Breakdown of Σήμερα πολύς κόσμος πάει στην αγορά.
Questions & Answers about Σήμερα πολύς κόσμος πάει στην αγορά.
Literally, πολύς κόσμος is “much world” or “a lot of world” (πολύς = much/a lot of, κόσμος = world/people).
In modern Greek, κόσμος very often means “people” or “crowd”, not just “world”. For example:
- Έχει πολύ κόσμο. = There are many people / It’s crowded.
So πολύς κόσμος is a natural way to say “many people / a lot of people”. It’s a set phrase that native speakers use all the time.
κόσμος is grammatically singular, even though its meaning is collective (“people, crowd”).
So we treat it like English “the crowd”:
- English: The crowd is going to the market. (singular verb)
- Greek: Ο κόσμος πάει στην αγορά. (singular verb)
Because κόσμος is singular, the verb must also be singular:
- πάει (he/she/it goes) — not πάνε (they go).
If you want a grammatically plural subject, you can say:
- Πολλοί άνθρωποι πάνε στην αγορά. = Many people go to the market.
Here άνθρωποι is plural, so the verb πάνε is also plural.
The adjective must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- κόσμος: masculine, singular, nominative.
- The matching form of πολύς is:
- masculine, singular, nominative = πολύς
So we get:
- πολύς κόσμος ✅
- πολλοί κόσμος ❌ (here πολλοί is masculine plural nominative, which doesn’t match singular κόσμος)
If you had a plural noun, you’d use πολλοί:
- πολλοί άνθρωποι = many people
They look similar but function differently:
πολύς / πολλή / πολύ (adjective)
- Means “much / many / a lot of” and changes form to agree with a noun.
- Examples:
- πολύς κόσμος (masc. sg.) = a lot of people
- πολλή δουλειά (fem. sg.) = a lot of work
- πολύ νερό (neut. sg.) = a lot of water
πολύ (adverb, invariable)
- Means “very / much / a lot” and does not change form.
- Examples:
- Τρέχει πολύ. = He/She runs a lot.
- Είναι πολύ ωραίο. = It is very nice.
In Σήμερα πολύς κόσμος πάει στην αγορά, πολύς is the adjective describing κόσμος.
Greek has two very close verbs for “go”: πάω and πηγαίνω.
Dictionary forms:
- πάω / πηγαίνω = to go
3rd person singular (he/she/it goes):
- πάει (from πάω)
- πηγαίνει (from πηγαίνω)
In everyday modern Greek, πάει is extremely common and sounds natural and neutral:
- Ο Γιάννης πάει στην αγορά. = Yannis goes/is going to the market.
πηγαίνει is also correct; it can sound a bit more formal or more “careful” speech:
- Ο Γιάννης πηγαίνει στην αγορά.
In your sentence, πάει is simply the normal spoken form of “goes / is going”.
Greek present tense covers both:
- English “goes” (simple present) and
- English “is going” (present continuous).
So πάει can mean:
- “goes” (habitual, regular)
- or “is going” (right now / today / around this time)
Context decides the nuance. With Σήμερα (“today”), it is naturally understood as:
- “Today many people are going to the market.”
Greek does not need a separate continuous form here.
στην is the contracted form of the preposition plus article:
- σε (to, at, in) + την (feminine accusative singular “the”)
- σε την → στην
Greek regularly contracts σε + definite article:
- σε + τον → στον (to the, masc.)
- σε + την → στην (to the, fem.)
- σε + το → στο (to the, neut.)
- σε + τις / τα → στις / στα, etc.
So στην αγορά literally = “to the market” / “at the market”.
In Greek, place nouns usually take the definite article when you mean “to the X” as a place you go to:
- στην αγορά = to the market
- στο σχολείο = to (the) school
- στη δουλειά = to (the) work
Saying σε αγορά is grammatically possible but sounds unusual here; it would mean something like “to a market” in a more indefinite or abstract way, and it’s not what natives normally say for “go to the market (to shop)”.
So στην αγορά is the natural idiomatic form.
κόσμος is in the nominative case, masculine singular.
- It is the subject of the verb: πολύς κόσμος πάει… (“many people go…”).
αγορά is in the accusative case, feminine singular: την αγορά.
- It is the object of the preposition σε, which always takes the accusative:
- σε + (accusative) → στην αγορά
- It is the object of the preposition σε, which always takes the accusative:
So:
- Subject (who goes?) → πολύς κόσμος (nominative)
- Destination (where?) → στην αγορά (σε + accusative)
Yes, Greek word order is relatively flexible. You can say, for example:
- Σήμερα πολύς κόσμος πάει στην αγορά.
- Πολύς κόσμος σήμερα πάει στην αγορά.
- Πολύς κόσμος πάει σήμερα στην αγορά.
All are grammatically correct. The differences are mostly about emphasis:
- Starting with Σήμερα puts emphasis on “today (as opposed to other days)”.
- Starting with Πολύς κόσμος highlights “many people (as opposed to few)”.
The version you have is very natural and neutral.
You can say:
- Πολύς κόσμος πάει στην αγορά σήμερα.
This is also correct. In spoken Greek, this can sound slightly more like a casual afterthought:
- “Many people are going to the market, today.”
But in many contexts, all these orders will be understood the same; the difference is subtle and mostly about what you want to highlight in the sentence.
Stresses (accented syllables in bold caps):
- ΣΉμερα (SÍ-me-ra)
- ποΛΎς (po-LÍS)
- ΚΌσμος (KÓZ-mos)
- ΠΆει (PÁ-i; often sounds like “PAE”)
- στην αγοΡΆ (stin a-go-RÁ)
So a rough phonetic guide (not strict IPA):
- Σήμερα → SÍ-me-ra
- πολύς → po-LÍS
- κόσμος → KÓZ-mos (the σμ often sounds like “zm”)
- πάει → PÁ-i (two syllables, though in fast speech it’s very quick)
- στην αγορά → stin a-go-RÁ
All the accents in writing (ή, ύ, ό, ά) show exactly where the stress falls in pronunciation.