Είναι μεσάνυχτα.

A simple English-style approximation is:

• Είναι → EE-ne
• μεσάνυχτα → meh-SA-nee-khta

The stress falls on:

• Εί- in Είναι
• -σά- in μεσάνυχτα

A more careful pronunciation is roughly EE-ne meh-SA-nee-khta, where χ is not an English k sound. It is a throaty sound, a bit like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach.

• Είναι = is / are
• μεσάνυχτα = midnight

So Είναι μεσάνυχτα means It is midnight.

Greek usually does not need a subject pronoun here.

In English, we say It is midnight, where it does not refer to anything specific. It is just a grammatical placeholder.

In Greek, you normally do not use a placeholder subject in this kind of sentence. So Είναι μεσάνυχτα naturally means It is midnight without needing a separate word for it.

Είναι is the present tense of είμαι, which means to be.

It is the third person form, and in Modern Greek it can mean both:

• he/she/it is
• they are

In this sentence, it means is, as in it is midnight.

That is a very common learner question.

μεσάνυχτα is a word that is commonly used in a plural-looking form in Modern Greek, even though in English we translate it as the singular word midnight.

So the best way to learn it is as a fixed expression:

• Είναι μεσάνυχτα = It is midnight
• τα μεσάνυχτα = midnight / at midnight

You do not need to force it into English grammar. Just treat μεσάνυχτα as the normal Greek word used for midnight.

In this sentence, the usual natural expression is:

• Είναι μεσάνυχτα

The version with the article, τα μεσάνυχτα, is very common in other contexts, especially when meaning at midnight:

• Θα φύγουμε τα μεσάνυχτα = We will leave at midnight

So:

• Είναι μεσάνυχτα = It is midnight
• τα μεσάνυχτα = midnight / at midnight in many other sentence types

Usually, yes: it means midnight.

But in everyday speech, just like in English, people may sometimes use it a little loosely to mean around midnight or very late at night, depending on context.

Still, the core meaning is the actual time midnight.

Yes, you can say:

• Είναι δώδεκα = It is twelve

But that only says twelve o'clock. By itself, it does not explicitly distinguish midnight from noon unless the context makes it clear.

So if you specifically want to say midnight, Είναι μεσάνυχτα is clearer.

The most neutral and natural order is:

• Είναι μεσάνυχτα

Greek word order is somewhat flexible, so Μεσάνυχτα είναι is possible, but it sounds more marked or emphatic, like:

• It’s midnight
• It is midnight, after all

For a learner, the safest version to use is Είναι μεσάνυχτα.

People really say it. It is a normal, natural Modern Greek expression.

It works in both written and spoken Greek when you want to say the time is midnight.