Το μπάσκετ παίζεται συχνά μέσα στο γήπεδο.

Basketball is often played inside the court.

Breakdown of Το μπάσκετ παίζεται συχνά μέσα στο γήπεδο.

• συχνά: often
• μέσα σε: inside
• παίζομαι: to be played
• το μπάσκετ: the basketball

Questions & Answers about Το μπάσκετ παίζεται συχνά μέσα στο γήπεδο.

Why is there a Το in front of μπάσκετ? In English we usually say “Basketball is often played…”, not “The basketball…”.

Greek uses the definite article much more often than English, especially:

• with sports and games
• with general concepts used in a generic way

So:

• Το μπάσκετ παίζεται συχνά…
  literally: “The basketball is played often…”,
  but idiomatically: “Basketball is often played…”

The article το here:

• marks μπάσκετ as a neuter noun
• makes it sound natural and complete in Greek

You can sometimes hear Παίζω μπάσκετ (“I play basketball”) with no article, but when μπάσκετ is used as the subject of a sentence, Το μπάσκετ… is the default natural form.

What gender is μπάσκετ, and does it change form in other cases (nominative, genitive, etc.)?

Μπάσκετ is treated as a neuter noun in Greek.

• It usually appears with the neuter article:
  • το μπάσκετ (nominative/accusative singular)
• But the noun itself does not change form: it is indeclinable (like many loanwords ending in a consonant).

So you might see:

• Το μπάσκετ είναι ωραίο. – Basketball is nice.
• Παίζω μπάσκετ. – I play basketball.

The word μπάσκετ stays the same; only the article (το, του, στο etc.) shows case and sometimes number.

What exactly is ? Which tense, which person, and which voice is it?