Learn Hardcore Greek: Ο αδερφός μου θέλει να γίνει μουσικός και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο. - My brother wants to become a musician and is learning guitar and draws/paints a bit.

Ο αδερφός μου literally = “the brother my” → my brother
In Greek, you almost always use the article with family members:
- ο αδερφός μου – my brother
- η αδερφή μου – my sister
- η μητέρα μου – my mother

Leaving it out (αδερφός μου) can sound incomplete or poetic in modern Greek in this kind of sentence.

What’s the difference between αδερφός and αδελφός?

They are the same word: brother.

αδερφός – more common in everyday, spoken Greek (colloquial spelling).
αδελφός – more formal / older spelling, still used in writing, religion, etc.

Pronunciation is essentially the same in modern Greek: [aðerˈfos]. In normal speech you’ll see and say αδερφός a lot.

Why is μου after the noun (αδερφός μου) instead of before it, like English “my brother”?

Greek unstressed possessive pronouns (μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους) typically follow the noun:

ο αδερφός μου – my brother
το βιβλίο σου – your book
η δουλειά της – her job

They are clitics (unstressed little words) and attach after the noun.
You can’t say μου αδερφός in normal modern Greek.

Why is it θέλει να γίνει and not θέλει να είναι for “wants to become”?

θέλει να γίνει = he wants to become (change from not being a musician to being one).
- γίνει is the aorist subjunctive of γίνομαι (to become).
θέλει να είναι μουσικός would mean something like he wants to be a musician (to be in that state), but for the idea of becoming a profession, Greek strongly prefers θέλω να γίνω / να γίνει κτλ.

So, θέλει να γίνει μουσικός is the natural way to say he wants to become a musician.

What exactly is γίνει? Why not γίνεται?

Both come from γίνομαι (to become / to be / to happen), but:

γίνεται – present tense, is becoming / is happening / happens.
γίνει – aorist subjunctive, used after να for a completed event in the future or hypothetical.

With θέλω να…, Greek usually uses the aorist subjunctive to express the goal as a single, complete change:

θέλει να γίνει μουσικός – he wants to (at some point) become a musician.

θέλει να γίνεται μουσικός would sound strange here, like “he wants to keep repeatedly becoming a musician”.

Why is there no word for “a” before μουσικός? Why not ένας μουσικός?

Greek has no indefinite article in predicate positions like professions:

Είμαι μουσικός. – I am (a) musician.
Θέλει να γίνει μουσικός. – He wants to become (a) musician.

You normally cannot say να γίνει ένας μουσικός in this sense. That would sound more like “to become one particular musician,” which is odd.

So for jobs/roles in such sentences, you just say the noun without ένας / μια / ένα.

Is μουσικός an adjective or a noun here?

Here μουσικός is a noun: musician.

It can also be an adjective meaning musical, but:

να γίνει μουσικός → clearly “to become a musician” (profession).
As an adjective you’d expect a noun after it:
- μουσικό όργανο – musical instrument
- μουσική εκπαίδευση – musical education (with μουσική, a related adjective/noun)

Why is it μαθαίνει κιθάρα without an article? Shouldn’t it be την κιθάρα?

Both exist, but there’s a nuance:

μαθαίνει κιθάρα – he is learning guitar (the skill, in general).
μαθαίνει την κιθάρα – also correct; focuses a bit more on the instrument as an object/subject of study, but in everyday speech people often drop the article with musical instruments and school subjects when speaking generally.

Common patterns:

Μαθαίνω κιθάρα / πιάνο / γαλλικά. – I’m learning guitar / piano / French.

Why is the verb μαθαίνει in the simple present, not a separate continuous form like English “is learning”?

Modern Greek has one present tense that covers both:

μαθαίνει κιθάρα can mean:
- he learns guitar (habitually), or
- he is learning guitar (right now / these days).

Context decides which. There is no separate present continuous form like English “is learning”.

Why is και (“and”) used twice: και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο? Is that necessary?

You can say it both ways:

…και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο.
…και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο. (same as written, with και before each verb)

Using και before each item is very common in speech and can:

Make the list sound clearer/emphatic:
- και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο – he both learns guitar and also draws a bit.

You could also say slightly more compactly:

…μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο. – still perfectly correct.

What does ζωγραφίζει λίγο mean exactly? “He draws a little” or “he draws badly”?

ζωγραφίζει λίγο almost always means:

“He draws a little / a bit / not very much.” (low amount/frequency)

If you wanted to say he draws badly, you’d say:

ζωγραφίζει άσχημα / δεν ζωγραφίζει καλά.

So λίγο here modifies how much he draws, not how well he draws.

Why is λίγο after the verb (ζωγραφίζει λίγο) and not before it?

Both orders can exist, but the normal, neutral order in Greek is:

Verb + λίγο: ζωγραφίζει λίγο – he draws a bit.

Placing λίγο before the verb (λίγο ζωγραφίζει) sounds more marked/emphatic and less natural in everyday speech, sometimes implying something like “he hardly draws at all” with a complaining tone.

So for plain meaning, use [verb] + λίγο.

Can I change the word order to Ο αδερφός μου μουσικός θέλει να γίνει?

In practice, no—that sounds unnatural or confusing.

The basic, natural structure is:

Ο αδερφός μου θέλει να γίνει μουσικός…

Greek does allow flexible word order, but there are still strong preferences:

Subject + verb + να
- verb + complement is the default:
  - Ο αδερφός μου θέλει να γίνει μουσικός.

Moving μουσικός before θέλει in this sentence breaks the usual flow and is not how native speakers would say it.

How would the sentence change if the subject was “my sister” instead of “my brother”?

Only the noun and article change gender; the verbs here stay the same:

Η αδερφή μου θέλει να γίνει μουσικός και μαθαίνει κιθάρα και ζωγραφίζει λίγο.
- η – feminine article
- αδερφή – sister

μουσικός, μαθαίνει, ζωγραφίζει don’t change form here, because:

μουσικός as a job title is often used in the same (masculine) form for women too.
The verbs don’t show gender in the present tense.