English marks a contrastive possessive with the voice alone: that's *my coat, said with weight on *my, and nothing on the page changes. Greek cannot do that, because its everyday possessive μου is a clitic — an unstressed syllable with nowhere for stress to land. So when ownership becomes the point of the sentence, Greek does not raise its voice; it changes words, to δικός μου.
That makes δικός μου the possessive half of a split you have already met with the pronouns: an unstressed everyday form and a stressed emphatic one, chosen by what the sentence is doing rather than by taste. The neutral clitic is on possessive determiners; this page is the stressed alternative.
The forms
δικός is an ordinary adjective of the -ός / -ή / -ό class. It agrees with the thing owned, exactly like καλός, and it is always followed by a possessive clitic that names the owner. The stress never leaves the ending.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. sg. | δικός μου | δική μου | δικό μου |
| Gen. sg. | δικού μου | δικής μου | δικού μου |
| Acc. sg. | δικό μου | δική μου | δικό μου |
| Nom. pl. | δικοί μου | δικές μου | δικά μου |
| Gen. pl. | δικών μου | ||
| Acc. pl. | δικούς μου | δικές μου | δικά μου |
Two halves, two different jobs, and they are easy to mix up. The ending of δικός tracks the possession — δική μου τσάντα because τσάντα is feminine. The clitic tracks the owner and never changes shape — μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους, exactly the seven you already know. So δική σου is "your (fem. thing)" and δικοί τους is "their (masc. pl. things)".
Αυτό το κλειδί δεν είναι δικό μου, δικό σου θα είναι.
aftó to klidhí dhen íne dhikó mu, dhikó su tha íne
This key isn't mine — it must be yours.
Η δική της πρόταση ήταν πολύ πιο απλή από τη δική μου.
i dhikí tis prótasi ítan polí pio aplí apó ti dhikí mu
Her proposal was a lot simpler than mine.
Attributive: το δικό μου αυτοκίνητο
In front of a noun, δικός μου takes the ordinary adjective slot and the article stays: article + δικός μου + noun. The meaning is contrastive — my car as opposed to somebody else's.
Το δικό μου αμάξι είναι το κόκκινο, δίπλα στο φορτηγό.
to dhikó mu amáksi íne to kókino, dhípla sto fortighó
My car is the red one, next to the lorry.
Πάρε το δικό σου μπουφάν, αυτό είναι της αδερφής σου.
páre to dhikó su bufán, aftó íne tis adherfís su
Take your own coat — this one is your sister's.
Ο Πέτρος έφερε το δικό του λάπτοπ γιατί δεν εμπιστεύεται τα δικά μας.
o Pétros éfere to dhikó tu láptop yatí dhen embistévete ta dhiká mas
Petros brought his own laptop because he doesn't trust ours.
There is a second, heavier attributive order in which δικός μου follows the noun and takes its own article — το αυτοκίνητο το δικό μου. It is grammatical and emphatic, the same doubled-article shape as ο πρόεδρος ο ίδιος on ο ίδιος. What you cannot do is put δικός μου after the noun without that second article.
Predicative: Αυτό είναι δικό μου
After είναι the article disappears and δικός μου agrees with the subject. This is the Greek for English mine, yours, his — the possessive pronouns English keeps as a separate set.
Αυτά τα γυαλιά είναι δικά σου; Τα βρήκα κάτω από τον καναπέ.
aftá ta yaliá íne dhiká su; ta vríka káto apó ton kanapé
Are these glasses yours? I found them under the sofa.
Το λάθος ήταν δικό μου και το παραδέχομαι.
to láthos ítan dhikó mu ke to paradhéchome
The mistake was mine and I admit it.
Note the second one. Greek uses this construction for abstract ownership just as readily as for objects: δικό μου λάθος (my fault), δικό σου θέμα (your business), δική της απόφαση (her decision). The dismissive Δικό σου θέμα — "that's your problem" (informal) — is worth learning as a fixed phrase.
Δικό σου θέμα τι θα κάνεις, εγώ σου είπα τη γνώμη μου.
dhikó su théma ti tha kánis, eghó su ípa ti ghnómi mu
What you do is your business — I've given you my opinion. (informal)
Standing alone: το δικό μου
Drop the noun and keep the article, and δικός μου becomes a full pronoun — English mine, yours, his, but with an article in front and an ending that still tells you what has been left out. Το δικό μου is a neuter thing, η δική μου a feminine one, τα δικά μου several neuter ones. This is the shape you need for comparisons, where English has to repeat the noun or reach for a possessive pronoun.
Πάρε το δικό σου και άσε τα υπόλοιπα στο ράφι.
páre to dhikó su ke áse ta ipólipa sto ráfi
Take yours and leave the rest on the shelf.
Τα δικά μου είναι στο πάνω συρτάρι, μην τα ανακατέψεις.
ta dhiká mu íne sto páno sirtári, min ta anakatépsis
Mine are in the top drawer — don't mix them up.
The neuter plural has a further, vaguer sense: τα δικά μου / τα δικά μας can mean "my own affairs, our own business", which is where the very common (informal) Ας έρθουμε στα δικά μας — "let's get back to our own business" — comes from.
Without an article: "a place of my own"
Drop the article in front of a noun and the phrase becomes indefinite, and the meaning shifts in a way that has no clean English single-word equivalent. Το σπίτι μου is the house I live in. δικό μου σπίτι, with no article, is a house I own — the ownership itself is the news, not which house it is.
Έχω επιτέλους δικό μου γραφείο, μετά από δέκα χρόνια σε ανοιχτό χώρο.
écho epitélus dhikó mu ghrafío, metá apó dhéka chrónia se anichtó chóro
I finally have an office of my own, after ten years in an open-plan space.
Το πλήρωσα με δικά μου λεφτά, δεν ζήτησα από κανέναν.
to plírosa me dhiká mu leftá, dhen zítisa apó kanénan
I paid for it with my own money — I didn't ask anybody.
This is the construction to reach for whenever English says of my own or my own in the sense of not borrowed, not shared, not somebody else's.
Forcing the "his own" reading
Third-person του and της are ambiguous in Greek in a way English is not: πήγε στο γραφείο του can mean he went to his own office or to another man's. The stressed possessive resolves it, because it can be contrasted, and a contrasted possessor is understood as the subject.
Ο Πέτρος υπέγραψε με το δικό του όνομα, όχι με ψευδώνυμο.
o Pétros ipéghrapse me to dhikó tu ónoma, óchi me psevdhónimo
Petros signed with his own name, not with a pseudonym.
οι δικοί μου: family, and people who are yours
Standing alone in the masculine plural, οι δικοί μου means my family, my people — parents, relatives, the ones who count as yours. It is one of the most common phrases in the language and it is not obvious from the parts.
Οι δικοί μου δεν ξέρουν ακόμα ότι παραιτήθηκα από τη δουλειά.
i dhikí mu dhen ksérun akóma óti paretíthika apó ti dhuliá
My family still don't know I've resigned.
Είναι δικός μας άνθρωπος, μπορείς να του μιλήσεις ανοιχτά.
íne dhikós mas ánthropos, borís na tu milísis anichtá
He's one of us — you can speak to him openly.
The same phrase in the singular has a further (informal) use: ο δικός μου and the colloquial feminine η δικιά μου are how a lot of people refer to their partner — "my own one".
Η δικιά μου δεν τρώει καθόλου κρέας, οπότε μαγειρεύω δύο πράγματα.
i dhikiá mu dhen trói kathólu kréas, opóte mayirévo dhío prághmata
My other half doesn't eat meat at all, so I cook two things. (informal)
Two neighbours are worth keeping apart from δικός μου, because English pushes all three towards -self or own. ο ίδιος means the same or in person; μόνος μου means unaided, on my own; δικός μου means belonging to me. Only the third is about ownership. The other two are worked out on ο ίδιος.
Common Mistakes
1. Not agreeing δικός with the thing owned. It is an adjective, and the owner has nothing to do with its ending.
❌ Αυτή η τσάντα είναι δικός μου.
Incorrect — δικός agrees with the possessed noun, and τσάντα is feminine: είναι δική μου.
✅ Αυτή η τσάντα είναι δική μου, την αναγνωρίζω από το σημάδι.
aftí i tsánda íne dhikí mu, tin anaghnorízo apó to simádhi
This bag is mine — I recognise it from the mark.
2. Using the bare clitic to say "mine". English this book is mine tempts a word-for-word rendering, but a clitic cannot stand after είναι; it has no noun to lean on.
❌ Αυτό το βιβλίο είναι μου.
Incorrect — a predicate possessive needs the stressed form: είναι δικό μου.
✅ Αυτό το βιβλίο είναι δικό μου, έχει το όνομά μου μέσα.
aftó to vivlío íne dhikó mu, échi to ónomá mu mésa
This book is mine — it's got my name written inside.
3. Leaving out the clitic. δικός is not a word meaning "own"; without an owner attached it is incomplete.
❌ Αυτό το ποδήλατο είναι δικό.
Incorrect — δικός always carries a possessive clitic: είναι δικό μου / δικό σου / δικό της.
✅ Αυτό το ποδήλατο είναι δικό της, το πήρε πέρσι τα Χριστούγεννα.
aftó to podhílato íne dhikó tis, to píre pérsi ta Christúyena
This bike is hers — she got it last Christmas.
4. Separating δικός from its clitic. Ordinary adjectives let the possessive move to the end of the phrase; δικός does not.
❌ Το δικό αμάξι μου είναι στο συνεργείο.
Incorrect — the clitic sits immediately after δικός: το δικό μου αμάξι.
✅ Το δικό μου αμάξι είναι στο συνεργείο εδώ και μια βδομάδα.
to dhikó mu amáksi íne sto sineryío edhó ke mia vdhomádha
My car has been at the garage for a week now.
5. Using δικός μου for "on my own". English own covers both ownership and doing something unaided; Greek splits them.
❌ Πήγα δικός μου στο νοσοκομείο.
Incorrect — 'on my own, unaided' is μόνος μου; δικός μου is about ownership: Πήγα μόνος μου.
✅ Πήγα μόνος μου στο νοσοκομείο, δεν ήθελα να ανησυχήσει κανείς.
pígha mónos mu sto nosokomío, dhen íthela na anisichísi kanís
I went to the hospital on my own — I didn't want to worry anyone.
Key Takeaways
- δικός μου is the stressed possessive, used wherever the ownership is contrastive or is the point of the sentence. The unstressed clitic remains the default.
- It is an -ός / -ή / -ό adjective agreeing with the thing owned, plus an invariable clitic naming the owner: δική σου τσάντα, δικά τους παιδιά.
- Attributive: article + δικός μου + noun (το δικό μου αμάξι). The heavier post-nominal order needs a second article (το αμάξι το δικό μου).
- Predicative: no article after είναι (Αυτό είναι δικό μου) — this is the Greek for English mine, yours, hers.
- No article in front of a noun gives the "of my own" reading: Έχω δικό μου γραφείο, με δικά μου λεφτά.
- δικός του forces the reflexive reading that the plain clitic leaves ambiguous: με το δικό του όνομα = with his own name.
- οι δικοί μου = my family, my people; δικός μας άνθρωπος = one of us; δικό σου θέμα = your problem (informal).
- Keep it apart from ο ίδιος (the same, in person) and μόνος μου (unaided).
Now practice Greek
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Possessive CliticsA1 — μου after a noun is 'my'; μου in front of a verb is 'to me'. Same seven words, two completely different jobs, and nothing but position to tell them apart — including the sentences where both turn up at once (Μου έφερε το βιβλίο μου). The one page in the group about reading and producing that difference.
- All the Ways to Say 'My'A2 — A decision page: one table matching every possession situation to the construction Greek uses for it — the everyday clitic το σπίτι μου, the contrastive το δικό μου σπίτι, the genitive noun το σπίτι του Γιάννη, the emotional η ίδια μου η μητέρα and the reflexive ο εαυτός μου — with a link to the page that teaches each one properly.
- ο ίδιος: 'same' and '-self'B1 — One Greek word covers both English 'the same' and the emphatic '-self', and the only thing separating them is how many definite articles you use: ο ίδιος πρόεδρος is the same president, ο ίδιος ο πρόεδρος is the president himself. Also the possessive frame η ίδια μου η μητέρα, the adverb Μου κάνει το ίδιο, and why ο ίδιος is not the reflexive ο εαυτός μου.
- Possessive Determiners (μου, σου, του)A1 — Greek marks possession with seven unstressed little words placed after the noun — το βιβλίο μου, η μητέρα σου, το σπίτι τους — none of which changes for the thing owned. This page gives the forms, then answers the question the beginner pages skip: why the same clitic can also land in front of the noun (ο καλύτερός μου φίλος) or even in front of the article (όλη μου τη ζωή).
- Genitive: PossessionA1 — Greek has no apostrophe-s and no word for 'of' — possession is built head-first, with the possessed thing coming before the genitive possessor (το σπίτι του Γιάννη), and everyday 'my/your/his' handled by the unstressed clitics μου, σου, του that trigger a second accent on the noun.