English keeps five words for this job and makes you choose between them before you can finish the sentence: who for people, which for things, whom when it is an object, whose for a possessor, that when the clause is restrictive. Greek keeps one. που attaches to any noun, of any gender, in any number, playing any role inside the clause it introduces, and it never changes a letter.
That is a genuine gift at A2 — and it comes with one bill attached, which this page will point at and then hand over. Because που carries no case, a clause where the relativized thing is not the subject or the direct object has to mark that role some other way, with a little pronoun inside the clause. You will see it previewed below; the mechanism itself belongs to resumptive pronouns in που-clauses.
One word, five English words
| English | Greek | Example |
|---|---|---|
| who (subject) | που | ο άντρας που ήρθε |
| which / that (subject) | που | το τρένο που έφυγε |
| whom / that (object) | που | η κοπέλα που είδα |
| that (restrictive) | που | το βιβλίο που διάβασα |
| who (non-restrictive) | που | ο θείος μου, που μένει έξω |
Ο άντρας που ήρθε χθες είναι ο νέος γείτονας.
o ándras pu írthe chthes íne o néos yítonas
The man who came yesterday is the new neighbour.
Η γυναίκα που μας άνοιξε την πόρτα ήταν η κόρη του.
i yinéka pu mas ánikse tin pórta ítan i kóri tu
The woman who opened the door for us was his daughter.
Τα παιδιά που παίζουν στην αυλή είναι από την πάνω πολυκατοικία.
ta pedhiá pu pézun stin avlí íne apó tin páno polikatikía
The kids playing in the yard are from the block upstairs.
Το βιβλίο που μου δάνεισες ήταν καλύτερο απ' ό,τι περίμενα.
to vivlío pu mu dhánises ítan kalítero ap' óti perímena
The book you lent me was better than I expected.
Masculine singular, feminine singular, neuter plural, neuter singular — subject in the first three, direct object in the fourth. Same word every time. There is nothing to learn here beyond noticing that there is nothing to learn.
που carries no case — the bill
Here is the one place the simplicity costs something. Because που tells you nothing about the role of the thing it stands for, a Greek clause has to supply that information another way whenever the role is anything other than subject or direct object. It does so with a small unstressed pronoun inside the clause.
Η καθηγήτρια που της έστειλα την εργασία δεν απάντησε ακόμα.
i kathiyítria pu tis éstila tin erghasía dhen apándise akóma
The lecturer I sent the essay to hasn't replied yet.
Word for word that is "the lecturer that I-sent-to-her the essay". The της is the resumptive pronoun, and it is not optional. Which roles demand one, which roles forbid one, and why, is the whole subject of resumptive pronouns in που-clauses; at A2 you only need to recognise the shape when you hear it. Subject and direct-object clauses — the great majority — need nothing at all.
που cannot be dropped
English deletes its relative pronoun freely: the book I read, the man I met, the flat we rented. Greek cannot. που is obligatory in every relative clause, and leaving it out does not produce casual Greek, it produces a sentence nobody can parse.
Η ταινία που είδαμε το Σάββατο ήταν τρεις ώρες.
i tenía pu ídhame to Sávato ítan tris óres
The film we saw on Saturday was three hours long.
Το διαμέρισμα που νοικιάσαμε πέρσι είχε υγρασία παντού.
to dhiamérizma pu nikiásame pérsi íche ighrasía pandú
The flat we rented last year had damp everywhere.
Both English translations have no relative word at all. Both Greek originals require one. This is the single most reliable place to catch yourself in the act of translating word by word: if the English has the X I… with nothing between X and I, the Greek needs a που in that gap.
Antecedents that are not nouns
που is not restricted to noun phrases. It hooks onto time and place expressions as well, giving Greek a set of extremely common connectives that English builds out of when, where and now that.
Τη μέρα που γεννήθηκε ο μικρός, έβρεχε ασταμάτητα.
ti méra pu yeníthike o mikrós, évreche astamátita
The day the little one was born it rained non-stop.
Εκεί που πήγαινα στο σχολείο, τώρα έχουν χτίσει πολυκατοικίες.
ekí pu píyena sto scholío, tóra échun chtísi polikatikíes
Where I used to go to school they've now put up blocks of flats.
Τώρα που το σκέφτομαι, δεν του είπα ποτέ ευχαριστώ.
tóra pu to skéftome, dhen tu ípa poté efcharistó
Now that I think about it, I never actually said thank you to him.
Τη φορά που, την εποχή που, τότε που, εκεί που, τώρα που, από τότε που — treat these as ready-made openers. Grammarians argue about where the relative clause stops and the subordinating conjunction begins in τώρα που; the argument does not change anything you say. The conjunction side of που is on που and ότι as complementisers.
One antecedent it does not take on its own is a whole clause. Where English says …, which ruined our schedule, Greek supplies a noun for που to hook onto: πράγμα που ("thing that") and κάτι που ("something that") are the two everyday choices, with γεγονός που ("the fact that") available in formal writing.
Δεν μας ειδοποίησε καθόλου, πράγμα που μας χάλασε όλο το πρόγραμμα.
dhen mas idhopíise kathólu, prághma pu mas chálase ólo to próghrama
He gave us no warning at all, which threw our whole schedule out.
Ψήφισαν όλοι υπέρ, γεγονός που δεν το περίμενε κανείς.
psífisan óli ipér, yeghonós pu dhen to perímene kanís
They all voted in favour, which nobody had expected. (formal)
Restrictive and non-restrictive: the commas do the work
English splits the labour between two words — restrictive that, non-restrictive who/which — and marks the second with commas. Greek uses που for both and lets the commas carry the whole distinction, exactly as the intonation does in speech.
Ο αδερφός μου που μένει στη Γερμανία έρχεται τα Χριστούγεννα.
o adherfós mu pu méni sti Yermanía érchete ta Christúyena
The brother of mine who lives in Germany is coming at Christmas. (no commas: I have more than one brother, and this tells you which)
Ο αδερφός μου, που μένει στη Γερμανία, έρχεται τα Χριστούγεννα.
o adherfós mu, pu méni sti Yermanía, érchete ta Christúyena
My brother, who lives in Germany, is coming at Christmas. (commas: I have one brother, and this is extra information about him)
Both sentences are correct and they say different things. Note what this means for an English speaker reading Greek: the sentence ο θείος μου, που δουλεύει στην τράπεζα would be ungrammatical in English with that, and Greek does not care — που is at home inside commas.
The verb inside agrees with the person of the antecedent
που is invariable, but the verb in its clause is not, and it agrees with the antecedent in person as well as number. When the antecedent is εγώ, εσύ, εμείς or εσείς, the relative verb goes into that person — which English does too (I who am), but only in a register nobody uses, so the instinct does not transfer.
Εγώ που δεν πίνω καφέ έμεινα ξύπνιος μέχρι τις τρεις.
eghó pu dhen píno kafé émina ksípnios méchri tis tris
Me, who doesn't even drink coffee — I was up till three.
Εμείς που πληρώνουμε φόρους δικαιούμαστε μια απάντηση.
emís pu plirónume fórus dhikeómaste mia apándisi
Those of us who pay taxes are entitled to an answer.
The other two που's
Three different words are spelled almost identically, and only one of them is on this page. Sorting them out early stops a lot of confusion later.
| Word | Job | Example |
|---|---|---|
| που | relative — "who / which / that" | ο άντρας που ήρθε |
| που | complementiser after emotion verbs — "that" | Χαίρομαι που ήρθες |
| πού(accented) | question word — "where" | Πού πήγες; |
Χαίρομαι πολύ που σε βλέπω επιτέλους.
chérome polí pu se vlépo epitélus
I'm really glad to see you at last.
Πού το άφησες το κινητό σου; Το ψάχνω μισή ώρα.
pu to áfises to kinitó su; to psáchno misí óra
Where did you leave your phone? I've been looking for it for half an hour.
The accent is not decoration: it is the only thing separating the question word from the other two in writing, and it is a spelling rule Greek children are drilled on for years. That rule is on που or πού?.
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping που because English drops "that". The most frequent single error on this page, and it survives long after the rule is known, because the English sentence supplies the template.
❌ Το βιβλίο διάβασα στις διακοπές ήταν πολύ καλύτερο από την ταινία.
Incorrect — a Greek relative clause must be introduced: Το βιβλίο που διάβασα.
✅ Το βιβλίο που διάβασα στις διακοπές ήταν πολύ καλύτερο από την ταινία.
to vivlío pu dhiávasa stis dhiakopés ítan polí kalítero apó tin tenía
The book I read on holiday was much better than the film.
2. Using ποιος as a relative. English who is both a question word and a relative; Greek keeps them apart. ποιος only ever asks a question.
❌ Ο άνθρωπος ποιος με εξυπηρέτησε ήταν πολύ ευγενικός.
Incorrect — ποιος asks 'who?'; the relative is που: Ο άνθρωπος που με εξυπηρέτησε.
✅ Ο άνθρωπος που με εξυπηρέτησε στο κατάστημα ήταν πολύ ευγενικός.
o ánthropos pu me eksipirétise sto katástima ítan polí evyenikós
The man who served me in the shop was very polite.
3. Using ότι as a relative. English that covers both the relative and the conjunction, so learners map it onto ότι, which is only ever the conjunction.
❌ Το τραγούδι ότι ακούγεται τώρα είναι δικό της.
Incorrect — ότι introduces a reported statement, never a relative clause: Το τραγούδι που ακούγεται.
✅ Το τραγούδι που ακούγεται τώρα είναι δικό της, το έγραψε πέρσι.
to traghúdhi pu akúyete tóra íne dhikó tis, to éghrapse pérsi
The song playing now is hers — she wrote it last year.
4. Writing the relative with an accent. πού with a tonos is the question word "where". The relative που never carries one, and the accent is not a detail Greek readers skim past.
❌ Η κοπέλα πού δουλεύει στο περίπτερο μιλάει τέσσερις γλώσσες.
Incorrect — the accent belongs only to the question word 'where'; the relative is unaccented που.
✅ Η κοπέλα που δουλεύει στο περίπτερο μιλάει τέσσερις γλώσσες.
i kopéla pu dhulévi sto períptero milái téseris ghlóses
The girl who works at the kiosk speaks four languages.
5. Leaving the relative verb in the third person. που does not block agreement; the verb still has to match the person of the antecedent.
❌ Εσύ που ξέρει τη Ρώμη καλά, πες μου πού να πάω πρώτα.
Incorrect — the antecedent is εσύ, so the verb is second person: Εσύ που ξέρεις.
✅ Εσύ που ξέρεις τη Ρώμη καλά, πες μου πού να πάω πρώτα.
esí pu kséris ti Rómi kalá, pes mu pu na páo próta
You know Rome well — tell me where to go first.
Key Takeaways
- που is invariable. One form for who, whom, which and that, for every gender, number and case: ο άντρας που, η γυναίκα που, τα παιδιά που.
- που can never be omitted, even where English drops its relative: το βιβλίο *που διάβασα* for "the book I read".
- Because που carries no case, roles other than subject and direct object normally need a small pronoun inside the clause — previewed here, and set out in full (including the one direct-object case that takes one too) on resumptive pronouns.
- που also takes time and place antecedents: τη μέρα που, τότε που, εκεί που, τώρα που. It does not take a whole clause — for that, Greek supplies a noun: πράγμα που, κάτι που, γεγονός που.
- Restrictive and non-restrictive both use που; the commas alone carry the difference, unlike English that against who/which.
- The verb agrees in person with the antecedent: Εσύ που ξέρεις, Εμείς που πληρώνουμε.
- Do not confuse it with the complementiser που (Χαίρομαι που ήρθες) or the question word πού (Πού πήγες;).
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- The Relative ο οποίοςB2 — The declinable relative of written Greek: ο οποίος / η οποία / το οποίο takes its gender and number from the antecedent and its case from its own job inside the clause, so η εταιρεία της οποίας ο διευθυντής παραιτήθηκε is 'the company whose director resigned'. Full paradigm, the obligatory article, the genitive that translates English 'whose', and where the form actually lives — journalism, academic prose, law and official documents.
- Resumptive Pronouns in που-ClausesC1 — Because που carries no case, a clitic inside the clause has to carry it instead: ο άνθρωπος που του μίλησα, η γυναίκα που της έδωσα το δώρο, ο συγγραφέας που διάβασα το βιβλίο του. The rule role by role — required for the genitive (indirect object and possessor) and for prepositional objects, absent for the subject and for a restrictive direct object, absent again for place and time — plus why this is not clitic doubling and where the clitic stands.
- που vs ο οποίοςB2 — Both are correct Greek and the axis between them is register plus explicitness, not right and wrong: που is light, invariable and covers nine sentences out of ten; ο οποίος marks gender, number and case, which buys you clarity in writing and costs you naturalness in speech. A context-by-context table, the two places where the choice disappears, how ο οποίος fixes an ambiguous attachment, and why piling on ο οποίος in conversation backfires.