ανεβαίνω (to go up) | Greek Grammar

English gets a great deal of mileage out of up: you go up, you take something up, you upload a photo, you put a play on. Greek splits that work between two verbs and never lets them overlap. ανεβαίνω is what you do; ανεβάζω is what you do to something else. Choosing the wrong one is the single most common thing that goes wrong with this verb.

Principal parts

Slot	Form	Note
Present	ανεβαίνω, -νεις, -νει, -νουμε, -νετε, -νουν(ε)	go up, climb, rise
Imperfect	ανέβαινα	plural ανεβαίναμε, ανεβαίνατε
Aorist	ανέβηκα, ανέβηκες, ανέβηκε, ανεβήκαμε, ανεβήκατε, ανέβηκαν	the stress moves in the plural
After θα / να	ανεβώ, ανεβείς, ανεβεί, ανεβούμε, ανεβείτε, ανεβούν — also ανέβω, ανέβεις, ανέβει, ανέβουμε, ανέβετε, ανέβουν	both paradigms are current
Command	ανέβα / ανεβείτε	the plural comes from the ανεβώ set
Perfect / pluperfect	έχω / είχα ανέβει	also ανεβεί
Gerund	ανεβαίνοντας	on the way up
Causative twin	ανεβάζω → ανέβασα, να ανεβάσω, ανεβασμένος	a separate verb, fully regular

Two absences, and one warning:

A passive — does not exist. No ανεβαίνομαι. The passive you want belongs to the other verb: ανεβάστηκε "it was put up, it was uploaded".
A -μένος participle — does not exist for ανεβαίνω. ανεβασμένος is ανεβάζω's, and it means put up there by someone.
ανέβηκα is active, despite an ending that looks exactly like the passive aorist -ηκα of πλύθηκα, γράφτηκα. It is a historical coincidence, it catches everybody once, and the whole -βαίνω family behaves this way — μπήκα, βγήκα, κατέβηκα. The morphology is worked through on nasal-stem verbs.

Government

Frame	Example	Reading
σε accusative	Ανέβηκα στον τρίτο όροφο.	where you end up
σε vehicle	Ανέβηκα στο λεωφορείο.	get on, climb aboard
bare accusative	Ανεβαίνω τις σκάλες.	the route travelled, not a thing moved
no complement	Ανέβηκαν οι τιμές.	prices, fever, pressure, ratings
genitive clitic	Μου ανεβαίνει η πίεση.	whose body it is happening in

The bare accusative is the odd one and worth a second look: ανεβαίνω τις σκάλες has what looks like a direct object on an intransitive verb. It is not one. τις σκάλες is the path you travel, the same role English gives it in walk the streets, and no suitcase can ever be substituted into that slot.

Ανεβαίνω τις σκάλες με τα ψώνια και λαχανιάζω.

anevéno tis skáles me ta psónia ke lachaniázo

I go up the stairs with the shopping and end up out of breath.

Ανέβηκα στο λεωφορείο χωρίς να ακυρώσω εισιτήριο.

anévika sto leoforío chorís na akiróso isitírio

I got on the bus without validating a ticket.

Ανέβηκαν πάλι οι τιμές στα καύσιμα.

anévikan páli i timés sta káfsima

Fuel prices have gone up again.

Anything measurable can be the subject with no complement at all — prices, temperature, ratings, a river, someone's standing. When the thing rising belongs to a person's body or life, everyday speech attaches that person to the verb as a genitive clitic rather than to the noun as a possessive: μου ανεβαίνει η πίεση, μου ανέβηκε ο πυρετός.

Μου ανεβαίνει η πίεση μόνο που το σκέφτομαι.

mu anevéni i píesi móno pu to skéftome

My blood pressure goes up just thinking about it.

ανεβαίνω or ανεβάζω

One test settles it: is there a thing being moved? If yes, ανεβάζω. If the only thing going up is the subject itself — or a number, a level, a temperature — ανεβαίνω. The pair belongs to a whole family of Greek intransitive/causative doublets, listed on active–passive pairs.

ανεβαίνω — go up	ανεβάζω — put up
Ανέβηκα πάνω.	Ανέβασα τις βαλίτσες.
Ανέβηκε ο πυρετός.	Ανέβασε πυρετό.
Ανέβηκε στη σκηνή.	Ανέβασαν καινούρια παράσταση.
Ανέβηκε το βίντεο.	Ανέβασα το βίντεο.

Ανέβασα τις φωτογραφίες από τον γάμο.

anévasa tis fotoghrafíes apó ton ghámo

I uploaded the photos from the wedding.

Ανέβασε πυρετό το μεσημέρι και του δώσαμε παυσίπονο.

anévase piretó to mesiméri ke tu dhósame pafsípono

He ran a temperature at midday and we gave him a painkiller.

💡

Note the third row above: ανεβάζω παράσταση is the standard Greek for staging a play, and ανεβάζω on its own is the standard Greek for uploading. Neither is a metaphor a learner would guess — but both are the same "put it up there" that carries a suitcase to the loft.

Set phrases

Phrase	Meaning
Μου ανέβηκε το αίμα στο κεφάλι	I saw red
μου ανεβαίνει η πίεση	my blood pressure goes up — literally and figuratively
ανεβαίνω στη σκηνή	go on stage
ανεβάζω ταχύτητα	speed up, step it up
Ανέβα να φάμε!	Come up and eat! — shouted up a stairwell
ανέβηκαν οι μετοχές του	his stock has gone up — of reputation, not shares

Μου ανέβηκε το αίμα στο κεφάλι μόλις το άκουσα.

mu anévike to éma sto kefáli mólis to ákusa

I saw red the moment I heard it.

Ανέβα να φάμε, ετοίμασα φαγητό.

anéva na fáme, etímasa fayitó

Come up and eat, I've made food.

Ανέβηκε στη σκηνή και το κοινό ξέσπασε.

anévike sti skiní ke to kinó kséspase

She walked on stage and the audience erupted.

Key Takeaways

ανεβαίνω · ανέβαινα · ανέβηκα · να ανεβώ (ανέβω) · ανέβα / ανεβείτε · έχω ανέβει · ανεβαίνοντας.
ανέβηκα is active, not passive, however much -ηκα suggests otherwise.
σε for the destination or the vehicle, bare accusative for the route, nothing for prices and fevers, genitive clitic for the person affected.
No passive and no -μένος participle of its own — ανεβάζω supplies both.
ανεβάζω = raise, take up, stage, upload, run a temperature. Ask whether something is being moved.

Now practice Greek

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

Start learning Greek →