Breakdown of Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης και δεν κάνει άσκηση.
Questions & Answers about Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης και δεν κάνει άσκηση.
Ο is the masculine singular definite article in Greek, equivalent to “the” in English.
- Ο αδερφός = the brother
- It’s capitalized simply because it is the first word of the sentence.
- If the word appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would be ο, not Ο.
It also indirectly tells you that αδερφός is masculine and in the nominative case (the subject of the sentence).
In Greek, possessive pronouns like μου (“my”) normally come after the noun they modify:
- ο αδερφός μου = my brother
- η μητέρα μου = my mother
- το σπίτι μου = my house
So the usual pattern is:
article + noun + possessive
ο αδερφός μου (not μου αδερφός)
You can put μου before in very special, emphatic or poetic contexts, but in normal everyday Greek, it goes after the noun.
They are just two spellings of the same word, meaning “brother.”
- αδερφός is the more colloquial / everyday spelling.
- αδελφός is a bit more formal or traditional and is also what you often see in dictionaries or in more formal writing.
Pronunciation in modern Greek is the same (/aðerˈfos/). In everyday speech and writing, αδερφός is very common.
είναι is the 3rd person singular (and also 3rd person plural) of the verb είμαι (“to be”) in the present tense.
Here it means “is”:
- Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης
= My brother is a bit lazy
Basic forms of είμαι in the present tense:
- (εγώ) είμαι – I am
- (εσύ) είσαι – you are (singular)
- (αυτός/αυτή/αυτό) είναι – he/she/it is
- (εμείς) είμαστε – we are
- (εσείς) είστε – you are (plural / formal)
- (αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά) είναι – they are
λίγο here means “a little / a bit / somewhat.”
It is used as an adverb modifying the adjective τεμπέλης:
- είναι λίγο τεμπέλης = he is a bit lazy
When used as an adverb (“a little”), it appears as λίγο and does not change for gender or number.
Compare:
- Έφαγα λίγο. – I ate a little.
- Είναι λίγο κουρασμένος. – He is a bit tired.
The form λίγος is an adjective meaning “few/little” (in quantity) and agrees with a noun:
- λίγος χρόνος – little time
- λίγοι άνθρωποι – few people
τεμπέλης means “lazy” (as an adjective) or can be used as a lazy person (a lazy man).
Here it’s used as an adjective describing the brother:
- Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης.
= My brother is a bit lazy.
The ending -ης shows that it is:
- masculine,
- singular,
- nominative (matching ο αδερφός μου, the subject).
Other forms:
- τεμπέλα – feminine (for a woman)
- Η αδερφή μου είναι τεμπέλα. – My sister is lazy.
- τεμπέλικο – neuter (for neuter nouns, e.g. τεμπέλικο παιδί – lazy child)
δεν is the basic negation particle for verbs in Greek; it corresponds to English “not”.
It is placed directly before the verb it negates:
- δεν κάνει = does not do / doesn’t do
- δεν θέλω = I do not want
- δεν καταλαβαίνω = I do not understand
So:
δεν κάνει άσκηση = “(he) does not exercise / doesn’t exercise.”
In rapid speech, δεν can sound like δε before consonants, but in standard writing it’s usually written δεν.
Greek often uses the verb κάνω (“to do / to make”) plus a noun to express an activity:
- κάνω άσκηση – do exercise
- κάνω μπάνιο – take a bath
- κάνω δίαιτα – be on a diet
- κάνω γιόγκα – do yoga
So δεν κάνει άσκηση literally means “he does not do exercise,” which is naturally translated as “he doesn’t exercise.”
There is also a verb specifically meaning “to exercise physically”: γυμνάζομαι.
- Δεν γυμνάζεται. – He doesn’t work out / doesn’t exercise.
Both δεν κάνει άσκηση and δεν γυμνάζεται are correct; the first sounds like “doesn’t (do) exercise,” the second like “doesn’t work out.”
άσκηση is a feminine noun that generally means “exercise”:
- In this sentence: physical exercise / working out
- In other contexts, it can also mean a practice exercise (in a book, homework, etc.).
Grammatically:
- Gender: feminine
- Singular: η άσκηση
- Plural: οι ασκήσεις
Here, άσκηση is in the singular, but Greek (like English in “do exercise”) can use the singular in a general sense:
- κάνει άσκηση – he does exercise (in general, not one specific exercise)
- κάνει ασκήσεις – he does exercises (several specific exercises, e.g. in a workout or in a textbook)
Yes, Greek allows some flexibility in word order. For example, you could say:
- Ο αδερφός μου δεν κάνει άσκηση και είναι λίγο τεμπέλης.
This is still natural and means the same:
“My brother doesn’t exercise and is a bit lazy.”
You could also separate the ideas into two sentences:
- Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης. Δεν κάνει άσκηση.
The original order just starts by characterizing him (είναι λίγο τεμπέλης) and then adds another negative trait (και δεν κάνει άσκηση). The meaning stays essentially the same.
You can say Ο αδερφός είναι λίγο τεμπέλης, but it does not automatically mean “my brother” anymore. It now means:
- “The brother is a bit lazy”
Without μου, the sentence is less personal and sounds incomplete unless the context has already made clear which brother you are talking about (for example, “In that family, the sister is very active but the brother is a bit lazy”).
If you specifically mean “my brother”, you normally include μου:
- Ο αδερφός μου είναι λίγο τεμπέλης.
Stress in Greek is phonemic (it changes the word), so the accent marks are important. Here are the words with approximate pronunciation:
- Ο – /o/
- αδερφός – /aðerˈfos/ (stress on the last syllable: -φός)
- μου – /mu/
- είναι – /ˈine/ (stress on the first syllable: εί-)
- λίγο – /ˈliɣo/ (stress on λί-)
- τεμπέλης – /temˈbelis/ (stress on -μπέ-)
- και – /ce/ (like “keh”)
- δεν – /ðen/
- κάνει – /ˈkani/ (stress on κά-)
- άσκηση – /ˈaskisi/ (stress on άσ-)
If you move the stress, you may end up with a different word or a non‑existent one, so paying attention to the accent marks (´) is essential when learning and reading Greek.