Ο βασικός μου στόχος είναι να μιλάω ελληνικά κάθε μέρα.

to be

Breakdown of Ο βασικός μου στόχος είναι να μιλάω ελληνικά κάθε μέρα.

• μιλάω: to speak
• ελληνικά: in Greek
• να: to

Questions & Answers about Ο βασικός μου στόχος είναι να μιλάω ελληνικά κάθε μέρα.

Why does the sentence start with Ο? What does Ο mean here?

Ο is the definite article in Greek, like “the” in English.

Here it is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative case

It has to match the noun στόχος (goal), which is masculine singular nominative.

So Ο στόχος = the goal. Because we’ve added an adjective (βασικός), it becomes Ο βασικός στόχος = the main goal.

What exactly does βασικός mean, and how is it different from just “basic”?

βασικός most often means “main / primary / principal” in a sentence like this.

While it can mean “basic” in some contexts (e.g. βασικές γνώσεις = basic knowledge), here:

• Ο βασικός μου στόχος = my main goal / my primary goal

Other near-synonyms:

• κύριος στόχος – main goal
• πρωταρχικός στόχος – primary / first-in-importance goal

In everyday speech, βασικός στόχος is very natural for “main goal.”

Why is μου after βασικός instead of before, like in English “my main goal”?