ξυπνάω / ξυπνώ is both intransitive “wake up” and transitive “wake somebody.” Greek, like English wake, can change the participant pattern without changing the verb: Ξύπνησα “I woke up,” but Με ξύπνησε “he woke me.” The object—or its absence—reveals the meaning.
Ξυπνάω συνήθως στις επτά, αλλά σήμερα ξύπνησα στις έξι.
ksipnáo siníthos stis eptá, alá símera ksípnisa stis éksi
I usually wake up at seven, but today I woke up at six.
Με ξύπνησε το ξυπνητήρι και το έκλεισα χωρίς να το καταλάβω.
me ksípnise to ksipnitíri ke to éklisa chorís na to katalávo
The alarm woke me, and I turned it off without realizing it.
Principal parts
| Slot | Form | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Present | ξυπνάω / ξυπνώ, ξυπνάς, ξυπνάει / ξυπνά, ξυπνάμε, ξυπνάτε, ξυπνάνε / ξυπνούν | both ending sets are current |
| Imperfect | ξυπνούσα | |
| Aorist | ξύπνησα | irregular perfective stem ξυπνησ- |
| Dependent / perfect | να ξυπνήσω / έχω ξυπνήσει | |
| Imperative | ξύπνα / ξυπνήστε | singular is the bare present stem |
| Gerund | ξυπνώντας | |
| Finite mediopassive | does not exist | no ξυπνιέμαι or passive aorist |
| -μένος participle | ξυπνημένος, -η, -ο | live despite the missing finite passive |
The command ξύπνα has no ending at all. That is not a shortened slang form: it is the ordinary singular command. The plural ξυπνήστε uses the perfective stem and a regular plural ending.
Ξύπνα με στις επτά, γιατί έχω πρωινή πτήση.
ksípna me stis eptá, yatí écho proiní ptísi
Wake me at seven, because I have an early flight.
Ξύπνα, ρε, σε κοροϊδεύουν μπροστά στα μάτια σου!
ksípna, re, se koroidhévun brostá sta mátia su!
Wise up, mate—they're fooling you right in front of your eyes! (informal)
The independent participle ξυπνημένος is not evidence for a missing finite passive. It describes the resulting state after waking; in ordinary “awake” descriptions, ξύπνιος is often the simpler choice. αγουροξυπνημένος means “barely or prematurely awake.”
Είμαι ξυπνημένος από τις έξι και έχω ήδη πιει δύο καφέδες.
íme ksipniménos apó tis éksi ke écho ídhi pi dhío kafédhes
I've been awake since six and I've already had two coffees.
Government
Without an object, the nominative subject wakes up. With an accusative noun or clitic, the subject wakes somebody else. The two patterns need no reflexive marker.
Ο θόρυβος ξύπνησε όλη την πολυκατοικία μέσα στη νύχτα.
o thórivos ksípnise óli tin polikatikía mésa sti níchta
The noise woke the entire apartment building in the middle of the night.
ξυπνάω τον εαυτό μου is grammatical when deliberate self-waking is genuinely in focus, but neutral “I woke up” is simply ξύπνησα. The longer phrase adds a deliberate agent acting on a focused self; it is not the normal intransitive frame.
The morning sequence
Four everyday actions use four different shapes: ξυπνάω → σηκώνομαι → πλένομαι → ντύνομαι. Do not force the morphology of one onto the next; continue with σηκώνομαι and κοιμάμαι rather than borrowing their endings.
Ξυπνάω, σηκώνομαι, πλένομαι και ντύνομαι μέσα σε μισή ώρα.
ksipnáo, sikónome, plénome ke dínome mésa se misí óra
I wake up, get up, wash, and get dressed within half an hour.
Set phrases
ξυπνάω νωρίς “wake early”; δεν ξύπνησε ακόμα “he has not woken up yet”; με ξύπνησε το ξυπνητήρι “the alarm woke me”; ξυπνάω με το ζόρι “struggle to wake up”; ξυπνά μέσα μου μια ανάμνηση “a memory stirs in me”; Ξύπνα! “wake up / wise up!” (informal).
Η μυρωδιά του καφέ ξύπνησε μέσα μου μια παλιά ανάμνηση.
i mirodhiá tu kafé ksípnise mésa mu mia paliá anámnisi
The smell of coffee awakened an old memory in me.
Common Mistakes
Accusative με marks the person awakened. Genitive μου is also grammatical before another direct object when it marks the beneficiary, so compare the two valid patterns:
✅ Ξύπνα με στις επτά, σε παρακαλώ.
ksípna me stis eptá, se parakaló
Wake me at seven, please.
✅ Ξύπνα μου το παιδί στις επτά, σε παρακαλώ.
ksípna mu to pedhí stis eptá, se parakaló
Wake the child for me at seven, please.
The aorist is ξύπνησα; the tempting ×ξυπνάσα is not part of the paradigm.
✅ Χθες ξύπνησα πολύ αργά και έχασα το λεωφορείο.
chthes ksípnisa polí arghá ke échasa to leoforío
Yesterday I woke up very late and missed the bus.
Key Takeaways
- ξυπνάω / ξυπνώ · ξυπνούσα · ξύπνησα · να ξυπνήσω · ξύπνα / ξυπνήστε.
- No object means “wake up”; an accusative object means “wake somebody.”
- There is no finite mediopassive, but ξυπνημένος is a live participle.
Related Topics
- κοιμάμαι (to sleep)A2 — How κοιμάμαι covers sleeping, being asleep and going to bed, while αποκοιμιέμαι and κοιμίζω express different events.
- σηκώνομαι (to get up)A2 — The active–middle pair σηκώνω/σηκώνομαι, the short everyday command σήκω, and the frames used for getting up, lifting, and standing.
- πέφτω (to fall)A2 — The present stem is πεφτ- and the past stem is πεσ- — two different words, not a sound change. Full forms, the πέστε that belongs to two verbs at once, and the genitive clitic in Μου έπεσε το ποτήρι, which is how Greek says 'I dropped it' with no transitive verb at all.
- Principal Parts: Complete IndexA2 — A consolidated index of the principal parts of 151 frequent Modern Greek verbs, including defective and register-limited paradigms.
- 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.