Learn Hardcore Greek: Της λείπω κι εγώ όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα. - She misses me too when we don’t talk every day.

The verb λείπω basically means “to be absent / to be missing”.
The person who feels the missing is expressed with a weak pronoun in the genitive (here: της = to her).
The person who is absent (the one being missed) is the subject of the verb (here: εγώ, understood from λείπω = I).

So:

Της λείπω literally: “I am missing to her”
In natural English: “She misses me.”

So the roles are “flipped” compared to English: Greek focuses on “I am (absent) to her”, not “she misses me”.

Why is it της and not αυτή or μου?

Because της here is an indirect object pronoun, not the subject:

της = to her (genitive), weak/clitic pronoun
αυτή = she (nominative, full subject pronoun)
μου = to me (genitive, would mean “I miss …” instead)

In this structure:

Της λείπω = I am missing to her → She misses me
If you said Μου λείπει, that would mean Something/Someone is missing to me → I miss him/her/it.

So:

Της λείπω → She misses me
Μου λείπει → I miss her/him/it

Using αυτή here would be ungrammatical, because the verb λείπω doesn’t take αυτή as a subject in this meaning; the subject is εγώ (contained in the verb ending -ω).

Can you show the pattern with λείπω for “I miss you / you miss me / we miss them”, etc.?

Yes. Think of it as:

[Genitive pronoun] + λείπει / λείπουν / λείπω
= X is missing to me/you/him → I/you/he miss X.

Some common combinations (with singular “someone/it” as the thing missed):

Μου λείπει. → I miss him/her/it.
Σου λείπει. → You miss him/her/it.
Του λείπει. → He misses him/her/it.
Της λείπει. → She misses him/her/it.
Μας λείπει. → We miss him/her/it.
Σας λείπει. → You (pl./formal) miss him/her/it.
Τους λείπει. → They miss him/her/it.

Now, when the person missed is me and the one who misses is she, we flip it:

Της λείπω (εγώ). → She misses me.
(subject = I, indirect object = to her)

Similarly:

Σου λείπω. → You miss me.
Μου λείπεις. → I miss you.

What exactly does κι εγώ add to Της λείπω? Who is the “too” referring to?

Κι εγώ = “me too / I also”.

In Της λείπω κι εγώ, the idea is:

“I too am someone she misses.”
Implying she already misses other people (e.g. her family, friends), and I am also on that list.

So the “too” goes with “I”, not with “miss”.

It does not mean:

“I also miss her.” (that would be Μου λείπει κι αυτή, etc.)

Instead, it’s:

“She misses others, and I’m another one she misses.”

Context can make this nuance stronger or weaker, but grammatically κι εγώ attaches to the subject εγώ (“I”).

Can εγώ be omitted? Would Της λείπω όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα still be correct?

Yes, εγώ can be omitted, and the sentence is still fully correct:

Της λείπω όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.

Greek usually drops subject pronouns because they’re already encoded in the verb ending:

λείπω → subject is εγώ (“I”).

However, in the original:

Της λείπω κι εγώ…
the εγώ is kept for emphasis (“I too am someone she misses”).

So:

Without εγώ → neutral statement.
With κι εγώ → highlighting me as an additional person she misses.

Why is της at the very beginning of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Clitic pronouns like της usually attach closely to the verb, but in a main clause without another host before the verb, they’re often placed before the verb:

Της λείπω. (very natural)

You could also have:

Εγώ της λείπω όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.
(focus on “I am the one she misses”)

Putting της after λείπω (λείπω της) is not natural in modern Greek in this kind of sentence.

So the most natural positions here are:

Της λείπω κι εγώ όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.
Εγώ της λείπω κι όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα. (stronger emphasis on I)

What is the difference between και and κι in this sentence?

Here, there is no difference in meaning. Both mean “and / also”.

και εγώ
κι εγώ

Κι is used instead of και mainly:

Before a vowel sound, to make pronunciation smoother:
- και εγώ → can become κι εγώ.
Sometimes simply for rhythm, even before consonants.

So:

Της λείπω και εγώ
Της λείπω κι εγώ

are the same in meaning. Κι is just the more natural spoken form before εγώ.

What tense/aspect is λείπω here, and why is it present?

Λείπω is present tense, imperfective aspect.

In this sentence, it expresses something that happens regularly / habitually under a certain condition:

Της λείπω… όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.
→ She (tends to) miss me whenever we don’t talk every day.

Present imperfective in Greek can express:

General truths
Repeated/habitual actions
Current ongoing states

Here it’s a habitual state: every time the condition is true, she misses me.

Why is it όταν δεν μιλάμε and not something like όταν δεν μιλήσουμε?

Both exist, but they mean different things.

όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα
- μιλάμε = present, imperfective
- Idea: a repeated / general situation
- Meaning: when(ever) we don’t talk every day (as a habit / regularly)
όταν δεν μιλήσουμε (κάποια μέρα)
- μιλήσουμε = aorist (perfective), subjunctive form
- Idea: a single, specific event in the future or a one-time condition
- Meaning: when / if we (happen to) not talk (on some particular occasion)

In your sentence, the idea is a general pattern, so μιλάμε (present, imperfective) with όταν is the natural choice.

Is όταν δεν μιλάμε a kind of conditional clause (“if we don’t talk”), or strictly “when we don’t talk”?

Grammatically it’s a time clause with όταν + present indicative:

όταν δεν μιλάμε = “when(ever) we don’t talk”.

But in many contexts, especially with general/habitual meaning, Greek όταν + present can overlap with English “if/when”:

Της λείπω όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.
→ She misses me when(ever) we don’t talk every day.
→ could also feel like If we don’t talk every day, she misses me.

So it’s structurally “when”, but functionally close to a conditional in English.

What does κάθε μέρα (“every day”) add? Could we just say όταν δεν μιλάμε?

Κάθε μέρα narrows the condition:

όταν δεν μιλάμε
= whenever we don’t talk (at all / in general)
όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα
= whenever we fail to talk on a daily basis (i.e. not daily, less often than every day)

Without κάθε μέρα, the statement is more general. With κάθε μέρα, it specifically refers to the frequency (daily contact).

You could say:

Της λείπω όταν δεν μιλάμε.
→ She misses me when we’re not talking (in general).

But the original sentence emphasizes the routine: talking every day.

How would I say “I miss her when we don’t talk every day” in Greek?

You must reverse the roles compared to the original sentence:

Μου λείπει όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.

Breakdown:

Μου = to me → I am the one who misses
λείπει = she is absent / missing → she is the one being missed
όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα = when we don’t talk every day

So:

Μου λείπει όταν δεν μιλάμε κάθε μέρα.
= I miss her when we don’t talk every day.

Does λείπω always mean “to miss (emotionally)”?

No. Its basic meaning is “to be absent / to be missing” in a neutral, physical sense.

Examples:

Λείπω από τη δουλειά σήμερα.
→ I’m absent from work today.
Λείπουν δύο σελίδες από το βιβλίο.
→ Two pages are missing from the book.

The emotional “to miss (someone)” meaning appears when you use λείπω with a genitive pronoun:

Μου λείπεις. → I miss you. (literally: You are missing to me.)
Της λείπω. → She misses me. (I am missing to her.)

So the emotional meaning is a specific construction of λείπω, not a separate verb.