary) in narration
ο ίδιος	continue reference to a person already named	(formal) — news writing; see ο ίδιος

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When you are unsure, the safest device is the one English will not let you use: no pronoun at all. Greek reference chains are much emptier than English ones, and a paragraph in which every clause names its subject reads as laboured even when every word in it is correct.

Common Mistakes

1. Translating "the former" with πρώην. A dictionary offers πρώην for former, but it means ex- — a former minister, an ex-partner — and has nothing to do with the first of two things just mentioned.

❌ Μίλησαν ο πρόεδρος και ο γραμματέας· ο πρώην ήταν πιο σαφής.

Incorrect — πρώην means 'ex-' (ο πρώην υπουργός). The first of two just named is εκείνος.

✅ Μίλησαν ο πρόεδρος και ο γραμματέας· εκείνος ήταν πιο σαφής, αυτός μπερδεύτηκε.

mílisan o próedhros ke o ghramatéas· ekínos ítan pio safís, aftós berdhéftike

The chairman and the secretary spoke — the chairman was clearer, the secretary got muddled.

2. Alternating αυτός and εκείνος for one and the same person. English style guides tell you to vary your words; Greek reference does not work that way, and the switch makes the reader hunt for a second person.

❌ Ο Γιώργος άργησε πάλι. Αυτός ζήτησε συγγνώμη και μετά εκείνος έφυγε νωρίς.

Incorrect — neither pronoun belongs here. Αυτός already signals a switch away from Γιώργος, and swapping to εκείνος introduces a third referent on top. For the same man throughout, use no pronoun at all.

✅ Ο Γιώργος άργησε πάλι. Ζήτησε συγγνώμη και μετά έφυγε νωρίς.

o Yórghos áryise páli. zítise sighnómi ke metá éfiye norís

Giorgos was late again. He apologised and then left early.

3. Using εκείνος as your everyday "he". Both sentences below are good Greek, and the difference is register, not correctness — but in a text message the second one reads like the opening of a short story.

Ρώτησα τον Στέλιο και μου είπε ότι δεν ξέρει τίποτα.

rótisa ton Stélio ke mu ípe óti dhen kséri típota

I asked Stelios and he said he doesn't know anything. (everyday — no pronoun at all)

Ρώτησα τον Στέλιο. Εκείνος με κοίταξε και δεν απάντησε.

rótisa ton Stélio. ekínos me kítakse ke dhen apándise

I asked Stelios. He looked at me and said nothing. (narrative / literary)

4. Swapping the pair round. Both versions below are correct Greek, which is precisely the danger — nothing warns you that you have named the wrong person.

Ήρθαν ο Πέτρος και ο Ανδρέας· αυτός κάθισε, εκείνος έμεινε όρθιος.

írthan o Pétros ke o Andhréas· aftós káthise, ekínos émine órthios

Petros and Andreas came in — Andreas sat down, Petros stayed on his feet. (αυτός = the one named last)

Ήρθαν ο Πέτρος και ο Ανδρέας· ο Ανδρέας κάθισε και ο Πέτρος έμεινε όρθιος.

írthan o Pétros ke o Andhréas· o Andhréas káthise ke o Pétros émine órthios

Petros and Andreas came in — Andreas sat down and Petros stayed on his feet. (the repair every careful writer makes)

Key Takeaways

Greek's default third-person subject is no pronoun at all. An overt αυτός signals that the subject has switched to another referent already in play.
That signal reaches into subordinate clauses: Ο Νίκος είπε ότι θα πληρώσει is Nikos paying; …ότι αυτός θα πληρώσει points at somebody else.
"αυτός is the unmarked third person" applies to subjects only. In object position the unmarked form is the clitic, and a strong αυτόν is always contrastive.
εκείνος reaches away from the current centre of attention — which is not the same as "mentioned longest ago".
The former / latter mapping (εκείνος = former, αυτός = latter) works only when both appear as a pair. A lone εκείνος is doing the other job entirely, and can land on the opposite person.
For unambiguous prose, Greek repeats the name or uses ο πρώτος … ο δεύτερος; the (formal) pair ο μεν … ο δε does the same job in written registers.
Εκείνη τον κοίταξε is narrative style (literary); in conversation it sounds like you are reading aloud from a novel.

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