Questions & Answers about Αυτοί είναι έτοιμοι τώρα.
Αυτοί is the nominative plural masculine form of the pronoun he / this one → they / these (ones).
In this sentence it’s best translated as they.
It usually refers to a group that is either all male or mixed male–female.
If you wanted to emphasize these people (here), context could also make it feel like these (ones) are ready now.
Yes. Greek often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending usually shows who the subject is.
Είναι έτοιμοι τώρα is completely natural and means the same thing: They are ready now.
Using Αυτοί adds a bit of emphasis, like they (as opposed to others) are ready now.
Adjectives in Greek agree with the noun or pronoun they describe in gender, number, and case.
Since Αυτοί is masculine plural nominative, the adjective must also be masculine plural nominative, so it becomes έτοιμοι.
Singular would be έτοιμος (masc. sg.), but here we’re talking about more than one person.
For a group of only women, you switch both the pronoun and the adjective to feminine plural:
- Αυτές είναι έτοιμες τώρα. → They (females) are ready now.
Αυτές = feminine plural they, and έτοιμες = feminine plural form of ready.
Then you normally use the neuter plural:
- Αυτά είναι έτοιμα τώρα. → They / These (things, children) are ready now.
So you get:
- Αυτοί είναι έτοιμοι (masc. people or mixed group)
- Αυτές είναι έτοιμες (fem. people)
- Αυτά είναι έτοιμα (neuter: things, children, animals, etc.)
Subject pronouns like Αυτοί do not take a definite article in Greek, so Οι αυτοί is wrong.
Also, after the verb είμαι (to be), a simple adjective like έτοιμοι is usually used without an article:
- Αυτοί είναι έτοιμοι. (correct)
- Αυτοί είναι οι έτοιμοι. (different, more like They are the ready ones, i.e. a specific subgroup).
Yes, Greek word order is quite flexible, and changes mostly affect emphasis. For example:
- Αυτοί είναι έτοιμοι τώρα. (neutral: they are ready now)
- Τώρα είναι έτοιμοι. (emphasis on now: now they are ready)
- Αυτοί τώρα είναι έτοιμοι. (slight emphasis that they now are ready, maybe in contrast to before)
- Τώρα είναι έτοιμοι αυτοί. (stronger emphasis on αυτοί: it’s them who are ready now)
All are grammatical; context determines what sounds most natural.
Τώρα means now.
It’s not grammatically required; you can drop it: Αυτοί είναι έτοιμοι. → They are ready.
Adding τώρα specifies the time and can also contrast with the past, like now (finally) they’re ready.
Roughly in simplified English phonetics (stressed syllables in caps):
- Αυτοί → af-TÍ
- είναι → Í-ne
- έτοιμοι → É-ti-mi (the οι is like i)
- τώρα → TÓ-ra
So the whole sentence: af-TÍ Í-ne É-ti-mi TÓ-ra.
All the written accent marks show where the stress falls in each word.
Modern Greek has several ways to spell the /i/ sound: ι, η, υ, ει, οι, υι.
Historically they were pronounced differently, but in modern Greek they sound the same.
So είναι and έτοιμοι are both pronounced with i, even though they use ει and οι in spelling.
You mostly have to learn the spelling of each word by practice and exposure.
Είναι is the present tense form of είμαι (to be) used for he / she / it / they:
- είναι = he is, she is, it is, they are
Greek uses the same form for 3rd person singular and plural; context (and pronouns like αυτός / αυτή / αυτά / αυτοί) tells you whether it’s singular or plural.
The base form is έτοιμος (masculine singular).
It means ready, prepared.
Main forms in the nominative are:
- έτοιμος (masc. sg.)
- έτοιμη (fem. sg.)
- έτοιμο (neut. sg.)
- έτοιμοι (masc. pl.)
- έτοιμες (fem. pl.)
- έτοιμα (neut. pl.)
In the sentence, έτοιμοι is used because it agrees with Αυτοί (masc. plural).