Breakdown of Προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός και να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου όταν γράφω μικρές ιστορίες στα ελληνικά.
Questions & Answers about Προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός και να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου όταν γράφω μικρές ιστορίες στα ελληνικά.
Προσπαθώ να literally means “I try to …”.
- Προσπαθώ = I try / I am trying
- να είμαι δημιουργικός = to be creative
So the whole first part is: Προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός = “I try to be creative.”
In Greek, when you want to say “try to do something”, the normal structure is:
- προσπαθώ + να + verb
- προσπαθώ να μάθω – I try to learn
- προσπαθώ να μιλάω ελληνικά – I try to speak Greek
You can say just είμαι δημιουργικός (“I am creative”), but then you lose the idea of “trying / making an effort”.
Να is not a direct equivalent of English “to”, even though it often appears where English uses “to”.
In modern Greek, να is:
- A particle that introduces a subordinate clause with a verb in the subjunctive (or more simply: “a verb that depends on something else”).
- It often corresponds to English “to”, “that”, or even nothing at all, depending on the sentence.
Examples:
- Θέλω να φάω. – I want to eat.
- Πρέπει να φύγουμε. – We must leave.
- Προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός. – I try to be creative.
So here:
- να είμαι δημιουργικός – “to be creative”
- να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου – “to use my imagination”
It always comes before the verb form that is in this dependent/subjunctive mood.
Greek has a subjunctive, but in the present tense it often looks the same as the normal present, especially with many verbs. With είμαι it’s very clear: the subjunctive is just preceded by να.
- είμαι (I am)
- να είμαι (that I be / to be)
There is no separate ending for a present-subjunctive of είμαι. The να is what tells you it’s in a subjunctive clause.
Compare:
- είμαι δημιουργικός – I am creative.
- προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός – I try to be creative.
Same verb form, but the να changes its function.
The difference is aspect:
- χρησιμοποιώ – present (imperfective) aspect: ongoing, repeated, habitual action
- χρησιμοποιήσω – aorist (perfective) aspect: one whole, completed action
In your sentence:
- προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός και να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου
The idea is habitual / general:
I try to be creative and to use my imagination (in general, as a continuing habit).
That calls for the imperfective: χρησιμοποιώ.
If you said:
- Προσπαθώ να χρησιμοποιήσω τη φαντασία μου
you’d be focusing more on one specific attempt to use your imagination at a particular time, e.g., in this one exercise or this one story.
You can drop the second να in casual speech, and people will still understand you. But:
- προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός και να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου
is the clearest and most standard form, because both verbs show the same pattern:
- να είμαι
- να χρησιμοποιώ
Without the second να, the sentence can sound slightly less balanced and, in some contexts, a bit ambiguous: it could feel like:
- “I try to be creative, and I (as a fact) use my imagination …”
So repeating να keeps both verbs clearly under προσπαθώ (“I try”).
The full form is την φαντασία (feminine singular accusative).
In everyday modern Greek, την often loses the final -ν when the next word starts with certain consonants. So we get τη φαντασία in speech and in most writing.
General tendency (for την / την and τον / έναν): the -ν is kept mainly before:
- vowels
- κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ
But many speakers drop it more often, and modern spelling is fairly relaxed here. Τη φαντασία is absolutely normal and correct.
Greek has enclitic possessive pronouns: they usually come after the noun:
- η φαντασία μου – my imagination
- το σπίτι σου – your house
- το βιβλίο του – his book
So the normal pattern is:
article + noun + possessive pronoun
like: η φαντασία μου, το αυτοκίνητό της.
You can say η δική μου φαντασία (literally “my own imagination”) but that has a slightly stronger emphasis on “my (as opposed to someone else’s)”. The unmarked, natural form is η φαντασία μου.
Greek adjectives agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun (or pronoun) they describe.
Here the subject is (εγώ) – “I”. You don’t see it, but it’s understood:
- (Εγώ) προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργικός…
If the speaker is:
- a man → δημιουργικός (masculine singular)
- a woman → δημιουργική (feminine singular)
So a female speaker would naturally say:
- Προσπαθώ να είμαι δημιουργική και να χρησιμοποιώ τη φαντασία μου…
The written sentence with δημιουργικός implicitly assumes a male speaker (or is just given as a grammatical example in the masculine).
Order:
- The usual order in Greek is adjective + noun:
- μικρές ιστορίες – small / short stories
- καλές ιδέες – good ideas
You can put the adjective after the noun (ιστορίες μικρές), but then it sounds more poetic, emphatic, or marked in some way. The neutral option is μικρές ιστορίες.
- The usual order in Greek is adjective + noun:
Ending -ες:
- ιστορίες is feminine plural accusative (object of γράφω).
- The adjective must agree: μικρές is feminine plural accusative of μικρός, -ή, -ό.
So we have full agreement:
- (τι;) μικρές ιστορίες – “(what?) small/short stories” – feminine, plural, accusative.
Again, this is about aspect and meaning.
- όταν γράφω – when I write (in general / whenever I write) – habitual / repeated
- όταν γράψω – when I (have) written / when I write (once, at some point in the future) – one specific event
Your sentence expresses a general habit:
I try to be creative and to use my imagination when I write short stories in Greek (in general).
So the present (imperfective) γράφω is the natural choice: όταν γράφω μικρές ιστορίες στα ελληνικά.
If you said όταν γράψω, you’d be talking about a single future instance, like:
- Όταν γράψω την ιστορία, θα στη στείλω. – When I write the story, I’ll send it to you.
Στα ελληνικά is a very common way to say “in Greek (language)”.
- στα = σε + τα (preposition + article, plural)
- ελληνικά = neuter plural form of ελληνικός used as a noun meaning “Greek (language)”.
So literally: “in the Greek (words)” → in Greek.
Both of these are correct and common:
- γράφω στα ελληνικά – I write in Greek.
- γράφω στην ελληνική γλώσσα – I write in the Greek language.
The first is shorter and more natural in everyday speech and writing.
Στα is a contraction of:
- σε + τα → στα
Σε can mean in, at, to, on, depending on context, and τα is the plural definite article (the).
So στα can mean:
- in the – στα ελληνικά (in Greek)
- at the – στα βουνά (in/at the mountains)
- to the – πάω στα μαγαζιά (I go to the shops)
In your sentence, στα ελληνικά is understood as “in Greek (language)”.
Yes, but they’re different genders and different uses:
- ελληνικά: neuter plural → used as a noun meaning “Greek (language)”
- ελληνικές: feminine plural form of the adjective “Greek”, used with a feminine plural noun (e.g. ελληνικές λέξεις – Greek words)
So:
- στα ελληνικά – in (the) Greek (language)
- στις ελληνικές ιστορίες – in the Greek stories
Your sentence is about the language, so it must be στα ελληνικά.
Yes, word order in Greek is fairly flexible, and both are grammatical:
- όταν γράφω μικρές ιστορίες στα ελληνικά
- όταν γράφω στα ελληνικά μικρές ιστορίες
The difference is slight:
- The original order slightly groups μικρές ιστορίες as a unit.
- The second option puts a bit more focus on στα ελληνικά (“when I write in Greek short stories”).
Both forms are natural; the original one probably sounds a bit more neutral.
Greek words have one written accent (´) showing stress. For verbs like προσπαθώ (from προσπαθώ, προσπαθείς, προσπαθεί), the stress is part of the verb’s pattern.
- προσπαθώ – stress on the last syllable
- προσπαθείς – stress on -θείς
- προσπαθεί – stress on -θεί
The general rule is simply: the written accent marks where you stress the word when you pronounce it.
There’s also a rule that the stress can only fall on one of the last three syllables, and προσπαθώ obeys this (last syllable).