English has two words for this territory and makes you choose between them before you open your mouth: I hope for what might still happen, I wish for what will not. Greek uses one word, μακάρι, for both — and then makes the distinction inside the clause, with the tense of the verb after να. Learn to hear that tense and you can say, in a single breath, whether you are still expecting something or merely mourning it.
μακάρι να — the wish word
μακάρι is not a verb. It has no endings and it never conjugates; when it heads a clause, that clause is introduced by να and its verb is fully conjugated. μακάρι itself does nothing but flag what follows as a wish. (Its ancestor is the adjective μακάριος, "blessed"; the Italian magari is the same word, borrowed out of medieval Greek and sent back with a slightly different job.)
Μακάρι να πάνε όλα καλά στην εγχείρηση αύριο.
makári na páne óla kalá stin enchírisi ávrio
I really hope everything goes well with the operation tomorrow.
Μακάρι να έχεις δίκιο, γιατί εγώ έχω χάσει την ελπίδα μου.
makári na échis dhíkio, yatí eghó écho chási tin elpídha mu
I hope you're right, because I've lost hope.
Μακάρι να μην αργήσει η πτήση, έχουμε ανταπόκριση στη Ρώμη.
makári na min aryísi i ptísi, échume andapókrisi sti Rómi
I hope the flight isn't late — we've got a connection in Rome.
It also stands completely alone as a one-word reply, which is one of the most useful things on this page. Someone says Θα προλάβεις; ("Will you make it?") and you answer Μακάρι! — "I hope so! / If only!" The whole clause is left unspoken.
The tense inside is the message
Here is the machinery. What follows να decides whether you are hoping or lamenting:
| After μακάρι να | Reading | Example |
|---|---|---|
| perfective non-past (να έρθει) | open — it may still happen | Μακάρι να έρθει — I hope he comes |
| present (να ξέρει) | open — it may be so | Μακάρι να ξέρει — I hope he knows |
| imperfect (να ερχόταν) | unreal — I don't expect it | Μακάρι να ερχόταν — if only he'd come |
| ήμουν / ήξερα / μπορούσα | contrary to fact right now | Μακάρι να ήξερα — I wish I knew |
Μακάρι να μπορούσα να έρθω μαζί σας, αλλά δουλεύω όλο το σαββατοκύριακο.
makári na borúsa na értho mazí sas, alá dhulévo ólo to savatokíriako
I wish I could come with you, but I'm working all weekend.
Μακάρι να ήξερα τι να σου πω, αλλά δεν έχω περάσει κάτι τέτοιο.
makári na íksera ti na su po, alá dhen écho perási káti tétio
I wish I knew what to tell you, but I've never been through anything like it.
Μακάρι να ερχόταν κι αυτός καμιά φορά χωρίς να τον παρακαλάμε.
makári na erchótan ki aftós kamiá forá chorís na ton parakaláme
If only he'd come along once in a while without us having to beg him.
Why should a past tense mean "not real"? The same reason English says I wish I *were there rather than *I am there: distance in time is the nearest thing a language has to distance from fact. Pushing the verb back a step is a way of saying "this is not where we actually are." Greek, English, Spanish, French and German all reach for the same trick, so the logic should feel familiar even though the forms do not.
One qualification, so the rule does not mislead you later: a past tense after μακάρι is not automatically counterfactual. If the outcome is genuinely unknown to you, μακάρι + an aorist is a hope about the past — Μακάρι να πέρασε καλά ("I hope he had a good time", said by someone who hasn't heard yet). It is when you already know how things went that the past turns into regret, and that whole layer — μακάρι να είχα, ας μην είχα, θα έπρεπε να είχα — is the subject of counterfactual and regret.
Negation, in every one of these, sits inside the clause and is μην, not δεν: Μακάρι να μην το πάρει στραβά. Everything after μακάρι is an ordinary να-clause and behaves like one.
The bare να wish, and how it differs
A wish can also be launched with να alone — Να ζήσεις!, Να περάσετε καλά! — and those blessings are catalogued on standalone να and wishes and toasts. What matters here is the difference in attitude, because the two are not interchangeable:
- να + wish is addressed to a person, it is warm, and it carries no doubt. It is what you say at a door, a birthday, a wedding.
- μακάρι να is aimed at an outcome, and it quietly concedes that the outcome is out of your hands.
Να περάσεις υπέροχα στο ταξίδι και να μας γράφεις!
na perásis ipérocha sto taksídhi ke na mas ghráfis!
Have a wonderful trip and write to us!
Μακάρι να περάσεις καλά, γιατί με τέτοια παρέα ποτέ δεν ξέρεις.
makári na perásis kalá, yatí me tétia paréa poté dhen kséris
I hope you have a good time — with that crowd you never know.
Say the second one to someone at the door of a party and you have wished them well and insulted their friends, which is precisely the sort of thing μακάρι is good for.
The wistful ας
ας with an imperfect does the same wistful job as μακάρι να + imperfect, one shade more resigned — a sigh rather than a wish.
Ας τελείωνε επιτέλους αυτή η ιστορία, δεν αντέχουμε άλλο.
as telíone epitélus aftí i istoría, dhen andéchume álo
If only this business would finally end — we can't take any more.
Careful with the person, though: aimed at the listener, ας + past stops being a wish and becomes a reproach ("you should have…"), which is documented on the particle ας. Ας τελείωνε is a sigh at the world; Ας ερχόσουν νωρίτερα is a complaint about you.
μακάρι next to εύχομαι and ελπίζω
Three neighbours, three different stances. All of them take να (see να after verbs of emotion):
- εύχομαι να — you are performing a wish for somebody: cards, toasts, name days. Slightly formal in the first person singular, entirely standard in fixed formulas.
- ελπίζω να — you think it is genuinely likely enough to plan around.
- μακάρι να — you would love it, but you are not counting on it.
Σου εύχομαι να είσαι πάντα τόσο χαρούμενη όσο σήμερα.
su éfchome na íse pánda tóso charúmeni óso símera
I hope you'll always be as happy as you are today.
Ελπίζω να τα πούμε πριν φύγεις για Θεσσαλονίκη.
elpízo na ta púme prin fíyis ya Thesaloníki
I hope we'll get to talk before you leave for Thessaloniki.
είθε: the literary wish
είθε να is the high-register wish — "may it be that…" (formal, literary). You will meet it in speeches, church language, obituaries and older poetry, and essentially never in conversation, where μακάρι has taken over the whole job. The rustic άμποτε (archaic, folk) is its country cousin, alive now mostly in songs and proverbs.
Είθε να μη ζήσουμε ποτέ ξανά τέτοιες μέρες.
íthe na mi zísume poté ksaná téties méres
May we never live through days like these again.
Use είθε deliberately or not at all: dropped into casual speech it sounds like someone reading from a scroll.
Common Mistakes
1. Following μακάρι with θα. μακάρι selects να; the future particle cannot take its place.
❌ Μακάρι θα έρθει και η Άννα στο τραπέζι.
Incorrect — the clause after μακάρι is introduced by να: Μακάρι να έρθει.
✅ Μακάρι να έρθει και η Άννα στο τραπέζι.
makári na érthi ke i Ána sto trapézi
I hope Anna comes to dinner too.
2. Using the non-past for something that is already contrary to fact. Both sentences are correct; they describe different worlds.
Μακάρι να είμαι κι εγώ εκεί το βράδυ των εγκαινίων.
makári na íme ki eghó ekí to vrádhi ton engeníon
I hope I'll be there too on the night of the opening. (I might be)
Μακάρι να ήμουν κι εγώ εκεί τώρα, αντί να δουλεύω.
makári na ímun ki eghó ekí tóra, andí na dhulévo
I wish I were there too right now, instead of working. (I'm not, and I won't be)
3. Answering "I hope so" word by word. English so has no Greek counterpart here — Greek uses a clitic το, or simply μακάρι.
❌ Ελπίζω έτσι, δεν θέλω να ξαναπεράσω τα ίδια.
Incorrect — 'I hope so' is Το ελπίζω or Μακάρι; ελπίζω does not take έτσι as its object.
✅ Το ελπίζω, δεν θέλω να ξαναπεράσω τα ίδια.
to elpízo, dhen thélo na ksanaperáso ta ídhia
I hope so — I don't want to go through all that again.
4. Reaching for θέλω when the thing is out of reach. θέλω names something you could act on; μακάρι names something you cannot.
Θα ήθελα να πάω στο πανηγύρι φέτος, να δούμε αν προλάβω.
tha íthela na páo sto paniyíri fétos, na dhúme an prolávo
I'd like to go to the festival this year — we'll see if I can manage it.
Μακάρι να πήγαινα στο πανηγύρι, αλλά είμαι με γύψο μέχρι τον Αύγουστο.
makári na píyena sto paniyíri, alá íme me yípso méchri ton Ávghusto
I wish I could go to the festival, but I'm in a cast until August.
Key Takeaways
- μακάρι is invariable and introduces its clause with να; it turns that clause into a wish, and on its own it is a complete reply: Μακάρι!
- The tense after να carries the meaning: non-past = still open ("I hope"), imperfect / ήμουν / ήξερα / μπορούσα = contrary to fact ("I wish").
- A past tense after μακάρι is unreal only when you already know how things went; about an unknown past it is an ordinary hope (Μακάρι να πέρασε καλά).
- Negate inside the clause with μην: Μακάρι να μην αργήσει.
- να-wishes bless a person and carry no doubt; μακάρι targets an outcome and concedes doubt. ας + imperfect is the resigned sigh — but aimed at your listener it becomes reproach.
- Neighbours: εύχομαι performs a wish, ελπίζω expects, μακάρι hopes against the odds; είθε (formal, literary) is the ceremonial version.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Counterfactual and RegretC1 — The grammar of the road not taken: μακάρι να είχα ακούσει, ας μην είχα πάει, θα έπρεπε να το είχα δει — how Greek stacks a wish particle over a pluperfect to reach a past that did not happen, why no θα may enter the wish clause, and where the factive regret of μετανιώνω που parts company with the counterfactual.
- Standalone να: Wishes and Softened CommandsB1 — να can open a main clause with no verb in front of it — carrying wishes and blessings (Να ζήσεις! Να 'σαι καλά), gentle advice softer than a command (Να πας στον γιατρό), and, with an accent, the pointing Νά! (there it is).
- The Particle ας (let / let's)B1 — ας + subjunctive covers the ground the imperative can't reach: 'let's' for ourselves, 'let him / let them' for a third party, and a resigned 'so be it' — always milder and more permissive than a command, negated with μην and, with a past tense, turning into reproach.
- να After Emotion and EvaluationB1 — Verbs and expressions of feeling and judgement — μου αρέσει να, φοβάμαι να, χαίρομαι, λυπάμαι, αξίζει, είναι κρίμα — take a να-clause for the event itself and που for the real fact that stirs the feeling; how to tell which one you need.