Each of these words has its own page, and those pages do the heavy lifting: the declension of καθένας and the everyday ο καθένας are on κάθε and καθένας, the paradigm of κανένας and the obligatory δεν are on κανένας, the forms of όλος are on όλος, and the distributive tag πληρώσαμε δέκα ευρώ ο καθένας is on distributives.
What none of them can do on its own is the thing you actually need at B2: line the three up against each other. They quantify over the same group of people and they disagree about how to package it. ο καθένας walks through the group one member at a time. όλοι grabs the whole group at once. κανένας empties it. Change nothing in a sentence but the quantifier and you change what happened.
The opposition in one table
| ο καθένας | όλοι | κανένας | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does to the set | runs through it member by member | takes it as one body | empties it |
| Number of the verb | singular | plural | singular |
| Needs δεν? | no | no | yes, in a statement |
| Has a plural? | no | it is a plural | no |
| Collective predicate (gather, meet) | impossible | natural | — |
| English | each one, everyone | all, everybody | nobody; anybody |
The table describes the three as quantifiers in plain assertions, which is where the opposition is visible. Move κανένας into a question or an αν-clause and it changes job entirely — it needs no δεν there and means a plain any — as κανένας sets out.
The same sentence, three times
Here is the opposition at work. One event, one verb, three quantifiers:
Ο καθένας υπέγραψε χωριστά, σε δικό του χαρτί.
o kathénas ipéghrapse choristá, se dhikó tu chartí
Each one signed separately, on his own sheet of paper.
Όλοι υπέγραψαν το ίδιο κείμενο.
óli ipéghrapsan to ídhio kímeno
They all signed the same text.
Κανένας δεν υπέγραψε τελικά, φοβήθηκαν.
kanénas dhen ipéghrapse teliká, fovíthikan
In the end nobody signed — they got scared.
Three sheets of paper, one sheet of paper, and no signatures. Notice the machinery that comes with each: ο καθένας takes a singular verb even though several people signed, όλοι takes a plural one, and κανένας drags δεν along and is singular again. In a statement that last point is not negotiable — the negator stays even when κανένας is at the front of the clause, which is the strict negative concord that separates Greek from Spanish and Italian.
A second pair, with the object doing the work instead of the verb:
Όλοι έλαβαν το ίδιο μήνυμα από τη γραμματεία.
óli élavan to ídhio mínima apó ti ghramatía
Everyone got the same message from the office.
Ο καθένας έλαβε διαφορετική ώρα εξέτασης.
o kathénas élave dhiaforetikí óra eksétasis
Each of them got a different exam time.
The test that tells ο καθένας from όλοι
There is a diagnostic that settles the distributive/collective question every time, and it is worth carrying around. Some predicates can only be true of a group: gathering, meeting, surrounding, splitting a bill, agreeing with each other. You cannot gather on your own. Those predicates take όλοι and reject ο καθένας, because ο καθένας hands the predicate one person at a time and one person cannot gather.
Όλοι μαζεύτηκαν στην πλατεία γύρω στις εννιά.
óli mazéftikan stin platía yíro stis eniá
They all gathered in the square around nine.
Ο καθένας ψήφισε όπως ήθελε και κανείς δεν το συζήτησε μετά.
o kathénas psífise ópos íthele ke kanís dhen to sizítise metá
Each of them voted as they saw fit and nobody discussed it afterwards.
The second sentence works because voting is something an individual does on their own; swap in a collective verb — συμφώνησαν μεταξύ τους, μαζεύτηκαν — and it collapses, while the first sentence would refuse ο καθένας for exactly that reason. The όλος page makes the same point about the determiner κάθε — the pronouns behave identically, because the difference is semantic, not morphological.
Scope: "nobody came" and "not everybody came" are miles apart
This is the hardest thing on the page and the most useful. Put a negation next to a universal quantifier and there are two possible readings, and they are not close in meaning:
- The negation swallows the whole set — not one member did it. That is κανένας: Δεν ήρθε κανένας.
- The negation swallows only the word "all" — some did, some did not. That is δεν + όλοι: Δεν ήρθαν όλοι.
Δεν απάντησαν όλοι στο ερωτηματολόγιο, αλλά είχαμε αρκετές απαντήσεις.
dhen apándisan óli sto erotimatolóyio, alá íchame arketés apandísis
Not everyone answered the questionnaire, but we had plenty of responses.
Δεν μπορούν όλοι να δουλεύουν από το σπίτι — κάποιοι πρέπει να είναι εκεί.
dhen borún óli na dhulévun apó to spíti — kápii prépi na íne ekí
Not everyone can work from home — some people have to be there.
Κανένας δεν μπορεί να μπει χωρίς ραντεβού, ούτε οι υπάλληλοι.
kanénas dhen borí na bi chorís randevú, úte i ipálili
Nobody can get in without an appointment, not even the staff.
Greek keeps the two apart lexically — by which word you use — not by where you put δεν. That is a relief, because English is genuinely treacherous here: all of them didn't come can be heard either way, and not everybody can work from home has to be assembled out of two words. Greek makes you commit before you open your mouth.
One thing that does not produce the "not everyone" reading is negating ο καθένας. A negated ο καθένας is perfectly good Greek, but it means something else entirely — "not just anybody", the dismissive reading described on κάθε and καθένας. If you want ¬all, you need όλοι.
The partitive triple: ο καθένας μας, όλοι μας, κανένας μας
All three take a possessive clitic to produce English of us / of you / of them, and the three-way contrast survives intact in that frame. It is worth drilling as a set, because this is where the distinctions show up in real conversation.
Ο καθένας μας είχε άλλη γνώμη και δεν καταλήξαμε πουθενά.
o kathénas mas íche áli ghnómi ke dhen katalíksame puthená
Each of us had a different opinion and we got nowhere.
Όλοι μας συμφωνήσαμε τελικά, χωρίς ψηφοφορία.
óli mas simfonísame teliká, chorís psifoforía
In the end all of us agreed, without a vote.
Κανένας μας δεν ήξερε τι να πει, μείναμε να την κοιτάμε.
kanénas mas dhen íksere ti na pi, míname na tin kitáme
None of us knew what to say — we just stood there looking at her.
Read the verbs: ο καθένας μας ξέρει (singular, third person), όλοι μας ξέρουμε (plural, first person), κανένας μας δεν ξέρει (singular, third person, plus δεν). The asymmetry is not arbitrary. όλοι μας is a plural set that contains the speaker — it unpacks as εμείς όλοι, so the verb goes first-person plural. ο καθένας and κανένας stay singular no matter which set they are drawn from, so the μας hanging off them is only a partitive tag and the verb stays third-person singular.
Where ο ένας τον άλλον fits — and where it does not
Morphologically ο ένας τον άλλον belongs to the same -ένας neighbourhood, and learners meet it in the same lesson, so it is worth saying plainly that it is doing a different job. It does not quantify over a set at all: it distributes a relation across the members of a pair or a group, which is why it needs a plural subject and why it has two slots to fill.
Δεν μιλιούνται εδώ και μήνες, κατηγορούν ο ένας τον άλλον για όλα.
dhen miliúnde edhó ke mínes, katighorún o énas ton álon ya óla
They haven't spoken for months — they blame each other for everything.
The full construction — how the two halves take their cases, the feminine η μία την άλλη, and the alternative αλλήλους — is on the reciprocal.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving κανένας the article that ο καθένας takes. The two words are two letters apart and only one of them accepts ο.
❌ Ο κανένας δεν ήξερε πού είναι τα κλειδιά.
Incorrect — the quantifier κανένας does not take the definite article the way ο καθένας does: Κανένας δεν ήξερε…
✅ Κανένας δεν ήξερε πού είναι τα κλειδιά του γραφείου.
kanénas dhen íksere pu íne ta klidhiá tu ghrafíu
Nobody knew where the office keys were.
2. Building "each of us" out of κάθε. κάθε cannot govern a partitive από-phrase; the pronoun is what handles of us.
❌ Κάθε από εμάς έφερε κάτι για το τραπέζι.
Incorrect — κάθε cannot take a partitive από-phrase; use ο καθένας μας or καθένας από εμάς.
✅ Ο καθένας μας έφερε κάτι για το τραπέζι.
o kathénas mas éfere káti ya to trapézi
Each of us brought something for the table.
3. Putting ο καθένας in front of a collective predicate. One person cannot assemble.
❌ Ο καθένας συγκεντρώθηκε στο προαύλιο πριν από την τελετή.
Incorrect — συγκεντρώνομαι needs a group subject, so the quantifier must be όλοι.
✅ Όλοι συγκεντρώθηκαν στο προαύλιο πριν από την τελετή.
óli singendróthikan sto proávlio prin apó tin teletí
Everyone gathered in the yard before the ceremony.
4. Letting the partitive μας pull the verb into the first person. ο καθένας and κανένας stay third-person singular whatever clitic is hanging off them.
❌ Ο καθένας μας ξέρουμε τι πρέπει να κάνουμε.
Incorrect — the subject is ο καθένας, third person singular; μας is only a partitive tag: Ο καθένας μας ξέρει τι πρέπει να κάνει.
✅ Ο καθένας μας ξέρει τι πρέπει να κάνει, ας μη λέμε άλλα.
o kathénas mas kséri ti prépi na káni, as mi léme ála
Each of us knows what we have to do — let's not say any more about it.
5. Reaching for κανένας when you mean "not everybody". Both of these are correct Greek; they report opposite outcomes, and picking the wrong one is not a grammar error but a factual one.
Δεν ήρθαν όλοι στη συνέλευση, αλλά είχαμε απαρτία.
dhen írthan óli sti sinélefsi, alá íchame apartía
Not everyone came to the meeting, but we had a quorum. (some people did come)
Δεν ήρθε κανένας στη συνέλευση και την αναβάλαμε.
dhen írthe kanénas sti sinélefsi ke tin anaválame
Nobody came to the meeting and we postponed it. (the room was empty)
Key Takeaways
- ο καθένας distributes, όλοι collects, κανένας empties. Change only the quantifier and the number of events in the sentence changes with it.
- Agreement follows the packaging: ο καθένας → singular verb, όλοι → plural verb, κανένας → singular verb plus, in a statement, an obligatory δεν in every word order.
- The collective-predicate test is decisive: μαζεύτηκαν, συγκεντρώθηκαν, συμφώνησαν μεταξύ τους need όλοι, because ο καθένας hands them one person at a time.
- Scope is lexical in Greek. ¬∃ is κανένας (Δεν ήρθε κανένας); ¬∀ is δεν + όλοι (Δεν ήρθαν όλοι). Negating ο καθένας gives neither — it gives the dismissive "not just anybody".
- The partitive triple — ο καθένας μας, όλοι μας, κανένας μας — keeps all three distinctions, and the verb still follows the quantifier: ο καθένας μας ξέρει and κανένας μας δεν ξέρει stay third-person singular, while όλοι μας ξέρουμε goes first-person plural.
- ο ένας τον άλλον is in the same word family but does a different job: it distributes a relation over a plural subject rather than quantifying a set.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- κάθε and καθένας: 'each/every'A2 — κάθε is the one determiner in Greek that never changes shape and never takes an article — κάθε μέρα, κάθε άνθρωπος, κάθε δύο ώρες — and it forces a singular noun and a singular verb where English says 'everyone… their'. Its pronoun partner does decline (ο καθένας, του καθενός, της καθεμιάς), and with the article it is the everyday word for 'everyone'.
- κανένας: 'no/any' and NegationA2 — κανένας / καμιά / κανένα is Greek's 'nobody' and its 'any' in one word, and it never works alone: Δεν ήρθε κανείς needs both δεν and κανείς, because Greek stacks negatives instead of cancelling them. Full paradigm, the κανείς/κανένας doublet, the obligatory δεν even in Κανείς δεν ήρθε, and the friendly spoken reading in Πάμε για κανένα ποτό;
- όλος: 'all' and 'whole'A2 — One Greek word covers English all, whole, everybody and everything — and the noun's number decides which: όλο το βιβλίο is 'the whole book' but όλα τα βιβλία is 'all the books'. Full paradigm of όλος (including the single genitive plural όλων), the floating use in Τα έφαγε όλα, and the idioms όλο και πιο, πάνω απ' όλα, είμαι όλος αυτιά.
- Reciprocal: 'each other'B1 — The full inventory of Greek's 'each other' devices: the verb ending, the everyday μεταξύ τους, and the precise ο ένας τον άλλον — how the phrase is built out of two slots (a nominative echo of the subject, then whatever case the verb or preposition wants), why the preposition goes in the middle, the feminine η μία την άλλη and neuter το ένα το άλλο, the genitive ο ένας του άλλου, the sequential ο ένας μετά τον άλλον, and the learned αλλήλων you read but never say.