Breakdown of Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
Questions & Answers about Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
Από literally means from and here it shows the point of view or origin of the action:
Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω… = From the balcony I see…
You could also say Στο μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο, which is more like On the balcony I see the garden, focusing more on where you are rather than the vantage point.
In normal, natural Greek for “From the balcony I see…”, Από το μπαλκόνι is the default choice.
In Greek, definite articles (ο, η, το, οι, τα etc.) are used much more than in English. You normally need them with:
- Specific things: το μπαλκόνι (the balcony of this house)
- Concrete objects: τον κήπο (the garden you’re looking at)
Leaving the articles out (Από μπαλκόνι βλέπω κήπο) sounds unnatural and almost “telegraphic” in modern Greek.
So in most everyday sentences, if English has “the”, Greek definitely has an article; and often Greek keeps the article even when English might drop it.
Greek changes the form of nouns and articles depending on their grammatical role (case):
- ο κήπος = the garden (subject, nominative case)
- Ο κήπος είναι μεγάλος. – The garden is big.
- τον κήπο = the garden (direct object, accusative case)
- Βλέπω τον κήπο. – I see the garden.
In our sentence, τον κήπο is the direct object of the verb βλέπω (“I see”), so it must be in the accusative: τον κήπο, not ο κήπος.
Greek is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is usually omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- βλέπω = I see
- βλέπεις = you see
- βλέπει = he/she/it sees
So Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω… already means From the balcony I see….
You only add εγώ (I) when you want to emphasize it:
Εγώ, από το μπαλκόνι, βλέπω τον κήπο. – I (as opposed to someone else) see the garden from the balcony.
Roughly:
- βλέπω = I see (it comes into my field of vision, perception)
- κοιτάζω = I look (at), I watch (I direct my eyes intentionally)
In practice:
- Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο. – From the balcony I can see the garden (it’s visible).
- Από το μπαλκόνι κοιτάζω τον κήπο. – From the balcony I (am) look(ing) at the garden (more active, deliberate).
Our sentence is perfectly natural with βλέπω, because it describes what is visible from there.
Both often mean I feel, and in many contexts they are interchangeable:
- Νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
- Αισθάνομαι πιο χαλαρός.
Both are fine.
Some tendencies (not strict rules):
- νιώθω is a bit more colloquial, shorter, very common in speech.
- αισθάνομαι can sound slightly more formal or “careful Greek”.
With adjectives expressing emotional or physical state (χαλαρός, κουρασμένος, άσχημα, καλά etc.), νιώθω is extremely common and natural.
πιο is the usual word for more when forming the comparative of most adjectives:
- χαλαρός – relaxed
- πιο χαλαρός – more relaxed
- ακριβός – expensive
- πιο ακριβός – more expensive
So νιώθω πιο χαλαρός = I feel more relaxed.
Some very common adjectives have their own “built‑in” comparative forms (e.g. καλύτερος, χειρότερος), but for most adjectives you use πιο + adjective.
Adjectives in Greek must agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.
Here, χαλαρός describes the subject (the speaker), which is:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative (subject case)
So the correct form is χαλαρός.
If the speaker is female, you would normally say:
- Νιώθω πιο χαλαρή. – I (female) feel more relaxed.
If you were talking about a neuter subject, e.g.:
- Το σώμα μου νιώθει πιο χαλαρό. – My body feels more relaxed.
Yes. Word order in Greek is relatively flexible. All of the following are grammatically correct:
- Από το μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
- Βλέπω τον κήπο από το μπαλκόνι και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
- Βλέπω από το μπαλκόνι τον κήπο και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
The differences are mostly about emphasis and flow:
- Starting with Από το μπαλκόνι highlights the location as the setting: From the balcony, I see…
- Starting with Βλέπω is a bit more neutral: I see the garden from the balcony…
All are natural in spoken Greek.
In this sentence, no comma is needed:
- …βλέπω τον κήπο και νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
Both verbs (βλέπω, νιώθω) share the same subject (“I”), and και simply links two closely related actions.
You would normally add a comma before και only if you are joining larger, more independent clauses, or if you want a special pause or emphasis.
The Greek present tense covers both the English simple present and present continuous:
- Βλέπω τον κήπο.
= I see the garden. / I am seeing the garden. - Νιώθω πιο χαλαρός.
= I feel more relaxed. / I am feeling more relaxed.
Context decides whether it’s interpreted as a habitual/general action or right now.
In this specific sentence, it most naturally describes what happens whenever you are on the balcony (a regular effect), but it can also be understood as “right now, as I’m on the balcony”.
Μπαλκόνι is pronounced approximately [bal-KO-nee], with stress on the second syllable: μπαλ–ΚΟ–νι.
In modern Greek spelling:
- At the beginning of a word, μπ represents the sound /b/.
- In the middle of a word, μπ usually represents /mb/ or sometimes just /b/, depending on the word and the speaker.
So μπαλκόνι is the Greek spelling used to represent the foreign word balcony with Greek letters and sounds.
Yes. In everyday speech you very often hear:
- Απ’ το μπαλκόνι βλέπω τον κήπο…
Here από loses the final vowel -ο before the vowel τ in το, and the apostrophe shows this contraction.
Both Από το and Απ’ το are correct; Από το is a bit more standard/formal in writing, Απ’ το more colloquial.