Middle-Voice Meanings | Greek Grammar

If you have been translating every -ομαι verb with an English passive, most of your translations have been wrong. Χαίρομαι is not "I am rejoiced." Βρίσκομαι στην Αθήνα is not "I am found in Athens." Δεν τρώγεται is not "it is not eaten." The passive is only one job of this ending — and historically the newest one. The older and broader job is what grammarians call the middle, and this page is the map of what the middle actually means, so that you stop guessing and start recognising.

The through-line: the subject is inside the event

Every use of the ending shares one idea. The active presents the subject as acting outward, on something else. The mediopassive presents the subject as inside the event — as the thing the event happens to, or in, or for. That single notion stretches to cover everything below:

it undergoes the event → passive (το γράμμα γράφτηκε)
it does the event to itself → reflexive (πλένομαι)
two subjects do it to each other → reciprocal (αγκαλιάζονται)
it does the event for itself → self-benefactive middle (δανείζομαι)
it simply is in the state → emotional and mental middle (χαίρομαι)
the event happens to it with nobody involved → spontaneous middle (φαίνεται)

Ancient Greek had a single middle-passive ending set in the present and imperfect, with a separate aorist passive in -θη-; Modern Greek inherited both, fused into the one voice described on the mediopassive overview. The passive meaning rode in on endings that already had all these other jobs — which is why the ending cannot be read as a passive marker.

Doing it for yourself: the self-benefactive middle

The classic middle. The subject performs the action, but the action loops back to its own interest. English usually needs a different verb altogether, which is why these pairs are worth memorising as pairs.

Active (outward)	Middle (for oneself)
δανείζω — I lend	δανείζομαι — I borrow
μοιράζω — I hand out, divide up	μοιράζομαι — I share (in)
γράφω — I write, I enrol (someone)	γράφομαι — I sign up, I enrol
ετοιμάζω — I get (something) ready	ετοιμάζομαι — I get (myself) ready
προμηθεύω — I supply	προμηθεύομαι — I get myself, I stock up on

Δανείστηκα το αμάξι του αδερφού μου για το Σαββατοκύριακο.

dhanístika to amáksi tu adherfú mu ya to savatokíriako

I borrowed my brother's car for the weekend.

Μοιραζόμαστε το γραφείο με άλλες δύο εταιρείες, γι' αυτό είναι φτηνό.

mirazómaste to ghrafío me áles dhío eteríes, yaftó íne ftinó

We share the office with two other companies, that's why it's cheap.

Γράφτηκα στο γυμναστήριο τον Ιανουάριο και πήγα τρεις φορές.

ghráftika sto yimnastírio ton Ianuário ke pígha tris forés

I signed up at the gym in January and went three times.

Note how far δανείζω / δανείζομαι is from a passive. Δανείζομαι does not mean "I am lent"; it means I take a loan for myself — the subject is an active participant who happens also to be the beneficiary. English hides this by using two unrelated words, lend and borrow; Greek does it with one verb and a change of voice.

The two types that live on other pages

Two of the middle's jobs are big enough to have pages of their own. Body care and grooming — πλένομαι, ντύνομαι, χτενίζομαι, ξυρίζομαι, λούζομαι — works because the self is the whole person and the ending is the "myself"; a named body part flips the verb back to the active with a possessive, and all of that is on the reflexive middle. Change of state — καίγομαι, κουράζομαι, ζεσταίνομαι, χάνομαι, σκίζομαι — has the subject undergoing a change with nobody causing it, which is a completely different operation from passivisation, and it is set out on active/passive verb pairs.

Emotions and mental states

Here is the group that surprises English speakers most: in Greek, feeling something is often grammatically something that happens in you, not something you do. A large slice of the emotion vocabulary sits in the -ομαι voice.

Verb	Meaning	Notes
χαίρομαι	be glad, enjoy	χαίρομαι που…, χαίρομαι με…
λυπάμαι	be sorry, feel sorry for	also takes an object: λυπάμαι το παιδί
στεναχωριέμαι	be upset, be sad	also spelled στενοχωριέμαι; both accepted
ντρέπομαι	be embarrassed, be shy	ντρέπομαι να ρωτήσω
φοβάμαι	be afraid	φοβάμαι μη(ν)…
βαριέμαι	be bored, not be bothered	βαριέμαι να σηκωθώ
αγχώνομαι	get stressed, get anxious	everyday, very frequent
εκνευρίζομαι	get irritated	active εκνευρίζω = irritate someone
ενδιαφέρομαι	be interested	ενδιαφέρομαι για…
θυμάμαι	remember	mental, not emotional; a deponent

Χαίρομαι πολύ που τα καταφέρατε, το αξίζατε.

chérome polí pu ta kataférate, to aksízate

I'm really glad you pulled it off — you deserved it.

Στεναχωριέμαι που δεν προλάβαμε να τον δούμε πριν φύγει.

stenachoriéme pu dhen prolávame na ton dhúme prin fíyi

I'm sad we didn't manage to see him before he left.

Ντρέπομαι να του ζητήσω πάλι λεφτά, μου έχει δώσει ήδη πολλά.

drépome na tu zitíso páli leftá, mu échi dhósi ídhi polá

I'm embarrassed to ask him for money again — he's already given me a lot.

The honest part: the voice split is arbitrary

Now the thing no textbook will tell you plainly. There is no semantic rule that predicts which emotion verbs take -ομαι. Several of the most frequent ones are active, and they mean exactly the same kind of thing as their mediopassive neighbours. Read the columns as two lists, not as matched rows — only αισθάνομαι / νιώθω is a genuine pair:

Mediopassive	Active — no -ομαι form in everyday use
χαίρομαι (be glad)	θυμώνω (get angry)
στεναχωριέμαι (be upset)	ανησυχώ (worry)
αισθάνομαι (feel)	νιώθω (feel)
φοβάμαι (be afraid)	ζηλεύω (be jealous)
βαριέμαι (be bored)	μετανιώνω (regret)

θυμώνω is the one to watch, because everything about its meaning says "middle" and its form says active. It is also labile in the way described on active/passive verb pairs: Θύμωσα is "I got angry," and Τον θύμωσα is "I made him angry." νιώθω and αισθάνομαι are the sharpest case of all — two verbs, the same meaning, opposite voices.

Θυμώνω εύκολα όταν είμαι κουρασμένος, αλλά μου περνάει αμέσως.

thimóno éfkola ótan íme kurazménos, alá mu pernái amésos

I get angry easily when I'm tired, but it passes straight away.

Νιώθω άσχημα που δεν σε πήρα τηλέφωνο, το ξέχασα τελείως.

niótho áschima pu dhen se píra tiléfono, to kséchasa telíos

I feel bad that I didn't call you — I completely forgot.

💡

Do not try to derive the voice of an emotion verb from its meaning; there is nothing to derive it from. Learn each one in a whole phrase — χαίρομαι που…, ντρέπομαι να…, θυμώνω με…, ανησυχώ για… — and the ending comes back attached to the preposition or the particle instead of having to be reasoned out.

Things that happen by themselves

A further group uses the ending for events that simply manifest, with no participant beyond the subject: appearing, sounding, becoming, developing.

Φαίνεται ότι δεν πρόκειται να έρθει, έχει αργήσει μιάμιση ώρα.

fénete óti dhen prókite na érthi, échi aryísi miámisi óra

It looks like he isn't coming — he's an hour and a half late.

Ακούγεται ωραία η ιδέα, αλλά ποιος θα τα πληρώσει όλα αυτά;

akúyete oréa i idhéa, alá pios tha ta plirósi óla aftá;

The idea sounds nice, but who's going to pay for all this?

The same goes for γίνεται ("happens") and εξελίσσεται ("develops"). English handles all of these with plain intransitives — seem, sound, happen, develop — so there is no passive anywhere near the translation. Note in passing that the neighbouring sense verb μυρίζει ("smells") is active, one more reminder that the grouping is a tendency, not a law.

The potential middle: "it can't be done"

Now a construction Greek uses constantly and grammars barely mention. Put an inanimate subject with the mediopassive present, usually negated, and the sentence stops describing an event and starts describing a property: not "it is not eaten" but "it is inedible." English does this with an adjective in -able / -ible, or with can't be.

Greek	English
Δεν τρώγεται	It's inedible
Δεν πίνεται	It's undrinkable
Δεν διαβάζεται	It's illegible / unreadable
Δεν φοριέται	It's unwearable
Δεν αντέχεται	It's unbearable
Δεν λέγεται	You don't say that / it's indescribable

Δεν διαβάζεται το γράψιμό σου, γράψε μου το με κεφαλαία.

dhen dhiavázete to ghrápsimó su, ghrápse mu to me kefaléa

Your handwriting is illegible — write it out for me in capitals.

Ο καφές έμεινε δύο ώρες στο τραπέζι, δεν πίνεται πια.

o kafés émine dhío óres sto trapézi, dhen pínete pia

The coffee's been sitting on the table for two hours — it's undrinkable now.

Η ζέστη τον Αύγουστο στην πόλη δεν αντέχεται με τίποτα.

i zésti ton Ávghusto stin póli dhen andéchete me típota

The August heat in the city is absolutely unbearable.

The reading is overwhelmingly a negative one — you comment on what can't be done far more often than on what can — but the positive exists too, usually as a question: Τρώγεται αυτό; ("Is this edible?"). What makes it a middle rather than a passive is that no one is doing anything: the sentence is about a permanent property of the subject, not about an event with a suppressed agent. Try adding an από-phrase and the whole reading collapses back into an ordinary passive.

💡

The tell for the potential middle is that you can replace the Greek with an English adjective. If δεν + -εται comes out naturally as "un-something-able," you are looking at a property, not an event — and no agent is implied, so do not go hunting for one.

Reading a new -ομαι verb

Put the types together and a practical order of questions falls out. Is the subject inanimate and the sentence negated? Try the potential reading ("un-X-able") first. Does the subject undergo a change? Inchoative. Is the verb about feeling or thinking? A state — translate it with an English intransitive or a be + adjective. Does an από-agent fit comfortably? Only then is it a plain passive. And if the verb has no active twin at all, it is a deponent and none of this applies — it just means what it means.

Common Mistakes

1. Giving θυμώνω a mediopassive ending. The verb for getting angry is active, in spite of everything its meaning suggests.

❌ Θυμώνομαι πολύ όταν μου μιλάνε έτσι.

Incorrect — 'I get angry' is the active θυμώνω, which is intransitive on its own: Θυμώνω πολύ…

✅ Θυμώνω πολύ όταν μου μιλάνε έτσι.

thimóno polí ótan mu miláne étsi

I get really angry when people talk to me like that.

2. Making νιώθω match αισθάνομαι. They mean the same thing and take opposite voices; only αισθάνομαι carries the -ομαι.

❌ Νιώθομαι πολύ καλύτερα σήμερα, ευχαριστώ.

Incorrect — νιώθω is active; the mediopassive verb with this meaning is αισθάνομαι.

✅ Νιώθω πολύ καλύτερα σήμερα, ευχαριστώ.

niótho polí kalítera símera, efcharistó

I feel much better today, thanks.

3. Using χαίρω for "I'm glad." The verb of being glad is χαίρομαι. The active χαίρω survives in the greeting Χαίρω πολύ ("pleased to meet you") and in (formal) collocations meaning "enjoy" — χαίρω άκρας υγείας, χαίρει μεγάλης εκτίμησης — but it does not do the everyday "I'm glad that…".

❌ Χαίρω που ήρθες, σε περίμενα όλο το απόγευμα.

Incorrect — for 'I'm glad that…' the verb is χαίρομαι που… The active χαίρω belongs to the greeting Χαίρω πολύ and to formal collocations like χαίρω άκρας υγείας.

✅ Χαίρομαι που ήρθες, σε περίμενα όλο το απόγευμα.

chérome pu írthes, se perímena ólo to apóyevma

I'm glad you came — I've been waiting for you all afternoon.

4. Translating "I'm bored" with είμαι + adjective. English bored and boring are two participles of one verb; Greek splits them across a middle verb and an adjective.

❌ Είμαι βαρετός, ας βγούμε κάπου απόψε.

Incorrect for 'I'm bored' — βαρετός means 'boring', so this describes you, not your mood. Being bored is the middle βαριέμαι.

✅ Βαριέμαι, ας βγούμε κάπου απόψε.

variéme, as vghúme kápu apópse

I'm bored — let's go out somewhere tonight.

Key Takeaways

The -ομαι ending is not a passive marker. Its through-line is that the subject is inside the event — undergoing it, doing it to or for itself, or simply being in the state.
Self-benefactive middles pair with an outward-facing active: δανείζω/δανείζομαι (lend/borrow), μοιράζω/μοιράζομαι (hand out/share), γράφω/γράφομαι (enrol someone/sign up).
A large part of the emotion vocabulary is mediopassive — χαίρομαι, λυπάμαι, στεναχωριέμαι, ντρέπομαι, φοβάμαι, βαριέμαι, αγχώνομαι, ενδιαφέρομαι — but the split is arbitrary: θυμώνω, ανησυχώ, νιώθω, ζηλεύω, μετανιώνω are active. Learn the voice with the verb.
Spontaneous middles (φαίνεται, ακούγεται, γίνεται, εξελίσσεται) translate as English intransitives, not as passives.
The potential middle — δεν τρώγεται, δεν διαβάζεται, δεν αντέχεται — states a property, not an event, and matches English un-…-able.
When an -ομαι verb has no active twin, stop analysing: it is a deponent and the voice carries no meaning at all.

Now practice Greek

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Greek →