Learn Hardcore Greek: Η φίλη μου δεν θυμώνει εύκολα, γελάει δυνατά και βοηθάει τον εαυτό της να μείνει ήρεμη. - My friend female doesn't get angry easily, laughs loudly and helps herself to stay calm.

So η φίλη μου literally is “the friend my,” and that’s the normal, neutral pattern.
You can sometimes drop the article (just φίλη μου), but that sounds more emotional, poetic, or vocative (e.g. calling out to someone: Φίλη μου! “My friend!”).
In a simple descriptive sentence like this, η φίλη μου is the standard form.

What exactly does μου do here, and why is it placed after φίλη?

μου is an unstressed possessive pronoun meaning “my”. In modern Greek it usually:

comes after the noun: η φίλη μου = my friend
is unstressed (a “clitic”), so it cannot stand alone and doesn’t take its own accent

When you want to say “my + noun,” you don’t put μου before the noun like in English; you attach it after the noun (with the definite article before the noun):
το βιβλίο μου (my book), ο αδερφός μου (my brother), η φίλη μου (my friend).

What does δεν θυμώνει literally mean, and how is it different from “is angry”?

The verb θυμώνω means “to get angry / to become angry” (or “to be angry” in some contexts).
Here δεν θυμώνει is 3rd person singular, present tense, indicative: “she doesn’t get angry / she doesn’t tend to get angry.”

δεν θυμώνει = “she doesn’t get angry” (generally, habitually)
To say “she got angry (once)” you’d use the past aorist: θύμωσε → δεν θύμωσε = “she didn’t get angry.”
To say “she is angry (right now)” you would more often use είναι θυμωμένη (“she is angry,” literally “she is angered”), using an adjective.

So the sentence means she is not easily getting angry as a general character trait.

Why is the negative word δεν placed before θυμώνει?

In Greek, the basic rule is:

δεν (or μη(ν) in some structures) goes immediately before the verb it negates.

So:

Δεν θυμώνει – she doesn’t get angry
Δεν γελάει – she doesn’t laugh
Δεν βοηθάει – she doesn’t help

You generally cannot move δεν somewhere else in the sentence the way you sometimes can with “not” in English.

What is εύκολα, and how is it formed from εύκολος?

εύκολα is an adverb meaning “easily.” It is formed from the adjective εύκολος (“easy”).

A very common pattern in Greek is:

adjective in -ος → adverb in -α
- καλός → καλά (good → well)
- δυνατός → δυνατά (strong → strongly / loudly)
- εύκολος → εύκολα (easy → easily)

Position-wise, εύκολα usually comes after the verb:
Δεν θυμώνει εύκολα = She doesn’t get angry easily.
You could also say Εύκολα δεν θυμώνει, but that sounds more marked/emphatic (roughly: “She certainly doesn’t get angry easily”).

Is γελάει the same as γελά? How is this verb conjugated?

Yes. γελάει and γελά are both common modern spellings/pronunciations for “(she) laughs.”

The verb is γελάω (or γελώ) = “to laugh.” In the present tense:

(εγώ) γελάω / γελώ – I laugh
(εσύ) γελάς – you laugh
(αυτός/αυτή) γελάει / γελά – he/she laughs

In everyday modern Greek, verbs in -άω often have two parallel forms in the 3rd person: -άει and -ά. Both γελάει and γελά are correct and pronounced almost the same in speech.

What does δυνατά mean here, and does it always mean “loudly”?

In this sentence δυνατά means “loudly”:
γελάει δυνατά = “she laughs loudly.”

δυνατός is an adjective that means both “strong” and “loud” (for sounds). Its adverb δυνατά can therefore mean:

strongly / with force – e.g. χτυπάει δυνατά = he/she hits hard
loudly (about sounds or voice) – e.g. μιλάει δυνατά = he/she speaks loudly

Here, with γελάει, the natural interpretation is “loudly.”

Why do we say βοηθάει τον εαυτό της instead of having a single reflexive verb like “βοηθάται”?

Modern Greek generally does not form reflexive verbs in the same systematic way as some other European languages (like German sich helfen or Spanish ayudarse).
Instead, it often uses the noun εαυτός (“self”) with a possessive pronoun:

βοηθάω + τον εαυτό μου/σου/του/της/μας/σας/τους

So:

βοηθάει τον εαυτό της = “she helps herself”
βοηθάω τον εαυτό μου = I help myself

There is a passive form βοηθιέμαι, but it means “to be helped” (by someone), not “to help oneself.” So for “help oneself,” the natural pattern is βοηθάω τον εαυτό μου / σου / της, not a reflexive verb form.

Why is it τον εαυτό της (with masculine τον) even though we’re talking about a female friend?

Because εαυτός is a masculine noun in Greek, regardless of who it refers to.

ο εαυτός = the self (grammatically masculine)

So in the accusative singular you must use the masculine article:

τον εαυτό μου – myself
τον εαυτό σου – yourself
τον εαυτό του – himself
τον εαυτό της – herself
τον εαυτό μας, σας, τους – ourselves, etc.

The grammatical gender of εαυτός (masculine) controls the article τον, not the biological gender of the person. The της at the end (“her”) shows that it is her self.

What is να μείνει grammatically, and why not να μένει?

να μείνει is the subjunctive form of the verb μένω (“to stay, to remain”) in the aorist:

να μένει – present subjunctive
να μείνει – aorist subjunctive

After verbs like βοηθάει (“she helps”), Greek commonly uses να + subjunctive:

βοηθάει τον εαυτό της να μείνει ήρεμη = she helps herself (so that she) stay/remain calm.

Using να μείνει focuses on the result (to be/remain calm as a whole), often seen as a single situation.
να μένει would emphasize an ongoing, repeated or continuous staying calm. In many contexts both are possible, but να μείνει ήρεμη sounds very natural here.

Why is it ήρεμη and not ήρεμα?

ήρεμη is a feminine adjective meaning “calm”, agreeing with the subject η φίλη μου (feminine, singular).

The verb μένω here behaves like “to be / to remain,” so it takes a predicate adjective, not an adverb:

μένει ήρεμη = she remains calm (she is calm)
ήρεμη agrees in gender, number and case with η φίλη (μου).

ήρεμα is the adverb “calmly,” which would describe how she does an action (e.g. μιλάει ήρεμα = she speaks calmly).
Here the sentence is about her state (to stay calm), so the adjective ήρεμη is required.

Could the word order or punctuation be different? For example, could we replace the comma or repeat the subject?

Yes, Greek allows some flexibility here.

Comma and “και”
The original:
Η φίλη μου δεν θυμώνει εύκολα, γελάει δυνατά και βοηθάει τον εαυτό της να μείνει ήρεμη.
You could also say:
Η φίλη μου δεν θυμώνει εύκολα, γελάει δυνατά, και βοηθάει τον εαυτό της να μείνει ήρεμη.
The extra comma before και is optional and mainly a stylistic choice.
Repeating the subject
You can repeat η φίλη μου for emphasis or clarity, but it’s not necessary:
- Η φίλη μου δεν θυμώνει εύκολα, η φίλη μου γελάει δυνατά και βοηθάει…
  This sounds more emphatic or rhetorical; normally you state the subject once and then just list the verbs.
Order of the three actions
You could, in principle, reorder the three verbs, but then you change the emphasis or the flow. The given order is natural and smooth in Greek.