θέλω (to want) | Greek Grammar

A lookup card for θέλω. The endings are ordinary Class Α endings; the two things worth checking here are the ή- of the past and the fact that the aorist θέλησα does not translate English "I wanted."

Principal parts

Slot	Form	Gloss
Present	θέλω	I want, right now
Imperfect	ήθελα	I wanted; also the polite "I'd like"
Aorist	θέλησα	I brought myself to, chose to
Dependent (after θα, να)	θελήσω	perfective form of the same
Imperfective future	θα θέλω	I will want, going forward
Perfect	έχω θελήσει	I have (ever) wanted it
Pluperfect	είχα θελήσει	I had brought myself to
Gerund	θέλοντας	wanting — mostly θέλοντας και μη
Conditional	θα ήθελα	I would like — the formal rung

Slots this verb leaves empty:

Imperative — none in use. Conjugating software prints θέλε; speakers do not say it. Where English coaxes with "want it more," Greek rebuilds the sentence around a να-clause: Πρέπει να το θέλεις κι εσύ.
Mediopassive — none. There is no θέλομαι paradigm to learn.
-μένος participle — none as a verb form. What survives is the adjective ηθελημένος "intentional, deliberate", with its opposite αθέλητος and the everyday adverbial άθελά μου "not on purpose."

💡

English "I wanted" is ήθελα in something like nine sentences out of ten. θέλησα is a real form, but it means "made up his mind to, brought himself to, went so far as to" — a decision, not a state of wanting. Reach for θέλησα only when the English underneath is closer to "chose to" or "was willing to."

Person by person

Person	Present	Imperfect	Aorist
εγώ	θέλω	ήθελα	θέλησα
εσύ	θέλεις — θες(informal)	ήθελες	θέλησες
αυτός / αυτή	θέλει	ήθελε	θέλησε
εμείς	θέλουμε	θέλαμε	θελήσαμε
εσείς	θέλετε	θέλατε	θελήσατε
αυτοί	θέλουν — θέλουνε (informal)	ήθελαν — θέλανε (informal)	θέλησαν

The ή- shows up where the stress lands on it and drops in the two plural persons — the mechanism is the same one as everywhere else in the past tense, and it is set out on the augment in the imperfect.

ήθελα against θέλησα

Ήθελα να σου το πω από την Τρίτη, αλλά δεν έβρισκα την ευκαιρία.

íthela na su to po apó tin Tríti, alá dhen évriska tin efkería

I'd been wanting to tell you since Tuesday, but I couldn't find the moment.

Θέλησε να ζητήσει συγγνώμη, αλλά δεν τα κατάφερε.

thélise na zitísi sighnómi, alá dhen ta katáfere

He brought himself to apologise, but he couldn't go through with it.

Κανείς δεν θέλησε να αναλάβει την ευθύνη.

kanís dhen thélise na analávi tin efthíni

Nobody was willing to take responsibility.

Negated, as in that last one, θέλησα is at its most idiomatic: δεν θέλησε = "would not, refused to."

Government

Frame	Example	Meaning
θέλω + accusative	Θέλω έναν καφέ.	you want a thing
θέλω να + verb, same subject	Θέλω να φύγω.	I want to leave
θέλω να + verb, different subject	Θέλω να φύγεις.	I want you to leave
θέλει + noun (impersonal)	Θέλει προσοχή.	it takes care, it needs care

The third row is the one with no English shape behind it: Greek has no infinitive, so the person wanted is carried by the ending of the να-verb, never by a pronoun object of θέλω. Whose action is being wanted, and what happens when you negate, are worked out on θέλω να and θα ήθελα; the pull of the English infinitive is treated on infinitive transfer errors.

Θέλω δύο εισιτήρια για τις εννιά, αν υπάρχουν ακόμα.

thélo dhío isitíria ya tis eniá, an ipárchun akóma

I'd like two tickets for the nine o'clock, if there are any left.

Θέλω να με πάρεις μόλις προσγειωθείς, να μην ανησυχώ.

thélo na me páris mólis prozyiothís, na min anisichó

I want you to call me as soon as you land, so I don't worry.

Το ψωμί θέλει άλλα δέκα λεπτά στον φούρνο.

to psomí théli ála dhéka leptá ston fúrno

The bread needs another ten minutes in the oven.

The politeness ladder

Three rungs, one verb, no grammar change — only how much room you leave the other person. θέλω (direct) → ήθελα (polite) → θα ήθελα (formal). The usage is taught on the imperfect for politeness and θα + imperfect for requests; what belongs on this card is simply that all three rungs are built from forms already in the table above, which is why θέλω is worth learning in all three shapes on day one.

Set phrases

Phrase	Meaning
τι θέλεις να πεις;	what do you mean?
θέλοντας και μη	like it or not, willy-nilly
άθελά μου	without meaning to
ό,τι θέλεις / όσο θέλεις	whatever you like / as much as you like
δεν θέλω να ξέρω	I don't want to know (informal, dismissive)
θέλει δεν θέλει	whether he likes it or not
το θέλει η καρδιά μου	my heart is set on it

Τι θέλεις να πεις; Ότι φταίω εγώ;

ti thélis na pis; óti ftéo eghó;

What are you getting at — that it's my fault?

Συγγνώμη, άθελά μου το έκανα — δεν σε είδα καθόλου.

sighnómi, áthelá mu to ékana — dhen se ídha kathólu

Sorry, I didn't mean to — I didn't see you at all.

Δεν ήταν ηθελημένο, απλώς δεν πρόσεξα.

dhen ítan itheliméno, aplós dhen próseksa

It wasn't intentional, I just wasn't paying attention.

Common Mistakes

1. Giving the past the default έ-. θέλω is one of the small set of verbs that take ή- instead.

❌ Έθελα να σε πάρω τηλέφωνο όλη μέρα.

Incorrect — the imperfect of θέλω is ήθελα, with ή-.

✅ Ήθελα να σε πάρω τηλέφωνο όλη μέρα, αλλά δεν βρήκα λεπτό.

íthela na se páro tiléfono óli méra, alá dhen vríka leptó

I meant to call you all day, but I never got a free minute.

2. Carrying the ή- into the plural. The augment survives where the stress falls on it, and in θέλαμε / θέλατε it does not.

❌ Θα ήθελαμε ένα τραπέζι για τέσσερις, αν γίνεται.

Incorrect — the 1st plural is θα θέλαμε.

✅ Θα θέλαμε ένα τραπέζι για τέσσερις, αν γίνεται.

tha thélame éna trapézi ya téseris, an yínete

We'd like a table for four, if that's possible.

Key Takeaways

Past = ήθελα, with ή-, dropping to θέλαμε / θέλατε in the two plurals where the stress moves off it.
θέλησα exists but is not the everyday past: it means chose to, brought himself to, was willing to, and is at its most natural negated (δεν θέλησε = refused).
No imperative in use, no mediopassive; the passive-shaped survivor is the adjective ηθελημένος and the adverbial άθελά μου.
Four frames: accusative (Θέλω έναν καφέ), να + same subject, να + different subject — where English wants an infinitive — and impersonal θέλει "it takes."
The politeness ladder θέλω → ήθελα → θα ήθελα is three rungs of the same paradigm, not three different verbs.

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