Breakdown of Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
Questions & Answers about Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
Στο is a contraction of σε + το.
- σε = at / in / to (generic preposition of place)
- το = the (neuter singular article)
Greek almost always contracts σε + το → στο, σε + τον → στον, σε + την → στη(ν), etc.
So:
- Σε το πανεπιστήμιο → Στο πανεπιστήμιο = At the university / In the university
Writing σε το πανεπιστήμιο would sound unnatural and wrong in modern Greek.
The preposition σε is quite broad and can mean:
- at (location): Στο πανεπιστήμιο = at the university
- in (inside): Στο πανεπιστήμιο = in the university
- to (direction/motion): Πηγαίνω στο πανεπιστήμιο = I’m going to the university
In your sentence there’s no motion verb, so Στο πανεπιστήμιο is understood as at the university (general location). Context and the verb decide whether it’s at / in / to.
Literally, ο κόσμος means the world. But in everyday Greek it very often means people / everyone / the crowd.
Examples:
- Πολύς κόσμος σήμερα εδώ. = There are a lot of people here today.
- Ο κόσμος στο γραφείο δουλεύει πολύ. = People at the office work a lot.
So in your sentence:
- ο κόσμος = people (in general there), everyone around
- Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος… = At the university, people…
If you wanted to stress actual “world” in the cosmic sense, you would usually need context or add words like όλος ο κόσμος (the whole world).
Grammatically, ο κόσμος is singular masculine:
- Article: ο
- Ending: -ος
- Verb agreement: singular
So the verb must be singular:
- ο κόσμος κάθεται (the people sit / are sitting)
Even though it refers to many individuals, it behaves like a singular collective noun (similar to English the crowd is).
If you use an explicitly plural subject, you use a plural verb:
- Οι άνθρωποι κάθονται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
People sit on uncomfortable chairs all day.
κάθεται is:
- 3rd person singular
- present tense
- middle/passive voice
- from the verb κάθομαι = to sit, to be sitting
The verb κάθομαι is one of those Greek verbs that mainly exist in the middle/passive form (there is no commonly used active form for the same meaning).
Conjugation (present):
- εγώ κάθομαι – I sit / I am sitting
- εσύ κάθεσαι – you sit
- αυτός / αυτή / αυτό κάθεται – he / she / it sits
- εμείς καθόμαστε – we sit
- εσείς κάθεστε – you (pl.) sit
- αυτοί / αυτές / αυτά κάθονται – they sit
There is also a different verb καθίζω, but it’s more formal/technical and not used in everyday speech instead of κάθομαι.
Both are possible, but the nuance changes slightly.
σε άβολες καρέκλες (no article)
- More general / indefinite:
- on uncomfortable chairs (not specific ones, just in general)
στις άβολες καρέκλες = σε + τις άβολες καρέκλες
- More specific:
- on the uncomfortable chairs (particular chairs that are known in context)
In your sentence, we’re describing a general situation at universities, so the more generic σε άβολες καρέκλες fits well: people sit on uncomfortable chairs (as a typical condition).
That’s agreement of gender, number, and case.
- καρέκλα (chair) is feminine.
- Singular: η καρέκλα
- Plural: οι καρέκλες (nominative), τις καρέκλες (accusative)
In σε άβολες καρέκλες, the noun is:
- feminine
- plural
- accusative (because it follows σε)
The adjective άβολος (uncomfortable) must match:
- masculine: άβολος / άβολοι
- feminine: άβολη / άβολες
- neuter: άβολο / άβολα
So άβολες καρέκλες = uncomfortable chairs (fem. plural acc.). The same -ες ending shows they agree and belong together.
In English you’d say on chairs, but Greek uses σε for this.
σε covers several English prepositions:
- at: σε μια καφετέρια = at a café
- in: σε ένα δωμάτιο = in a room
- on: σε μια καρέκλα = on a chair
With sitting, κάθομαι σε καρέκλα means sit on a chair.
So σε άβολες καρέκλες is best translated as on uncomfortable chairs, even though σε by itself could be “in/at/on” depending on the noun and verb.
Both exist, but they mean different things.
όλη μέρα = all day (long), one day treated as a block of time
- Focus: duration within a single typical day
- Κάθομαι στο γραφείο όλη μέρα. = I sit in the office all day.
όλες τις μέρες = every day / all the days (repeatedly, day after day)
- Focus: frequency, many days
- Κάθομαι στο γραφείο όλες τις μέρες. = I sit in the office every day.
In your sentence, όλη μέρα describes how long people sit during the (typical) day at the university: all day long.
Yes. Greek word order is fairly flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:
- Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
- Ο κόσμος στο πανεπιστήμιο κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
- Ο κόσμος κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα στο πανεπιστήμιο.
Differences are mostly about emphasis and flow:
- Starting with Στο πανεπιστήμιο highlights the place.
- Starting with Ο κόσμος highlights the people.
The basic structure [subject] + [verb] + [objects/adverbials] is respected, but prepositional and time phrases can move around more than in English.
Greek present tense usually covers both:
- simple present: sits
- present progressive: is sitting
So ο κόσμος κάθεται can be translated as:
- people sit (habitually)
- people are sitting (right now)
In this general, descriptive sentence about what typically happens at the university, English usually prefers the simple present:
- At the university, people sit on uncomfortable chairs all day.
If you added a time word that clearly refers to “right now,” the translation might lean to are sitting.
The sentence is natural and correct as is:
- Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
A native speaker might also say small variants like:
- Στο πανεπιστήμιο ο κόσμος κάθεται όλη μέρα σε άβολες καρέκλες.
- Ο κόσμος στο πανεπιστήμιο κάθεται σε άβολες καρέκλες όλη μέρα.
All of these sound normal. The vocabulary, grammar, and style are all standard, everyday Greek.