Breakdown of Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι καλά, να τρώω φρούτα και να ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος.
Questions & Answers about Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι καλά, να τρώω φρούτα και να ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος.
In Modern Greek, many verbs (like προσπαθώ, θέλω, μπορώ, πρέπει, etc.) are followed by another verb in a να-clause.
So the pattern is:
- Προσπαθώ να… = I try to…
You cannot say Προσπαθώ κοιμάμαι. After προσπαθώ, the next verb must be in this να form:
- Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι = I try to sleep
- Προσπαθώ να τρώω φρούτα = I try to eat fruit
- Προσπαθώ να ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος = I try to live without much stress
Grammatically, the presence of να is what marks these verbs as subjunctive-like (non‑indicative) forms in Greek.
Repeating να makes it clear that all three actions are things you are trying to do:
- Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι καλά, να τρώω φρούτα και να ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος.
= I try to sleep well, (I try) to eat fruit and (I try) to live without much stress.
If you remove the second and third να:
- Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι καλά, τρώω φρούτα και ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος.
this is normally read as:
- I try to sleep well, (and in fact) I eat fruit and I live without much stress.
So τρώω and ζω are no longer part of what you’re trying to do; they’re just separate statements in the present tense. Repeating να keeps all three verbs parallel and dependent on προσπαθώ.
Greek has an aspect contrast in the subjunctive:
- Present subjunctive (here: να κοιμάμαι) = ongoing / habitual action
- Aorist subjunctive (here: να κοιμηθώ) = single / one‑off / complete action
So:
Προσπαθώ να κοιμάμαι καλά.
= I try to sleep well (as a general habit, regularly).Προσπαθώ να κοιμηθώ καλά απόψε.
= I’m trying to sleep well tonight (this one time).
In your sentence, the speaker is talking about general lifestyle habits, so the present form (να κοιμάμαι) is the natural choice.
Κοιμάμαι is a verb that only exists in the middle/passive form in Modern Greek; there is no commonly used active form.
- κοιμάμαι = I sleep
Historically this type of verb could be reflexive, but in modern usage you just learn it as the normal form:
- κοιμάμαι – I sleep
- κοιμάσαι – you sleep
- κοιμάται – he/she/it sleeps
- κοιμόμαστε – we sleep
- κοιμάστε / κοιμάσαστε – you (pl.) sleep
- κοιμούνται – they sleep
So κοιμάμαι doesn’t carry an extra “myself” in meaning; it simply means “I sleep.”
- καλός is an adjective = good (describes nouns)
- καλά is an adverb = well (describes verbs, i.e. how you do something)
You sleep in a certain way, so you need an adverb:
- να κοιμάμαι καλά = to sleep well
Using να κοιμάμαι καλός would be ungrammatical in this context, because καλός describes a person or thing, not how the action is done.
This is the same aspect contrast as with κοιμάμαι / κοιμηθώ:
- να τρώω φρούτα (present subjunctive) = to be eating fruit regularly / as a habit
- να φάω φρούτα (aorist subjunctive) = to eat fruit once / on a particular occasion
So:
- Προσπαθώ να τρώω φρούτα.
= I try to eat fruit (on a regular basis, as part of my routine).
If you said:
- Προσπαθώ να φάω φρούτα.
it would sound more like I’m trying to eat (some) fruit (now / this time), not a long‑term lifestyle habit.
In everyday Modern Greek:
- τρώω is the normal, colloquial form = I eat
- τρώγω is more formal / old‑fashioned and much less common in speech.
So in normal conversation and modern writing, you should use:
- τρώω – I eat
- να τρώω – to eat (habitually, etc.)
Bare plurals in Greek often refer to things “in general”:
- τρώω φρούτα = I eat fruit (in general / as a type of food)
Adding the definite article τα usually makes it more specific:
- τρώω τα φρούτα.
= I’m eating the fruit (that we mentioned / that you see here).
In your sentence, we’re talking about a general healthy habit, so the bare plural φρούτα (no article) is the natural choice.
English uses “fruit” both as:
- an uncountable noun (I eat fruit), and
- a countable noun (I bought three fruits – rarer, sounds odd in many contexts).
In Greek, φρούτο is a regular countable noun:
- ένα φρούτο – one fruit
- πολλά φρούτα – many fruits
To express the English idea “I eat fruit (as a category of healthy food)”, Greek naturally uses the plural:
- τρώω φρούτα.
So the Greek plural φρούτα corresponds to the English uncountable “fruit” here.
- ζω = I live in the sense of being alive / living a life / lifestyle
- μένω = I live / stay / reside (in a place)
In this sentence:
- να ζω χωρίς πολύ άγχος
= to live without much stress
This clearly refers to how you live your life (your lifestyle), not where you live.
If you talked about residence, you’d use μένω:
- Μένω στην Αθήνα. – I live in Athens.
In Modern Greek, most monosyllabic words are written without an accent, unless there is a risk of confusion (like πού / που, πώς / πως).
ζω is one syllable, so by the spelling rules it normally appears without an accent, even though in speech it still has stress:
- ζω – I live (pronounced [zo], naturally stressed)
Longer forms of the same verb do take an accent, because they have more than one syllable:
- ζούμε, ζείτε, ζούνε etc.
A few points here:
χωρίς always takes a noun or pronoun in the accusative:
- χωρίς άγχος = without stress
άγχος is a mass/abstract noun (like “stress” in English), so Greek often uses it without an article when talking about it in general:
- Έχω άγχος. – I’m stressed / I have stress.
- Ζω χωρίς άγχος. – I live without stress.
πολύ here functions as an adverb of quantity = much / a lot of:
- χωρίς πολύ άγχος = without much stress
Saying χωρίς πολύ το άγχος would sound unnatural or incorrect in this context. The simple, idiomatic way to say “without much stress” is χωρίς πολύ άγχος.