Ο φίλος μου λέει ότι είναι συνηθισμένος στην κίνηση της πόλης, αλλά εγώ όχι ακόμα.

My friend (male) says that he is used to the traffic of the city, but I am not yet.

Breakdown of Ο φίλος μου λέει ότι είναι συνηθισμένος στην κίνηση της πόλης, αλλά εγώ όχι ακόμα.

• είμαι: to be
• εγώ: I
• μου: my
• ο φίλος: the male friend

Questions & Answers about Ο φίλος μου λέει ότι είναι συνηθισμένος στην κίνηση της πόλης, αλλά εγώ όχι ακόμα.

Why is there an article Ο before φίλος μου? In English we usually say “my friend”, not “the my friend”.

In Greek, possessive constructions with a noun and a possessive pronoun almost always take a definite article:

• ο φίλος μου = my friend (literally: the friend of-me)
• η μητέρα σου = your mother
• το σπίτι μας = our house

So ο is just the normal definite article (masculine singular nominative) that goes with φίλος. You would not normally say φίλος μου alone in this context; ο φίλος μου is the standard way to say my friend as the subject of a sentence.

Why is μου placed after φίλος instead of before it?

Greek possessive pronouns like μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους are clitics and usually follow the noun they modify:

• ο φίλος μου = my friend
• η αδελφή σου = your sister
• το αυτοκίνητό του = his car

So the normal order is: article + noun + possessive clitic.
Putting μου before the noun (μου φίλος) is ungrammatical in modern standard Greek (though you may see fronted possessives in poetry or very marked, emotional speech, and then usually in full form: ο δικός μου φίλος = my own friend).

What exactly does λέει ότι mean here? Could we use πως instead of ?