English has exactly one word for the object "me". Greek has two, and they are not synonyms you can pick between on a whim — they belong to two different grammatical species. εμένα is a full word: it carries stress, it can be shouted, it can answer a question all by itself. με is a clitic: it has no stress of its own, it cannot be said in isolation, and it survives only by leaning on the verb in front of it. Choosing between them is not a style decision — it is forced by the sentence. This is the single biggest structural difference between the English and Greek pronoun systems, and it runs through everything else in this group: get the two series clear now and forty pages of detail turn into footnotes.
The two series, side by side
| Strong (stressed) | Weak (clitic) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Subject | Object / after prep. | Direct object | Indirect obj. / poss. |
| I / me | εγώ | εμένα | με | μου |
| you (sg.) | εσύ | εσένα | σε | σου |
| he / him | αυτός | αυτόν | τον | του |
| she / her | αυτή | αυτή(ν) | την | της |
| it | αυτό | αυτό | το | του |
| we / us | εμείς | εμάς | μας | μας |
| you (pl. / polite) | εσείς | εσάς | σας | σας |
| they / them (m.) | αυτοί | αυτούς | τους | τους |
| they / them (f.) | αυτές | αυτές | τις | τους |
| they / them (n.) | αυτά | αυτά | τα | τους |
Three observations before you memorise anything. First, the strong forms all begin with ε- in the first and second person (εγώ, εμένα, εμείς, εμάς) — that ε- is the audible signal that you are hearing a stressed pronoun. Second, the third person has no dedicated word at all: it borrows the demonstrative αυτός, which is why "they" is gendered three ways. Third, there is no separate everyday strong genitive — when you need a stressed "to me", you say σε εμένα, not a bare genitive.
Με φώναξε ο διευθυντής στο γραφείο του και κατάλαβα αμέσως γιατί.
me fónakse o dhiefthindís sto ghrafío tu ke katálava amésos yatí
The manager called me into his office and I knew straight away why.
Εμένα με φώναξε, εσένα ούτε που σε κοίταξε.
eména me fónakse, eséna úte pu se kítakse
Me, he called in — you he didn't even look at.
The second sentence contains both series doing different jobs: εμένα and εσένα carry the contrast, while με and σε carry the grammar. That pairing — a strong form for emphasis plus a weak one for the syntax — is completely ordinary Greek, and it is covered on emphatic object pronouns.
What "weak" actually means
"Unstressed" sounds like a detail of pronunciation. It is not — it has hard syntactic consequences, and they are the fastest way to tell which form a slot needs. A clitic cannot do any of the following four things.
It cannot stand alone. A one-word answer must be strong.
— Ποιον περιμένεις; — Εσένα, ποιον άλλο;
— pion periménis; — eséna, pion álo;
— Who are you waiting for? — You, who else?
It cannot follow a preposition. Prepositions want a stressed word after them, so every preposition in the language takes a strong pronoun — the subject of pronouns after prepositions.
Το πακέτο ήρθε για σένα, όχι για μένα.
to pakéto írthe ya séna, óchi ya ména
The parcel came for you, not for me.
It cannot be joined to something else with και. Coordination needs two full words.
Κάλεσαν εμένα και τον Στέφανο, τους άλλους όχι.
kálesan eména ke ton Stéfano, tus álus óchi
They invited me and Stefanos, not the others.
It cannot be emphasised. You physically cannot put contrastive stress on με — there is nowhere for the stress to land. If you need to make the object the point of the sentence, you must reach for the strong form.
Why English gives you no help here
English does have unstressed pronouns in speech: I saw 'er yesterday reduces her just as thoroughly as Greek reduces την. But English never gave those reduced forms their own spelling, their own position in the sentence, or their own grammar. Greek did. The result is that a Greek clitic sits in a fixed slot in front of the verb, nowhere near where English puts its object.
Μου το είπε χθες το βράδυ και δεν το πίστεψα.
mu to ípe chthes to vrádhi ke dhen to pístepsa
He told me last night and I didn't believe it.
Word for word that is "me it he-told" — two pronouns stacked in front of the verb, in the mirror image of the English order. This is not poetic word order; it is the only order available. Learners who translate English word by word produce something no Greek speaker has ever said.
Hard skill 1: accusative or genitive
Every weak pronoun forces a case choice that English does not have. Accusative (με, σε, τον, την, το) marks the person the verb acts on; genitive (μου, σου, του, της) marks the person it is aimed at or happens to. English uses me for both.
Την είδα στο σουπερμάρκετ και της είπα για το πάρτι.
tin ídha sto supermárket ke tis ípa ya to párti
I saw her at the supermarket and told her about the party.
Two pronouns for the same woman in one sentence, in two different cases, because βλέπω grabs a person and λέω aims something at one. The decision procedure, the verb lists and the good news about μας and σας are all on case forms of the weak pronouns; the underlying case jobs are on accusative direct object and genitive indirect object.
Hard skill 2: where the clitic goes
The second skill is placement, and it has one rule with one exception. A clitic goes immediately before a finite verb — nothing may come between them — except after a positive imperative, where it goes behind.
Δεν μου το είπες ποτέ αυτό.
dhen mu to ípes poté aftó
You never told me that.
Πες μου την αλήθεια, σε παρακαλώ.
pes mu tin alíthia, se parakaló
Tell me the truth, please.
Same two words, opposite sides of the verb, because the second one is a command. That flip, and the machinery behind it, belong to where clitics go and proclisis and enclisis — this page only promises you that the flip exists.
Where to go next
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| The pronoun system: strong vs weak(this page) | The map: two series, four columns, two hard skills |
| Personal pronouns | |
| Subject pronouns | εγώ, εσύ, αυτός… and εσείς doing duty as the polite singular |
| When to use (and drop) subject pronouns | Why Μιλάω ελληνικά beats Εγώ μιλάω ελληνικά, and what adding the pronoun signals |
| Emphatic object pronouns | εμένα, εσένα, αυτόν — the object pronoun you can put weight on |
| Pronouns after prepositions | σ' εμένα, από σένα, μαζί μου — and why σε με is impossible |
| The weak (clitic) series | |
| The clitic pronouns | The whole weak series in one place: forms, behaviour, why the language has them |
| Direct-object clitics | με, σε, τον, την, το and their plurals — the everyday object |
| Indirect-object clitics | μου, σου, του, της — the everyday recipient |
| Possessive clitics | The same forms after a noun: ο φίλος μου, το σπίτι της |
| Where clitics go | The core placement rule and what may never come between clitic and verb |
| Proclisis and enclisis | The full before/after account, including να, θα, δεν and the gerund |
| Clitics with the imperative | Δώσε μου το — the one everyday context where the clitic follows |
| Two clitics at once | Μου το έδωσε: stacking an indirect and a direct object |
| Clitic order | Which of the two comes first, and the rules that decide it |
| Clitic doubling | Εμένα με ρώτησε, Της Μαρίας της το είπα — saying it twice on purpose |
| Experiencer clitics | Μου αρέσει, μου λείπει, μου φαίνεται — the person things happen to |
| The neuter clitic το | το standing in for a whole clause: Το ξέρω, Το κατάλαβα |
| Accent in clitic clusters | Where the extra accent lands when clitics pile up behind a verb |
| Possessive pronouns | |
| δικός μου: the emphatic possessive | "my own", "mine" — the stressed alternative to the possessive clitic |
| Choosing a possessive | The clitic, δικός μου and the article: which one when |
| εγώ ο ίδιος: intensive pronouns | "I myself", "the man himself" — adding weight to a pronoun |
| Demonstrative pronouns | |
| Demonstratives as pronouns | αυτός and εκείνος standing alone, with no noun behind them |
| αυτός vs εκείνος | The near/far split, and why Greek needs two words where English has four |
| Demonstratives in discourse | Pointing back at what was just said, and tracking two referents at once |
| Relative pronouns | |
| The relative που | The one invariable relative that does almost all the work |
| ο οποίος | The declined relative, and the registers that call for it |
| Choosing που or ο οποίος | The decision, with the cases where only one of them will do |
| Relatives after a preposition | στον οποίο, με την οποία — and the spoken workaround with που |
| Resumptive pronouns in relative clauses | το βιβλίο που σου το έδωσα — the clitic που leaves behind |
| Free relatives | όποιος, ό,τι, όσος, όπου — "whoever", "whatever", "as much as" |
| Interrogative pronouns | |
| Question words | ποιος, τι, πόσος, ποιανού — the forms and their cases |
| τι vs ποιος | "What" or "which" — the choice English makes for you and Greek does not |
| Questions with a preposition | Σε ποιον; Από πού; — why Greek never strands a preposition |
| Indefinite pronouns | |
| Indefinite pronouns | κάποιος, κάτι, κανείς, τίποτα and the rest of the family |
| Negative polarity: κανένας and τίποτα | One word for "anybody" and "nobody", decided by the δεν |
| κάτι vs κάποιος | Something versus someone — and the uses that cross the line |
| ο καθένας and κανένας | Everyone, each one, anyone, no one — a set that looks alike and is not |
| Reflexive and reciprocal | |
| ο εαυτός μου | Greek's reflexive is a noun: "my self", fully declined |
| Reflexive or mediopassive? | Πλένομαι or πλένω τον εαυτό μου — the two ways to turn a verb on yourself |
| Saying "each other" | The everyday reciprocal patterns, including ο ένας τον άλλον |
| αλλήλων | The learned reciprocal in μεταξύ τους, αλληλοβοηθιούνται and formal prose |
| Impersonal and generic | |
| The generic "you" | Λες και… — second person singular meaning "one, people in general" |
| Impersonal subjects | Greek has no dummy "it": βρέχει, πρέπει, φαίνεται stand on their own |
Common Mistakes
1. Answering a question with a clitic. A weak pronoun cannot survive without a verb; on its own it is not a short answer, it is nothing.
❌ — Ποιον ρώτησες πρώτα; — Σε.
Incorrect — a clitic cannot stand alone. The one-word answer must be the strong form: Εσένα.
✅ — Ποιον ρώτησες πρώτα; — Εσένα, φυσικά.
— pion rótises próta; — eséna, fisiká
— Who did you ask first? — You, obviously.
2. Joining a clitic to a noun with και. Coordination is a job for full words only.
❌ Προσκάλεσαν με και τον αδερφό μου στον γάμο.
Incorrect — a clitic cannot be coordinated with a noun phrase; a coordinated object takes the strong form: εμένα και τον αδερφό μου.
✅ Προσκάλεσαν εμένα και τον αδερφό μου στον γάμο.
proskálesan eména ke ton adherfó mu ston ghámo
They invited me and my brother to the wedding.
3. Using a strong form as an everyday possessive. Possession after a noun is always the genitive clitic — there is no "of me" option.
❌ Πού είναι το τηλέφωνο εμένα;
Incorrect — possession is carried by the genitive clitic attached to the noun: το τηλέφωνό μου.
✅ Πού είναι το τηλέφωνό μου; Το άφησα εδώ πριν από ένα λεπτό.
pu íne to tiléfonó mu; to áfisa edhó prin apó éna leptó
Where's my phone? I left it here a minute ago.
4. Putting a clitic after a preposition. English from you has one you; Greek forces the strong one.
❌ Αυτό το δώρο είναι από σε;
Incorrect — a preposition is always followed by a strong pronoun: από σένα / από εσένα.
✅ Αυτό το δώρο είναι από σένα; Δεν το περίμενα καθόλου.
aftó to dhóro íne apó séna; dhen to perímena kathólu
Is this present from you? I wasn't expecting it at all.
Key Takeaways
- Greek personal pronouns come in two series: strong forms (εγώ, εμένα, εσένα, αυτόν) that carry stress, and weak clitics (με, μου, σε, σου, τον, του) that do not.
- A clitic cannot stand alone, follow a preposition, be coordinated with και, or be emphasised. Those four tests decide which series a slot needs, every time.
- The strong first- and second-person forms are recognisable by their initial ε-; the third person has no pronoun of its own and borrows the demonstrative αυτός, gender and all.
- Hard skill one is the accusative/genitive split — με versus μου — which English does not mark at all.
- Hard skill two is placement: the clitic sits immediately before a finite verb, and jumps behind a positive imperative.
- The clitics are the workhorses; the strong forms are the exception you deploy for emphasis, contrast and after prepositions. Beginners tend to get this exactly backwards.
Now practice Greek
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Weak (Clitic) Pronouns OverviewA1 — The complete weak series — με, σε, τον, την, το, μας, σας, τους, τις, τα and μου, σου, του, της — fourteen unstressed words that carry the object of almost every Greek sentence and every possessive. Includes the fact nobody warns you about: six of them are letter-for-letter the definite article, and only the word standing next to them tells you which is which.
- Subject PronounsA1 — The ten forms of εγώ, εσύ, αυτός, εμείς, εσείς — all of them stressed on the final syllable, all of them optional, and the third person borrowed wholesale from the demonstrative αυτός. Includes the polite εσείς and its odd agreement (plural verb, singular adjective) when you are addressing one person.
- Case Forms of the Weak PronounsA2 — The one decision behind every clitic pronoun in Greek — accusative με/σε/τον/την/το for what the verb acts on, genitive μου/σου/του/της for who receives or undergoes it — why μας and σας let you off the hook, and the verb lists that decide it for you.