λέω needs something said; μιλάω needs somebody spoken to. That is the whole division of labour between Greek's two everyday speech verbs, and it is why μιλάω spends its life attached to a preposition. This card lists the frames and then the part nobody predicts: a mediopassive that does three unrelated jobs.
Every form μιλάω has
| Slot | Forms |
|---|---|
| Present | μιλάω/μιλώ, μιλάς, μιλάει/μιλά, μιλάμε/μιλούμε, μιλάτε, μιλάνε/μιλούν(ε) |
| Imperfect | μιλούσα — also μίλαγα (informal) |
| Aorist | μίλησα |
| Dependent (θα, να) | μιλήσω |
| Imperative | μίλα / μιλάτε · μίλησε / μιλήστε |
| Perfect | έχω μιλήσει |
| Gerund | μιλώντας |
| Mediopassive | μιλιέμαι, μιλιέσαι, μιλιέται, μιλιόμαστε, μιλιέστε, μιλιούνται |
| Passive aorist / participle | μιλήθηκα · μιλημένος |
Government
| Frame | Reading |
|---|---|
μιλάω σε
| address somebody: Του μίλησα |
μιλάω με
| have a conversation with |
μιλάω για
| talk about a subject |
| bare accusative, no article | have a command of a language: Μιλάω ελληνικά |
Του μίλησα χθες, αλλά δεν κατάλαβα αν θα έρθει ή όχι.
tu mílisa chthes, alá dhen katálava an tha érthi i óchi
I spoke to him yesterday, but I couldn't work out whether he's coming or not.
Μίλησα με τον υδραυλικό και θα περάσει το Σάββατο.
mílisa me ton idhravlikó ke tha perási to Sávato
I talked to the plumber and he'll come round on Saturday.
Μιλάμε ώρα για το ίδιο θέμα και δεν καταλήγουμε πουθενά.
miláme óra ya to ídhio théma ke dhen katalíghume puthená
We've been talking about the same thing for ages and getting nowhere.
σε and με are not interchangeable, and English hides the difference by saying talk to for both. Του μίλησα means I did the talking and he was on the receiving end; Μίλησα μαζί του or με αυτόν means the two of us had a conversation. Pick the wrong one and the sentence still parses — it just reports a different event.
Δεν του μίλησα εγώ, μίλησα με τη γυναίκα του.
dhen tu mílisa eghó, mílisa me ti yinéka tu
I didn't speak to him myself, I talked it over with his wife.
The addressee goes in the genitive — Του μίλησα, Μου μίλησε — never in the accusative in standard Greek. (Accusative clitics for indirect objects are a real feature of the northern dialects (regional: northern Greece), which say Σε δίνω το βιβλίο for standard Σου δίνω το βιβλίο; that is a dialect, not a licence in the standard language. The standard split is drawn on genitive vs σε.)
Languages take the bare accusative. The name of a language after μιλάω is not really a thing you handle, it is closer to how you speak — which is why it needs no article and takes adverbs of degree happily: μιλάω λίγο, καλά, άπταιστα ελληνικά.
Μιλάει ελληνικά καλύτερα από μένα, κι ας ήρθε πέρσι.
milái eliniká kalítera apó ména, ki as írthe pérsi
He speaks Greek better than I do, and he only arrived last year.
The article is not forbidden here, it is meaningful. Put one in and the language stops being a skill and becomes a particular Greek — the Greek of a region, a generation, a person:
Μιλάει τα ελληνικά της γιαγιάς του, με λέξεις που δεν ακούς πια.
milái ta eliniká tis yayás tu, me léksis pu dhen akús pia
He speaks his grandmother's Greek, with words you don't hear any more.
And στα ελληνικά, with σε, is a third thing again: not what you know but what you are using at this moment.
Μίλα μου στα ελληνικά, θέλω να εξασκηθώ.
míla mu sta eliniká, thélo na eksaskithó
Talk to me in Greek, I want to practise.
One mediopassive, three jobs
| Form | Job |
|---|---|
| 3rd person, of a language | is spoken, is still in use |
| δεν μιλιέται, of a person | there is no talking to him today |
| δεν μιλιούνται | they are not on speaking terms |
Στο νησί μιλιέται ακόμα μια παλιά διάλεκτος που δεν την καταλαβαίνω.
sto nisí miliéte akóma mia paliá dhiálektos pu dhen tin katalavéno
On the island they still speak an old dialect that I can't understand.
Άσε τον σήμερα, δεν μιλιέται — του χάλασε πάλι το αυτοκίνητο.
áse ton símera, dhen miliéte — tu chálase páli to aftokínito
Leave him today, there's no talking to him — his car has broken down again.
Δουλεύουν στο ίδιο γραφείο και δεν μιλιούνται από τον Δεκέμβρη.
dhulévun sto ídhio ghrafío ke dhen miliúnde apó ton Dhekémvri
They work in the same office and they haven't spoken since December.
The participle μιλημένος is alive too, in one idiom: something that has been agreed in advance, and by extension a fixed match (informal).
Το ματς ήταν μιλημένο και το κατάλαβαν όλοι από το πρώτο ημίχρονο.
to mats ítan miliméno ke to katálavan óli apó to próto imíchrono
The match was fixed and everyone could tell from the first half.
Slots this verb leaves empty
- No cognate object. Greek does not ×μιλάω μια ομιλία. A speech is βγάζω or κάνω μια ομιλία, and the noun itself comes from the learned twin ομιλώ, not from μιλάω.
- No active participle of its own. For "spoken", "speaking" in formal prose the family borrows from ομιλώ: ο ομιλών (formal), η ομιλούμενη γλώσσα (academic).
- No accusative addressee. The person you are talking to is σε, με or a genitive clitic, never an accusative. The accusatives μιλάω does take are of another kind: a language, and — colloquially — the matter you settle in advance, Τα μιλήσαμε "we agreed it", which is the active behind μιλημένος.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Μιλάς ελληνικά; | do you speak Greek? |
| Μίλα πιο δυνατά | speak up |
| Μιλάω σοβαρά | I'm being serious |
| μιλάω ανοιχτά | speak frankly |
| Μη μου μιλάς έτσι | don't talk to me like that |
| Δεν μιλιούνται | they've fallen out |
Μίλα πιο σιγά, κοιμούνται τα παιδιά.
míla pio sighá, kimúnde ta pedhiá
Keep your voice down, the kids are asleep.
Keep the two imperatives apart: Μίλα μου asks for ongoing talk, while Μίλησέ του asks for one word with somebody and then it is done.
The case-flip partner for questions is ρωτάω; the whole class is indexed on principal parts.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: μιλάω/μιλώ · μιλούσα · μίλησα · μιλήσω · μιλημένος, mediopassive μιλιέμαι.
- Three frames: σε or a genitive clitic (address), με (converse with), για (talk about).
- A language takes the bare accusative: Μιλάω ελληνικά. στα ελληνικά means "in Greek, right now" instead.
- The addressee is genitive in the standard language; the accusative version belongs to the northern dialects.
- μιλιέμαι covers three unrelated things, and μιλημένος means "arranged in advance".
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- ρωτάω/ρωτώ (to ask)A2 — The one speech verb that puts the person in the accusative — Με ρώτησε, Τον ρώτησα — plus the double accusative it licenses, the indirect questions it takes, and the learned twin ερωτώ that supplies the noun ερώτηση and the journalist's ερωτηθείς.
- αγαπάω/αγαπώ (to love)A1 — The model verb of the -άω/-ώ class, with both halves of every doublet in one table — plus the two words its participle turned into: αγαπημένος, which now means 'favourite' as often as 'beloved', and αγαπητός, the 'Dear' that opens a letter.
- Present Tense: Class Β1 (αγαπάω/-ώ)A1 — The full present of the everyday Β1 contract verbs — αγαπάω/αγαπώ, μιλάω, ρωτάω, περπατάω, κοιτάω, ξεχνάω, περνάω — with the -άω/-ώ doublet in the 'I' and 'they' forms, the fixed -άς 'you' ending, and the crossover error ×αγαπείς that spells it as if it were Class Α.