Learn Hardcore Greek: Η συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου. - The emotion in my mom’s voice is clear when we talk about my dreams.

In this sentence — Η συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται… — it’s the kind of emotion you hear in someone’s voice (they might sound touched, moved, maybe close to tears).

Some nuances of συγκίνηση:

Often: being touched, moved, emotional (not just any feeling).
Common collocations:
- νιώθω συγκίνηση – I feel emotion / I’m moved.
- με έπιασε συγκίνηση – I suddenly felt very moved.
It doesn’t usually mean “emotion” in the broad psychological sense (for that, Greek often uses συναίσθημα).

So here you could translate it as:

The emotion in my mother’s voice shows…
You can hear how moved my mother is in her voice when…

Why does the sentence start with Η συγκίνηση and not just Συγκίνηση?

Greek uses the definite article η (“the”) much more than English uses “the”.

Η συγκίνηση literally is “the emotion”, but in English we’d normally drop the article and just say “Emotion” or “The emotion” depending on context. In Greek, using the article with:

abstract nouns (like η συγκίνηση, η αγάπη, η χαρά) and
general concepts
is very common and often sounds more natural than omitting it.

If you said just Συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται… it would sound incomplete or stylistically odd in standard modern Greek. The article helps anchor the noun as the subject: Η συγκίνηση … φαίνεται.

What does στη φωνή mean exactly, and why is it written as one word?

στη φωνή comes from:

σε = at / in / on
τη(ν) = the (feminine singular accusative)
φωνή = voice

In modern Greek, σε + τη(ν) very often contracts in speech and writing to στη:

σε τη φωνή → στη φωνή = in/at the voice.

So στη φωνή της μαμάς μου = “in my mother’s voice”.

Similar contractions:

σε + τον → στον (e.g. στον φίλο μου – to my friend)
σε + το → στο (e.g. στο σπίτι – in the house)

Why is it της μαμάς μου and not just η μαμά μου after φωνή?

Here we have a possessive structure:

η φωνή της μαμάς μου = the voice of my mother / my mother’s voice

Structure:

η φωνή – the voice (nominative/accusative feminine)
της μαμάς – of the mother (genitive feminine)
μου – my (possessive pronoun in genitive)

So της μαμάς (genitive) shows possession: “of the mother”, and μου further specifies “my mother”.

If you instead said:

η μαμά μου – my mom (as a subject or object on its own)
- Η μαμά μου μιλάει – My mom is speaking.

But after φωνή, you need “of my mom”, so you use της μαμάς μου in the genitive.

Why is μαμάς ending in -άς here instead of just μαμά?

μαμάς is the genitive singular form of η μαμά (mom).

The main forms are:

η μαμά – nominative (subject): Η μαμά μιλάει. – Mom is speaking.
τη μαμά – accusative (object): Βλέπω τη μαμά. – I see mom.
της μαμάς – genitive (possession): Η φωνή της μαμάς. – Mom’s voice.

So in της μαμάς μου, the -ς ending marks the genitive case, showing possession (“of mom”).

What is the grammatical role of μου in της μαμάς μου and τα όνειρά μου?

Μου is a possessive pronoun in the genitive case, meaning “my”. In Greek it usually comes after the noun:

η μαμά μου – my mom
τα όνειρά μου – my dreams
το βιβλίο μου – my book

In της μαμάς μου, μου attaches to μαμάς:

της μαμάς – of the mother
της μαμάς μου – of my mother.

Unlike English, Greek doesn’t use a separate word before the noun (“my mother”); instead, it puts μου after the noun it modifies.

Why is there an extra accent in τα όνειρά μου instead of τα όνειρα μου?

Normally the word is:

τα όνειρα – dreams
with the stress on the first syllable (Ό-νει-ρα).

But when a proparoxytone word (stress on the third-from-last syllable) is followed by an enclitic like μου, Greek spelling rules say:

the main accent stays where it is,
and an additional accent appears on the last syllable of the main word.

So:

τα όνειρα → τα όνειρά μου

This doesn’t really change the way you say όνειρα in practice; it’s mainly an orthographic rule to show stress behavior in combinations with enclitics.

What is φαίνεται doing here exactly, and which verb does it come from?

Φαίνεται is the 3rd person singular present of the (middle/passive) verb φαίνομαι, which comes from φαίνω/φαίνομαι = to appear, to be visible, to show.

In this sentence:

Η συγκίνηση … φαίνεται = The emotion is visible / shows.

So φαίνεται here means “it shows / is apparent / can be seen (or in this case, heard)”. There’s no explicit “it” in Greek; the subject is η συγκίνηση.

Similar uses:

Φαίνεται κουρασμένος. – He looks tired.
Δεν φαίνεται τίποτα. – Nothing is visible / You can’t see anything.

Why is the verb μιλάμε and how is it formed?

Μιλάμε is 1st person plural present of the verb μιλάω / μιλώ (to speak / talk).

Present tense (one common pattern):

(εγώ) μιλάω / μιλώ – I speak
(εσύ) μιλάς – you speak
(αυτός/αυτή/αυτό) μιλάει / μιλά – he/she/it speaks
(εμείς) μιλάμε / μιλούμε – we speak
(εσείς) μιλάτε – you (pl./formal) speak
(αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά) μιλάνε / μιλούν(ε) – they speak

So μιλάμε = “we talk / we speak.”

In όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου, it literally means “when we talk about my dreams.”

Why is there no subject pronoun (like “we” for μιλάμε) in the Greek sentence?

Greek is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

μιλάμε by itself already means “we talk”.
You could say εμείς μιλάμε, but that usually adds emphasis: we talk (as opposed to others).

In the sentence:

… όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου. the -με ending on μιλάμε makes the subject clear, so εμείς is not needed.

What does όταν mean here, and how is it different from όποτε?

Όταν = when (for specific time situations or “whenever” depending on context).

In the sentence:

όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου = when we talk about my dreams (whenever that happens).

Contrast with:

όποτε = whenever / any time that (more explicitly “any time, no matter when”).

Both can sometimes translate as “when”, but:

όταν is the standard choice for “when(ever) X happens, Y happens”.
όποτε sounds more like “whenever it happens (it doesn’t matter when)” and can feel a bit more open-ended or less specific.

Here όταν is the natural choice.

Why do we need για in μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου? Can we omit it?

Για is a preposition meaning “about / for.”

In this construction:

μιλάω για κάτι = talk about something
- Μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου. – We talk about my dreams.

If you drop για:

μιλάμε τα όνειρά μου
this sounds incorrect or at best very strange in modern Greek; μιλάω doesn’t normally take a direct object like that in the meaning “talk about”.

So you must keep για when the meaning is “talk about X”:

Μιλάμε για τη δουλειά. – We talk about work.
Μιλούσαν για σένα. – They were talking about you.

Is the word order Η συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται fixed, or could it be changed?

Greek word order is relatively flexible. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

Η συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου.
– Neutral: “The emotion in my mother’s voice shows when we talk about my dreams.”
Στη φωνή της μαμάς μου φαίνεται η συγκίνηση όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου.
– Slightly emphasizes στη φωνή της μαμάς μου (in my mother’s voice).
Φαίνεται η συγκίνηση στη φωνή της μαμάς μου όταν μιλάμε για τα όνειρά μου.
– Emphasizes φαίνεται (“It shows / becomes visible that…”).

All are grammatically correct; the original is a standard, clear order: Subject – (prepositional phrase) – Verb – Subordinate clause.