Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει τη λίστα επιβατών.

The coast guard officer checks the passenger list.

Breakdown of Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει τη λίστα επιβατών.

• ελέγχω: to check
• ο λιμενικός: the coast guard officer
• η λίστα επιβατών: the passenger list

Questions & Answers about Ο λιμενικός ελέγχει τη λίστα επιβατών.

Why does the sentence start with Ο?

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.

What exactly does λιμενικός mean here?

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.

Why is λιμενικός ending in -ος?

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.