Το χιούμορ βοηθάει σε δύσκολες στιγμές.

Roughly HYOO-mor, with the stress on the first syllable.

A more accurate note: Greek χ is not the English h sound. Before ι, it sounds like the ch in German ich, or a soft hissy sound made farther back in the mouth.

Because the subject is το χιούμορ, which is third person singular. So βοηθάει means helps or is helpful.

The dictionary form of the verb is βοηθάω / βοηθώ, meaning to help.

Yes. In Modern Greek, βοηθάει and βοηθά are both common ways to say he/she/it helps.

So both of these are natural:

• Το χιούμορ βοηθάει.
• Το χιούμορ βοηθά.

Greek can use βοηθάω both with an explicit object and in a more general sense meaning be helpful.

So here Το χιούμορ βοηθάει means humor helps in general. The person being helped is understood from context. If you wanted to say it explicitly, you could say:

Το χιούμορ μας βοηθάει σε δύσκολες στιγμές.
= Humor helps us in difficult moments.

Here σε means something like in, during, or at, depending on how you translate it into English.

So σε δύσκολες στιγμές means in difficult moments or during difficult times.

Because δύσκολες is an adjective describing στιγμές, and Greek adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• στιγμές is feminine plural
• so the adjective must also be feminine plural
• that gives δύσκολες

After σε, Greek normally uses the accusative. So στιγμές here is functioning as accusative plural.

A useful detail: with feminine plural nouns, the form without the article can look the same as the nominative, so the preposition σε tells you its role here.

Both are possible, but the meaning feels slightly different.

• σε δύσκολες στιγμές = a general statement: in difficult moments / in difficult times
• στις δύσκολες στιγμές = a slightly more specific or more fixed expression

Also, στις is just the contracted form of σε τις.

Greek often uses the plural when speaking generally about situations that can happen more than once. So σε δύσκολες στιγμές means in difficult moments / in hard times as a general idea.

If you used the singular, σε δύσκολη στιγμή, it would sound more like in a difficult moment, referring to one situation.

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

The original sentence is a neutral, natural order: Το χιούμορ βοηθάει σε δύσκολες στιγμές.

But you could also say:

• Σε δύσκολες στιγμές, το χιούμορ βοηθάει.

That changes the emphasis a little, but not the basic meaning.