Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει τη λίστα επιβατών.

Ο is the masculine singular definite article in the nominative case. In English, it usually corresponds to the.

Here it goes with λιμενικός, so Ο λιμενικός means the port officer / the coast guard officer.

Greek articles change form depending on:

• gender
• number
• case

So unlike English the, Greek has many different forms.

Here λιμενικός is being used as a noun, not just an adjective. It commonly means:

• port officer
• harbor police officer
• coast guard officer

Literally, it comes from the idea of something related to the port or harbor (λιμάνι = port).

So in this sentence, Ο λιμενικός refers to a specific officer.

The ending -ος is a very common ending for a masculine singular noun or adjective in the nominative.

Here, λιμενικός is masculine singular because it matches the article Ο and refers to one male officer (or grammatically masculine role).

So:

• ο λιμενικός = nominative singular, the officer as the subject

This is the form used because he is the one doing the action.

ελέγχει is the present tense, third person singular form of the verb ελέγχω (to check / inspect / control / verify, depending on context).

So it means:

• he checks
• she checks
• it checks

In this sentence, the subject is Ο λιμενικός, so the meaning is the officer checks.

Greek verbs usually contain that information inside the verb form itself.

So ελέγχει already tells you:

• it is present tense
• the subject is he/she/it

Because of that, Greek does not need a separate helper verb like does in a normal statement.

Compare:

• English: The officer checks
• Greek: Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει

Because λίστα is the object of the verb, not the subject.

Greek marks this with case:

• η λίστα = nominative, the list as subject
• τη λίστα = accusative, the list as object

Here, the officer is doing the checking, and the list is what gets checked, so Greek uses the accusative:

• Ο λιμενικός = subject
• τη λίστα = direct object

τη is a common shortened form of την, the feminine singular accusative definite article.

Before many consonants, especially in everyday Modern Greek, the final -ν is often dropped in writing and speech.

So both of these can be seen:

• τη λίστα
• την λίστα

In this sentence, τη λίστα is the natural everyday form.

A useful beginner rule is:

• την often appears before vowels
• τη often appears before consonants

That rule is not the whole story, but it works well for many cases.

It is a fully used Modern Greek word, but it is a loanword. It means list.

Grammatically, it behaves like a normal Greek feminine noun:

• η λίστα = the list
• τη λίστα = the list (object)

So even borrowed words still follow Greek grammar.

επιβατών is the genitive plural of επιβάτης (passenger).

Here it means of passengers, so:

• η λίστα επιβατών = the list of passengers
• more naturally in English: the passenger list

Greek often uses the genitive where English uses of.

So the structure is:

• τη λίστα = the list
• επιβατών = of passengers

Because Greek often leaves out the article in this kind of noun + genitive expression when it is being used in a general, classifying way.

So:

• λίστα επιβατών = passenger list
• literally: list of passengers

You could sometimes see an article in other contexts, but here the article is not needed.

This is similar to how English says:

• passenger list rather than
• list of the passengers in many general contexts.

Yes. Greek word order is more flexible than English because case endings and articles help show what each word is doing.

The neutral, straightforward order here is:

• Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει τη λίστα επιβατών.

But Greek could rearrange it for emphasis, for example:

• Τη λίστα επιβατών ελέγχει ο λιμενικός.

That would still mean basically the same thing, but with different emphasis, something like:

• It’s the passenger list that the officer is checking.

So word order in Greek often affects focus more than basic meaning.

You can tell from a combination of case and verb form.

• Ο λιμενικός is in the nominative, so it is the subject
• τη λίστα is in the accusative, so it is the object
• ελέγχει is third person singular, matching ο λιμενικός

So the officer is doing the checking, and the list is being checked.

It is pronounced roughly like e-LE-ngkhi.

A few helpful notes:

• the stress is on λέ
• γχ here is pronounced like ngh / g+h together in Modern Greek
• the final ει sounds like ee

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation:

• ελέγχει ≈ eh-LEH-nghee

Exact pronunciation varies a little by speaker, but that approximation is good enough for most learners.

The dictionary form is επιβάτης, meaning passenger.

Here are the useful forms:

• ο επιβάτης = the passenger
• οι επιβάτες = the passengers
• επιβατών = of passengers

So επιβατών is not a separate word you need to memorize on its own; it is a grammatical form of επιβάτης.

You can, but the most natural English may be a little different.

Word-for-word:

• Ο = the
• λιμενικός = port/coast guard officer
• ελέγχει = checks
• τη λίστα = the list
• επιβατών = of passengers

So a literal translation is:

• The officer checks the list of passengers.

Natural English often prefers:

• The coast guard officer checks the passenger list.

So the grammar lines up fairly well, but English may use a more compact phrase.