Η πόλη έχει χίλια σπίτια.

• Η = the
• πόλη = city
• έχει = has
• χίλια = one thousand / a thousand
• σπίτια = houses

So the sentence is literally The city has a thousand houses.

Η is the feminine singular form of the definite article, so it means the.

It is used because πόλη is a feminine noun, and Greek articles must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. So:

• η πόλη = the city

Greek also uses the definite article quite regularly with specific nouns, often more regularly than English does.

In Greek, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.

πόλη is a feminine noun, so it takes the article η. The ending -η often suggests a feminine noun, but the safest habit is to learn nouns together with their article:

• η πόλη = the city

The gender here is grammatical. It does not mean a city is literally female.

έχει is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb έχω, which means to have.

So:

• έχω = I have
• έχεις = you have
• έχει = he/she/it has

Because η πόλη is singular, the sentence uses έχει = has.

χίλια is the form of one thousand used here because σπίτια is a neuter plural noun.

Greek numbers like χίλιοι / χίλιες / χίλια can agree with the noun:

• χίλιοι
  • masculine plural noun
• χίλιες
  • feminine plural noun
• χίλια
  • neuter plural noun

Since σπίτια is neuter plural, the sentence uses χίλια.

The singular noun is σπίτι, meaning house or home.

Many neuter nouns ending in -ι form their plural in -ια:

• σπίτι → σπίτια
• παιδί → παιδιά

So σπίτια means houses.

• Η πόλη is in the nominative, because it is the subject of the sentence.
• χίλια σπίτια is the direct object, so it is in the accusative.

A useful detail: with many neuter plural nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are the same. So σπίτια looks the same in both cases.

Greek does have an indefinite article (ένας, μια, ένα), but it is not used here.

With numbers, Greek normally just says:

• χίλια σπίτια = a thousand houses

So you do not need an extra word before χίλια.

A rough pronunciation is:

ee POH-lee EH-khee HEE-lya SPEE-tya

A few notes:

• Η sounds like ee
• πόλη has the stress on the first syllable: POH-lee
• χ in έχει and χίλια is not like English k; it is a softer Greek sound
• σπίτια is roughly SPEE-tya

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

The sentence Η πόλη έχει χίλια σπίτια is the most neutral version: subject + verb + object.

But Greek can also say things like:

• Χίλια σπίτια έχει η πόλη

That still means the same thing, but it puts more emphasis on χίλια σπίτια.

Literally, yes: χίλια is the number 1000.

In real usage, though, it can sometimes be a bit loose, just like English a thousand, depending on context. So it can mean either:

• exactly 1000
• or more loosely very many

But the basic meaning is still one thousand.