Clitic Ordering and Contraction | Greek Grammar

The basic ordering fact — genitive before accusative, μου το and never ×το μου — is taught with drills on two clitics together, and this page assumes it. What it adds is everything that sits around the pair: the negator, the future particle, the subjunctive marker, the subordinator, all of which are also unstressed, all of which have their own fixed slot, and one of which changes its spelling depending on which clitic follows it.

The result is that a perfectly ordinary Greek sentence can open with four unstressed words in a row before anything stressed arrives. Δεν θα σου το ξαναπώ is five words and one accent. Learning the slots is what turns that run from a blur into a structure.

The template

Everything that can precede the verb does so in this order, and no element may be moved, repeated or skipped over.

1	2	3	4	5	6
subordinator να, ας, ότι, που, όταν, wh-	negator δεν, μη(ν)	future θα	genitive clitic	accusative clitic	VERB
—	Δεν	θα	σου	το	ξαναπώ
Να	μην	—	του	το	πεις
Ας	—	—	τους	τα	στείλουμε
Όταν	—	—	μου	τα	έδειξε
Ποιος	—	—	σου	το	είπε;

Two boundary facts are worth stating explicitly, because both are guessed wrong. The negator comes before θα, not after it — Greek says δεν θα, in the order English uses for will not only in the contracted won't. And να and ας come before the negator: να μην, ας μην, never the reverse.

One thing the table cannot show: slots 1–3 are paired, not free. An indicative clause takes δεν in the negator slot and may fill the θα slot — δεν θα σου το ξαναπώ. A subjunctive clause takes να or ας in slot 1, μη(ν) in the negator slot, and leaves the θα slot empty for good — να μην του το πεις. Crosswise fillings like ×μην θα and ×να δεν do not occur, so in practice you are choosing between two shapes rather than filling six independent boxes.

Δεν θα σου το ξαναπώ, πρόσεχε τι κάνεις.

dhen tha su to ksanapó, próseche ti kánis

I won't tell you again — watch what you're doing.

Να μην του το πεις, θέλω να το μάθει από εμένα.

na min tu to pis, thélo na to máthi apó eména

Don't tell him — I want him to hear it from me.

Ας τους τα στείλουμε όλα μαζί την Παρασκευή.

as tus ta stílume óla mazí tin Paraskeví

Let's send them everything together on Friday.

Ποιος σου το είπε αυτό; Δεν το ξέρει κανείς.

pios su to ípe aftó; dhen to kséri kanís

Who told you that? Nobody knows about it.

Όταν μου τα έδειξε, δεν πίστευα στα μάτια μου.

ótan mu ta édhikse, dhen písteva sta mátia mu

When he showed them to me, I couldn't believe my eyes.

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Slots 4 and 5 hold at most one clitic each. A Greek cluster is never three clitics long: any string of three unstressed words in front of a verb is particle + genitive + accusative (θα μου το, να σου τα, δεν μας το), never three pronouns. If you have talked yourself into a third one, one of them belongs somewhere else in the sentence.

The third-person genitives in slot 4

The first slot of the cluster is where the third-person forms need care, because two of them collide with something else.

Form	In slot 4 it means	Also looks like	Example
του	to him / to it	the genitive article, and "his"	Του το είπα.
της	to her	the genitive article, and "her"	Της το είπα.
τους	to them (any gender)	the accusative "them" (masc.)	Τους το είπα.

τους is the one to watch. It is the genitive plural for all three genders — "to them" is τους whether they are men, women or tables — and it is also the masculine accusative plural. Position resolves it: in τους τα έδωσα, the τους is the genitive, because slot 4 comes first. And της never becomes τις in this slot, however it is pronounced; τις is an accusative and belongs in slot 5.

Τους το ανακοίνωσαν την τελευταία στιγμή και θύμωσαν όλοι.

tus to anakínosan tin teleftéa stighmí ke thímosan óli

They announced it to them at the last minute and everyone was furious.

Της τα έστειλε ο δικηγόρος με συστημένο.

tis ta éstile o dhikighóros me sistiméno

The lawyer sent them to her by registered post.

The -ν that comes and goes

Here is the piece of machinery that no other page in this group owns, and it is where careful writers separate themselves. Three of the words in the template end in -ν, and each of them decides whether to keep it by looking at the sound that comes next — which, inside a cluster, is not the verb but the neighbouring clitic.

The rule itself is the general final-ν rule: the -ν stays before a vowel and before the stops κ, π, τ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ, and drops before the continuants β, γ, δ, ζ, θ, λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, φ, χ.

The negator μη(ν) looks at the first clitic. So the very same command comes out two ways depending on which pronoun follows:

Μη μου το ζητάς αυτό, δεν μπορώ να το κάνω.

mi mu to zitás aftó, dhen boró na to káno

Don't ask me for that — I can't do it.

Μην το αφήνεις εκεί, θα το πατήσει κανείς.

min to afínis ekí, tha to patísi kanís

Don't leave it there, someone will step on it.

μη before μου (a continuant), μην before το (a stop). Nothing about the verb is involved — the negator only ever looks at the word touching it, which inside a cluster is the genitive clitic. The alternation has survived better with μη(ν) than with δεν, which modern practice keeps written in full almost everywhere, so δεν μου το είπε is what you should write whatever follows. Where each of these words is heading is tracked on final-ν.

The accusative clitic in slot 5 looks at the verb. την and τον sit immediately in front of it, so they are the ones that alternate:

Μου τη ζήτησε ευγενικά και του την έδωσα.

mu ti zítise evyeniká ke tu tin édhosa

He asked me for it politely and I gave it to him.

One sentence, both outcomes: τη before ζ- and την before έ-. The masculine τον is the exception that makes life easier — modern convention keeps its -ν in every position, because dropping it would leave το, and το is a different pronoun.

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Work outwards. Each -ν in the string is decided by the immediately following word, never by the word it belongs to and never by the verb at the end. That single habit gets μη μου, μην το, μου τη and μου την right without four separate rules to remember.

Contractions in speech

Two reductions are so common in the spoken language that not recognising them costs you whole sentences.

σου + το → στο, σου + τα → στα (informal). The genitive σου fuses with the following neuter accusative. It is written στο or, more carefully, σ' το — and it is homographic with the preposition-plus-article στο ("in the"), which is why the careful spelling exists.

Στο είπα και στο ξαναλέω: μη δανείζεις λεφτά σε φίλους.

sto ípa ke sto ksanaléo: mi dhanízis leftá se fílus

I told you and I'm telling you again: don't lend money to friends. (informal)

Σου το είπα ήδη δύο φορές σήμερα το πρωί.

su to ípa ídhi dhío forés símera to proí

I've already told you twice this morning. (the unreduced spelling — normal in writing)

The verb's initial vowel disappears after the clitic (informal). In μου είπε, σου έδωσα, του έφερα the verb's stressed initial syllable is swallowed and an apostrophe marks the gap: μου 'πε, σου 'δωσα, του 'φερα, with the stress landing on what is left. This is the same aphaeresis that gives θα 'ρθω and να 'μαι, and it is spoken Greek and dialogue in fiction, not the register of a report.

Μου 'πε ότι θα αργήσει και μετά δεν εμφανίστηκε.

mu 'pe óti tha aryísi ke metá dhen emfanístike

He told me he'd be late and then never showed up. (informal)

Μου είπε ότι θα καθυστερήσει και τελικά δεν ήρθε καθόλου.

mu ípe óti tha kathisterísi ke teliká dhen írthe kathólu

He told me he would be delayed and in the end he didn't come at all. (neutral / written)

Where the cluster is blocked

Three environments do not allow the pair you might expect.

Two accusatives cannot cluster. Verbs like ρωτάω, κερνάω and ταΐζω take an accusative person and an accusative thing, listed on two objects: case assignment — but Greek will not stack two accusative clitics. Only one of the two can become a clitic; the other stays a full phrase.

The accusative clitic must be third person. Once slot 4 holds a genitive clitic, slot 5 can only hold τον, την, το, τους, τις, τα. "They introduced you to me" has no cluster at all — ×Μου σε σύστησαν is impossible — and Greek repairs it by moving the first person out to a full phrase: Σε σύστησαν σ' εμένα. Linguists call this the Person Case Constraint; Greek obeys it in its strictest form.

❌ Μου σε σύστησαν πέρσι σε ένα συνέδριο.

Incorrect — the accusative clitic in a cluster must be third person, so a genitive + σε pair is impossible. Move the first person out: Σε σύστησαν σ' εμένα.

✅ Σε σύστησαν σ' εμένα πέρσι, δεν το θυμάσαι;

se sístisan s' eména pérsi, dhen to thimáse;

They introduced you to me last year — don't you remember?

Nothing may be inserted. Not between the clitics, not between the cluster and the verb — not even the subject, which in Greek can otherwise appear almost anywhere.

In compound tenses the clitics go in front of the auxiliary. έχω and its clitics do not separate: the cluster attaches to the finite verb, which is έχω, not to the invariant form after it.

Μου το έχει υποσχεθεί τρεις φορές και το ξεχνάει κάθε φορά.

mu to échi iposchethí tris forés ke to ksechnái káthe forá

He's promised it to me three times and forgets every time.

Δεν μας τα είχαν στείλει, γι' αυτό καθυστέρησε η αίτηση.

dhen mas ta íchan stíli, y' aftó kathistérise i étisi

They hadn't sent them to us, which is why the application was delayed.

Behind a command: same order, extra accent

Enclisis flips the whole block behind the verb without touching its internals: the genitive still leads. What changes is the written accent, because the verb plus its clitics is counted as one stress group.

Δείξε μού τα πριν τα στείλεις στον πελάτη.

dhíkse mú ta prin ta stílis ston peláti

Show them to me before you send them to the client.

Πες του το εσύ, εμένα δεν με ακούει.

pes tu to esí, eména dhen me akúi

You tell him — he doesn't listen to me.

The first gains a second accent and the second does not, and the condition that separates them is the business of the accent on clitic clusters. Which verb forms take enclisis at all is on proclisis and enclisis.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting the clitic in front of the negator. The clitic belongs in slot 4, immediately before the verb; δεν and μην come earlier.

❌ Μου δεν το είπε ποτέ.

Incorrect — the negator opens the string: Δεν μου το είπε ποτέ.

✅ Δεν μου το είπε ποτέ, το έμαθα από αλλού.

dhen mu to ípe poté, to ématha apó alú

He never told me — I heard it from somewhere else.

2. Negating after θα. English will not puts the negation second; Greek puts it first.

❌ Θα δεν σου το πω.

Incorrect — the order is negator then θα: Δεν θα σου το πω.

✅ Δεν θα σου το πω, όσο κι αν επιμείνεις.

dhen tha su to po, óso ki an epimínis

I'm not going to tell you, however much you insist.

3. Clustering two accusative clitics. English I asked you that has two pronouns; Greek can only cliticise one of them.

❌ Σε το ρώτησα και δεν απάντησες.

Incorrect — ρωτάω takes two accusatives, and two accusative clitics cannot cluster; keep one of them as a full phrase.

✅ Σε ρώτησα κάτι και δεν απάντησες.

se rótisa káti ke dhen apándises

I asked you something and you didn't answer.

4. Getting the -ν wrong on the accusative clitic. Before a vowel the ν is not optional.

❌ Μου τη έδωσε η αδερφή σου.

Incorrect — before a vowel the clitic keeps its ν: μου την έδωσε.

✅ Μου την έδωσε η αδερφή σου το πρωί.

mu tin édhose i adherfí su to proí

Your sister gave it to me this morning.

5. Splitting the cluster around έχω. Both clitics attach to the auxiliary; neither may follow it.

❌ Δεν μου έχει το δώσει ακόμα.

Incorrect — the whole cluster precedes έχω: Δεν μου το έχει δώσει ακόμα.

✅ Δεν μου το έχει δώσει ακόμα, το ζητάω δύο βδομάδες.

dhen mu to échi dhósi akóma, to zitáo dhío vdhomádhes

He still hasn't given it to me — I've been asking for two weeks.

Key Takeaways

The pre-verbal string is subordinator › negator › θα › genitive clitic › accusative clitic › verb, and no element jumps its slot.
δεν and μην precede θα (δεν θα σου το πω), and να / ας precede the negator (να μην του το πεις).
Slots 4 and 5 hold one clitic each: a Greek cluster is never three pronouns, only particle + genitive + accusative.
In slot 4, τους is the genitive "to them" for every gender, and της never appears as τις.
Every final -ν in the string is decided by the next word: μη μου but μην το; μου τη ζήτησε but μου την έδωσε. Masculine τον keeps its -ν always.
Spoken contractions to recognise: στο / στα for σου το / σου τα, and μου 'πε, σου 'δωσα for the swallowed initial syllable (aphaeresis) — both (informal).
The cluster is blocked when the accusative would be 1st or 2nd person (×μου σε — the Person Case Constraint) and with two accusatives (ρωτάω, κερνάω, ταΐζω); it cannot be split by anything, and must sit in front of έχω in compound tenses.
Enclisis after a positive command changes the position, not the order: Δείξε μού τα, Πες του το.

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