Learn Hardcore Greek: Κρατάω μερικά μπουκάλια από γυαλί για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια αντί να τα πετάω. - I keep some glass bottles to put rice and pasta in them instead of throwing them away.

φυλάω / φυλάσσω – “to keep / store / guard”, but this sounds a bit more like “to store carefully” or “to guard” and would slightly change the nuance.
τσεκάρω, έχω etc. would not fit the same idea.

So κρατάω here is the natural, everyday choice for “I keep (these bottles instead of tossing them).”

What nuance does μερικά add? Is it “some” or “a few”? Is it countable?

μερικά = “some / a few” and is used with countable neuter plural nouns.

μερικά μπουκάλια = some bottles / a few bottles

Nuance:

It doesn’t specify an exact number.
It’s neutral: not especially “small” or “big” quantity; context and tone decide.
- If you stress “a small number”, you might say λίγα μπουκάλια (“few bottles”).
- μερικά is just “some, an indefinite number”.

Gender/number agreement:

μερικός, μερική, μερικό (singular)
μερικοί, μερικές, μερικά (plural)
- μπουκάλια is neuter plural → μερικά is neuter plural to agree with it.

Why is it μπουκάλια and not μπουκάλα or something else? What are the forms?

The base word is:

το μπουκάλι – “the bottle” (neuter singular)

Plural:

τα μπουκάλια – “the bottles” (neuter plural)

In the sentence:

μερικά μπουκάλια – “some bottles” (indefinite, so no article τα)

μπουκάλα (feminine) also exists in Greek:

η μπουκάλα / οι μπουκάλες – more colloquial, often used for bigger bottles (e.g. gas bottle) or just in casual speech.

Here μπουκάλια is the standard neuter form and sounds completely natural.

Why από γυαλί and not something like a genitive form (“γυαλιού”) or an adjective?

In modern Greek, από + material is the most usual way to say “made of X”:

μπουκάλια από γυαλί = bottles made of glass

Alternatives:

γυάλινα μπουκάλια
- using the adjective γυάλινος, -η, -ο = “glass (adj.)”
- Very common and maybe even a bit more natural:
  - Κρατάω μερικά γυάλινα μπουκάλια…
μπουκάλια γυαλιού (genitive)
- Possible but much less common for material; it sounds a bit odd here. Genitive after a noun usually suggests content/possession rather than material.

So the two best-sounding options are:

μπουκάλια από γυαλί
γυάλινα μπουκάλια

Both are perfectly correct.

What does για να do here? Why not just να βάζω?

για να + verb usually expresses purpose: “in order to / so that”.

για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια
→ “in order to put rice and pasta inside them”

If you removed για, να βάζω would still be grammatically possible in some contexts, but:

να by itself typically introduces a subjunctive clause (wish, command, etc.).
για να specifically marks the goal / purpose of the action.

So για να answers “why do you keep the bottles?” → “So that I can put rice and pasta in them.”

Why is it βάζω (present) and not βάλω (subjunctive) after για να?

Greek distinguishes imperfective (ongoing/habitual) and perfective (single/complete) aspects.

για να βάζω – present stem → imperfective aspect
→ “so that I can regularly / generally put (rice and pasta in them)”
για να βάλω – aorist stem → perfective aspect
→ “so that I (can) put once (on a specific occasion)”

Here the speaker is talking about a habitual/general use for the bottles:

keeping them as storage containers in general.

So για να βάζω fits that idea of repeated / ongoing use.
If you said για να βάλω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια, it would sound more like for one specific act of putting them in, which doesn’t match the “I keep some bottles” context as well.

What is the role of μέσα here? Could you leave it out or move it?

μέσα = “inside / in”.

In the sentence:

για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια
Literally: “so that I put inside rice and pasta.”

Function:

It clarifies the direction/location of the action: you’re putting the rice and pasta inside the bottles.

You could say:

για να βάζω ρύζι και μακαρόνια μέσα – also possible; μέσα would then sound slightly more like “inside (them)” tagging on at the end.
για να βάζω ρύζι και μακαρόνια (σε αυτά) – “to put rice and pasta in them” without μέσα, but with a prepositional phrase.

Omitting μέσα entirely:

για να βάζω ρύζι και μακαρόνια – this is grammatically fine, but less clear: where are you putting them? Context could still make it obvious, but μέσα makes it explicit that they go inside the bottles.

Why is there no article before ρύζι and μακαρόνια?

In Greek, like in English, mass or generic plural nouns often appear without an article when you speak in general:

βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια
→ “I put rice and pasta (in general, some amount).”

Compare:

το ρύζι / τα μακαρόνια – “the rice / the pasta” (specific, known to both speakers)
ένα ρύζι doesn’t work (you don’t count rice like that), but:
- ένα πακέτο ρύζι, ένα κιλό ρύζι etc.

The bare forms here express non-specific, unspecified quantities, exactly like “I keep jars to put rice and pasta (in them)” in English.

What does αντί να mean exactly, and why is να used?

αντί by itself means “instead (of)”.
When followed by a verb, it takes να + verb, forming:

αντί να + subjunctive = “instead of doing X”

So:

αντί να τα πετάω
→ “instead of throwing them away”

Grammar:

να πετάω is a subjunctive form (introduced by να).
αντί να basically means “instead of + (to) verb-ing”.

Aspect:

αντί να τα πετάω (imperfective) suggests a repeated / habitual action:
→ instead of (habitually) throwing them away.
αντί να τα πετάξω (perfective) would sound more like a single or complete action:
→ instead of (once) throwing them away.

What does τα refer to in αντί να τα πετάω? The bottles, or the rice and pasta?

Grammatically, τα is:

3rd person neuter plural object pronoun = “them”

Possible neuter plurals in the sentence:

τα μπουκάλια – “the bottles”
μακαρόνια – also neuter plural

In normal interpretation, τα refers to τα μπουκάλια (“the bottles”):

You keep some bottles … instead of throwing them away.
→ The thing you’d normally throw away is the container (the bottles), not the rice and pasta you deliberately store.

Could it refer to ρύζι και μακαρόνια?

In theory yes (especially because μακαρόνια is also neuter plural), but context and logic in everyday speech strongly favor the bottles as the referent.

Does πετάω mean “throw” or “throw away”? Is it informal?

πετάω (also πετώ, more formal) can mean:

to throw / toss something
to throw away / discard something (like English “throw (it) out”)
to fly (for birds, planes, etc.), in different contexts

In αντί να τα πετάω, the natural interpretation is:

“instead of throwing them away” = instead of discarding them.

πετάω is the everyday colloquial form.
πετώ is more formal/literary.

Similarly to κρατάω / κρατώ, the -άω form is what you mostly hear in spoken Greek.

Why are all the verbs in the present tense? Is this happening now or is it a general habit?

In Greek, the present tense commonly expresses:

current actions: “I am doing now”
habitual / general actions: “I (usually / generally) do”

Here:

Κρατάω… – “I keep…”
να βάζω… – “(in order) to put…”
να τα πετάω – “(instead of) throwing them away…”

Together, they clearly describe a general habit / usual practice, not a one-time event:

“I (generally) keep some glass bottles to put rice and pasta in, instead of (habitually) throwing them away.”

The use of the imperfective aspect (κρατάω, βάζω, πετάω) supports that habitual meaning.

Could the word order be different, for example Κρατάω μερικά γυάλινα μπουκάλια or moving αντί να τα πετάω?

Yes, Greek word order is relatively flexible. Some natural variants:

Κρατάω μερικά γυάλινα μπουκάλια για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια αντί να τα πετάω.
(using the adjective γυάλινα instead of από γυαλί)
Κρατάω μερικά μπουκάλια από γυαλί, αντί να τα πετάω, για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια.
(moving the αντί να-phrase to the middle; this adds a slight emphasis to “instead of throwing them away”.)
Κρατάω, αντί να τα πετάω, μερικά μπουκάλια από γυαλί για να βάζω μέσα ρύζι και μακαρόνια.
(more emphatic or written-style; stressing the contrast even more)

All of these are grammatical. The original order is very natural in spoken Greek and flows smoothly.