Asking a question in Greek is astonishingly easy for one reason: you don't rearrange anything. Where English flips the subject and verb ("You are — Are you?") or drafts in a helper verb ("You speak — Do you speak?"), Greek leaves the sentence exactly as it stands and just says it with a rising voice. In writing, the only change is the mark at the end. Once you stop looking for the machinery English forces on you, Greek questions become the simplest structure in the language.
Yes/no questions: intonation does all the work
A yes/no question has the same word order as the corresponding statement. You lift your voice at the end, and in writing you close with the Greek question mark ;. Compare each statement with its question — the words are identical:
Μιλάς ελληνικά.
milás eliniká
You speak Greek.
Μιλάς ελληνικά;
milás eliniká;
Do you speak Greek?
Έρχεσαι απόψε.
érchese apópse
You're coming tonight.
Έρχεσαι απόψε;
érchese apópse;
Are you coming tonight?
Look at what the English translations need that the Greek does not: "Do you...?" and "Are you...?" both introduce a helper and swap word order. The Greek pair differs by a single character — the final ; — and by the melody of the voice. That melody, the rising contour that turns a statement into a question, is described on question intonation.
Πίνεις κι άλλο κρασί;
pínis ki álo krasí;
Are you having more wine?
Δουλεύεις αύριο ή έχεις ρεπό;
dhulévis ávrio i échis repó;
Are you working tomorrow, or do you have the day off?
No "do," no inversion
This is the point to hammer home, because English trains such a strong reflex. English builds questions two ways — with do-support ("Do you know?") and with inversion of be and other auxiliaries ("Are you ready?"). Greek uses neither. The verb already carries person and number, so there is nothing to invert and no helper to insert.
Ξέρεις πού είναι η στάση;
kséris pu íne i stási;
Do you know where the bus stop is?
Καταλαβαίνεις τι εννοώ;
katalavénis ti enoó;
Do you understand what I mean?
If you find yourself wanting to translate the English "do" or "are" into a separate Greek word, stop — that word does not exist in a Greek question. Ξέρεις; on its own is a complete question ("Do you know?"), and Είσαι έτοιμος; is "Are you ready?" with no extra verb.
The Greek question mark: ;
In Greek, the question mark is written ; — the character that looks like an English semicolon. This trips up every beginner. The mark you would use for a semicolon in English is used here to close a question. (Greek's own "semicolon," the raised dot ·, is a separate mark.) Every direct question, yes/no or wh-, ends in ;.
Τι ώρα είναι τώρα;
ti óra íne tóra;
What time is it right now?
Πόσο κάνει αυτό;
póso káni aftó;
How much is this?
Wh-questions: front the question word
To ask what, where, when, how, why, who, Greek puts the question word at the front and lets the verb follow — again with no auxiliary and no inversion of the kind English uses. The main interrogatives are:
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| τι | what | Τι κάνεις; |
| ποιος | who / which | Ποιος είναι; |
| πού | where | Πού μένεις; |
| πότε | when | Πότε φεύγεις; |
| πώς | how | Πώς σε λένε; |
| γιατί | why | Γιατί κλαις; |
Τι κάνεις εκεί μόνος σου;
ti kánis ekí mónos su;
What are you doing there on your own?
Πού μένεις τώρα, στο κέντρο;
pu ménis tóra, sto kéndro;
Where do you live now, downtown?
Πώς σε λένε εσένα;
pos se léne eséna;
And what's your name?
Γιατί δεν μου το λες;
yatí dhen mu to les;
Why won't you tell me?
Note the last one: the question word is fronted, and everything else — including the negator δεν and the object pronoun μου — keeps the ordinary statement order that follows it. Nothing about the verb changes just because a question word is in front. The full set of interrogatives and their forms is on wh-questions.
πού, πότε, πώς — accented, and not the same as που, ποτε, πως
Three of the question words are spelling twins of very common little words, and the accent is the only thing that tells them apart:
- πού (where?) vs που (that/who — relative): Πού μένεις; ("Where do you live?") vs το σπίτι που μένω ("the house I live in").
- πώς (how?) vs πως (that — after verbs of saying): Πώς σε λένε; ("What's your name?") vs Ξέρω πως έρχεσαι ("I know that you're coming").
- πότε (when?) vs ποτέ (ever/never): Πότε φεύγεις; ("When are you leaving?") vs δεν φεύγω ποτέ ("I never leave"). Here even the stressed syllable moves.
Πότε φεύγει το τρένο για τη Θεσσαλονίκη;
póte févyi to tréno ya ti Thesaloníki;
When does the train to Thessaloniki leave?
The interrogatives always take the accent; their unaccented look-alikes never do. Which one to write in a given sentence is the subject of πού/που, πώς/πως, πότε/ποτέ. Get the accent wrong and you have written a different word — this is a spelling mistake, not a stylistic slip.
Common Mistakes
1. Importing English "do." No helper verb belongs in a Greek question.
❌ Κάνεις καταλαβαίνεις τα ελληνικά;
Incorrect — Greek has no 'do' in questions. The verb alone is the whole question.
✅ Καταλαβαίνεις τα ελληνικά;
katalavénis ta eliniká;
Do you understand Greek?
2. Adding a form of "to be" for "are you...?" The single conjugated verb is already the whole question.
❌ Είσαι έρχεσαι μαζί μας;
Incorrect — 'are you coming' is expressed by the verb alone, with no added form of 'to be'.
✅ Έρχεσαι μαζί μας;
érchese mazí mas;
Are you coming with us?
3. Closing a question with "?" instead of ;. Greek marks questions with the character that looks like a semicolon.
❌ Τι ώρα ανοίγει το μαγαζί?
Incorrect — a Greek question ends with the Greek question mark, which looks like a semicolon, not with a Latin question mark.
✅ Τι ώρα ανοίγει το μαγαζί;
ti óra aníyi to maghazí;
What time does the shop open?
4. Leaving the accent off the interrogative. Unaccented που is a different word; the question word is πού.
❌ Που πηγαίνεις τόσο βιαστικά;
Incorrect — the interrogative 'where' must carry an accent: πού, not the relative που.
✅ Πού πηγαίνεις τόσο βιαστικά;
pu piyénis tóso viastiká;
Where are you going in such a hurry?
Key Takeaways
- Yes/no questions = the statement, unchanged, said with rising intonation and closed with ;. No "do," no inversion.
- The Greek question mark is ; (it looks like a semicolon); Greek never uses the Latin "?".
- Wh-questions front the question word (Τι κάνεις; Πού μένεις;) and keep normal order after it — the verb is unchanged.
- πού, πώς, πότε carry an accent that distinguishes them from που, πως, ποτέ; getting it wrong writes a different word.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Greek Punctuation: ; and ·A1 — Two marks trip up every learner: the Greek question mark is a semicolon shape ; (Τι κάνεις;), not the Latin ?, and the Greek semicolon is a raised dot · (άνω τελεία). Everything else — commas, full stops, the guillemets «…» — is close to English.