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Learn Hardcore Greek: Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική. - The movie is frightening.

Hardcore Greek
/Browsing a flea market with a friend
/Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Word

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Meaning

The movie is frightening.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Browsing a flea market with a friend

Breakdown of Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

η ταινία

τρομακτικός

frightening; scary

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Questions & Answers about Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Why is Η there at the beginning?

Η is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

Greek nouns have grammatical gender, so the article has to match the noun:

ο = masculine the
η = feminine the
το = neuter the

Because ταινία is a feminine noun, you say η ταινία.

Is ταινία feminine because it refers to a movie, or just because of grammar?

It is feminine because of grammar.

In Greek, every noun has a grammatical gender, and that gender does not always have anything to do with real-world sex or natural gender. A movie is not female, of course, but the noun ταινία is grammatically feminine, so other words around it must match:

η ταινία
μια καλή ταινία
η ταινία είναι τρομακτική

Why do we need είναι?

Είναι means is here. It is the 3rd person singular form of είμαι = to be.

In a sentence like this, standard Greek normally uses the verb:

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Leaving out είναι would sound incomplete in normal modern Greek.

Why does τρομακτική end in -ή?

Because it is agreeing with ταινία, which is feminine singular nominative.

Greek adjectives change form to match the noun they describe. Here are the basic forms of this adjective:

masculine: τρομακτικός
feminine: τρομακτική
neuter: τρομακτικό

Since the subject is η ταινία, the adjective must be feminine singular:

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

Does τρομακτική mean scared or scary?

It means scary or frightening — something that causes fear.

It does not mean that the movie itself is feeling fear. For scared/frightened, Greek would use a different word, such as τρομαγμένη for a feminine subject.

So:

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική = the movie is scary
Η γυναίκα είναι τρομαγμένη = the woman is scared

Can the word order change?

Yes. Greek word order is more flexible than English word order.

The most neutral version is:

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική.

But you may also hear:

Τρομακτική είναι η ταινία.

That version gives extra emphasis to τρομακτική. The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus changes.

How do you pronounce ταινία?

Approximately: teh-NEE-a

Helpful notes:

αι sounds like e
ι sounds like ee
the stress is on νί

So it breaks down roughly as:

ται-νί-α

How do you pronounce τρομακτική?

Approximately: troh-mak-tee-KEE

Helpful notes:

the stress is on the last syllable: -κή
η and ι are both pronounced like ee in Modern Greek
κτ is pronounced as two consonants: k-t

Why is there no accent on Η?

Because η here is the definite article, and it is a one-syllable function word that normally has no written accent.

This is useful because ή with an accent is a different word meaning or.

So:

η = the (feminine)
ή = or

Do I always need the article here?

If you mean the movie, yes:

η ταινία

If you mean a movie, you would say:

μια ταινία

So compare:

Η ταινία είναι τρομακτική. = the movie is scary
Μια ταινία είναι τρομακτική. = a movie is scary

Greek uses articles very regularly, so it is important to learn them together with nouns.

Is τρομακτική an adjective before the noun or after είναι?

Here it is a predicate adjective: it comes after είναι and describes the subject.

So the structure is:

Η ταινία = the subject
είναι = is
τρομακτική = adjective describing the subject

You can also use the adjective directly before the noun:

η τρομακτική ταινία = the scary movie

Both use the same feminine form because they both refer to ταινία.

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