Learn Hardcore Greek: Πολλοί άνθρωποι προτιμούν να μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους σε προάστιο και όχι στο κέντρο. - Many people prefer to raise their children in a suburb and not in the center.

Πολλοί is the masculine plural form of the adjective πολύς (πολύς, πολλή, πολύ) and it must agree in gender, number, and case with άνθρωποι (masculine plural nominative).

πολλοί άνθρωποι = many people (adjective + noun)
πολύ (without ending change) is usually:
- an adverb: πολύ καλός = very good
- or the neuter singular form as a pronoun/noun: πολύ = much, a lot

So here we need πολλοί because it directly modifies the plural noun άνθρωποι.

Why do we say άνθρωποι and not something like ο κόσμος for “people”?

Both exist, but they are used a bit differently:

πολλοί άνθρωποι = many people (more literal, neutral)
πολύς κόσμος = a lot of people / many people (literally “a lot of world,” very common in speech)

In this sentence, πολλοί άνθρωποι sounds neutral and slightly more formal/written. Πολύς κόσμος προτιμά… would also be natural, especially in spoken Greek, but it has a slightly more colloquial tone.

What exactly does προτιμούν mean and how is it conjugated?

Προτιμούν means they prefer.

It comes from the verb προτιμώ (to prefer). Present tense:

εγώ προτιμώ – I prefer
εσύ προτιμάς – you prefer (singular)
αυτός / αυτή / αυτό προτιμά – he / she / it prefers
εμείς προτιμούμε – we prefer
εσείς προτιμάτε – you prefer (plural / formal)
αυτοί / αυτές / αυτά προτιμούν(ε) – they prefer

In everyday speech and writing you can see both προτιμούν and προτιμούνε; both are correct, -ούν is a bit more common in writing.

What is the role of να in προτιμούν να μεγαλώνουν?

Να introduces a subordinate verb in what is traditionally called the subjunctive in Modern Greek.

Προτιμούν να μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους…
literally: They prefer that they raise their children…

So the pattern is:

προτιμώ + να + verb = I prefer to do something / I prefer that something happens.

Να here is necessary; you cannot say προτιμούν μεγαλώνουν.

Is μεγαλώνουν here subjunctive or present indicative?

Formally, μεγαλώνουν is the present subjunctive, because it is introduced by να.

However, in Modern Greek, the present indicative and present subjunctive have the same form; the only thing that tells you it is subjunctive is the particle να.

indicative: Μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους σε προάστιο. – They raise their children in a suburb.
subjunctive: Προτιμούν να μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους σε προάστιο. – They prefer to raise their children in a suburb.

So the form is identical; the function changes because of να.

Why is the verb μεγαλώνουν (present) and not something like να μεγαλώσουν (aorist)?

The choice between να μεγαλώνουν and να μεγαλώσουν gives a nuance:

να μεγαλώνουν (present subjunctive) – stresses an ongoing, habitual activity:
They prefer to be raising / to raise (in general, over time) their children in a suburb.
να μεγαλώσουν (aorist subjunctive) – stresses the completion of the process:
They prefer to have raised / to raise (as a whole completed process) their children in a suburb.

In this kind of general statement about lifestyle preference, Greek usually chooses the present: να μεγαλώνουν, because raising children is seen as a continuous, long-term process.

Why do we say τα παιδιά τους and not just παιδιά τους?

In Greek, when you use a possessive pronoun like μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους, you almost always also use the definite article:

τα παιδιά μου – my children
τα παιδιά τους – their children

Leaving out the article (παιδιά τους) is either wrong or sounds very marked/poetic in most contexts.

So while English says their children (no “the”), Greek normally needs τα παιδιά τους (literally the children their).

Why is τους after παιδιά instead of before, like in English?

Greek possessive pronouns follow the noun:

τα παιδιά τους – literally: the children their
το σπίτι μου – the house my = my house
η μητέρα μας – the mother our = our mother

The structure is: article + noun + possessive pronoun.

Putting the possessive before the noun (τους παιδιά) would be ungrammatical in Standard Modern Greek.

Why is it σε προάστιο and not στο προάστιο or στα προάστια?

All three are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

σε προάστιο – in a suburb (indefinite, non-specific)
στο προάστιο (= σε + το προάστιο) – in the suburb (specific one already known from context)
στα προάστια (= σε + τα προάστια) – in the suburbs (general area of suburbs)

In this sentence, σε προάστιο matches the English in a suburb, talking in general, not about one particular suburb that both speaker and listener already know.

What does προάστιο mean exactly, and what is its gender?

Προάστιο means suburb.

It is a neuter noun:

το προάστιο – the suburb
του προαστίου – of the suburb
τα προάστια – the suburbs

Here it is used without the article, σε προάστιο, giving an indefinite meaning: in a suburb.

What does στο in στο κέντρο stand for?

Στο is the contraction of the preposition σε + the neuter article το:

σε + το = στο

So:

στο κέντρο = σε το κέντρο → in the center

Similarly:

σε + τα = στα → στα προάστια (in the suburbs)
σε + τον = στον → στον κήπο (in the garden)

Why is it στο κέντρο without saying της πόλης (“of the city”)?

In everyday Greek, το κέντρο on its own often means the city center / downtown, because it is understood from context.

Μένω στο κέντρο. – I live in the (city) center.
Πάμε προς το κέντρο; – Shall we go towards the (city) center?

If you need to be explicit, you can say το κέντρο της πόλης, but it is usually not necessary when you are already talking about where people live within a city.

How does και όχι στο κέντρο work? Why not και δεν στο κέντρο?

Και όχι here means rather than / and not. The structure is:

σε προάστιο και όχι στο κέντρο
→ in a suburb and not in the center / rather than in the center

Δεν is used to negate verbs, not nouns or prepositional phrases on their own. For example:

Δεν μένουν στο κέντρο. – They do not live in the center.

Here we are not negating a verb after και, but offering an alternative location, so we use όχι:

Correct: σε προάστιο και όχι στο κέντρο
Incorrect: σε προάστιο και δεν στο κέντρο

Could we move τα παιδιά τους before να μεγαλώνουν?

Yes, you can change the word order:

Πολλοί άνθρωποι προτιμούν να μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους σε προάστιο…
Πολλοί άνθρωποι προτιμούν τα παιδιά τους να μεγαλώνουν σε προάστιο…

Both are grammatical. The first is more neutral and common.

The second slightly emphasizes τα παιδιά τους (“their own children”) by bringing it closer to προτιμούν, but in many contexts the difference in emphasis is small. Word order in Greek is relatively flexible, but there are preferred, more natural patterns like the one in the original sentence.