Breakdown of Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
Questions & Answers about Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
Τη στιγμή που literally means “(at) the moment when” or “the exact moment that”.
- Τη στιγμή = “the moment” (accusative case, feminine singular).
- που = a linking word here, similar to “when” or “that”.
You use τη στιγμή που when you want to stress that two things happen at exactly the same time, often with a bit of drama or annoyance:
- Τη στιγμή που πάω να κοιμηθώ, χτυπάει το τηλέφωνο.
“The moment I’m about to sleep, the phone rings.”
It is stronger and more specific than a simple όταν (“when”), especially in emotional or emphatic contexts.
The basic feminine accusative article is indeed την. However, in modern Greek the final -ν is often dropped in writing before many consonants.
The usual rule in contemporary spelling is:
- Keep -ν before vowels and the consonants κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ.
(e.g. την ώρα, την πόρτα, την ξαδέρφη) - Before other consonants (like σ in στιγμή), the -ν is optional. Many people drop it:
- τη στιγμή ✔️
- την στιγμή ✔️ (more formal / careful spelling)
So both τη στιγμή and την στιγμή are grammatically correct; the version without ν is just very common in modern usage.
This is an example of the “accusative of time”, a very common pattern in Greek.
Greek often uses a bare accusative to express “when” something happens:
- κάθε μέρα – every day
- όλη την ώρα – the whole time
- την επόμενη μέρα – the next day
- τη στιγμή που… – the moment (when) …
So τη στιγμή is in the accusative as a time expression. It doesn’t need a preposition like σε; instead it directly introduces a temporal clause with που:
- Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω… = “(At) the moment (when) I go out …”
Here που works as a kind of relative / subordinating conjunction, connecting the noun phrase τη στιγμή with the verb βγαίνω. Literally:
- τη στιγμή (κατά την οποία) βγαίνω…
“the moment (during which) I go out…”
Functionally, the whole phrase τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι behaves like “when I go out of the house”.
You can often replace the whole expression by όταν:
- Όταν βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
≈ Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
But τη στιγμή που is usually more precise and more emphatic, stressing the exact moment, not just a general “when”.
Yes, you can absolutely say:
- Όταν βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
This is perfectly natural Greek.
Difference in nuance:
- Όταν = “when/whenever” – more general, can refer to any time that action happens.
- Τη στιγμή που = “the (exact) moment when” – more specific and emphatic, often implying a bit of frustration or a strong coincidence.
So:
Όταν βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
“When I go out of the house, it starts raining.” (more neutral)Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
“The moment I go out of the house, it starts raining.” (stresses the timing).
The present tense here can express:
A general pattern / repeated situation:
- “The moment I (typically) go out of the house, it starts raining (this always seems to happen).”
A vivid narration of a specific event, the so‑called “historical present”:
- Greek often tells a past story using the present for dramatic effect:
- Βγαίνω από το σπίτι, και ξαφνικά αρχίζει να βρέχει.
“I come out of the house and suddenly it starts raining.”
- Βγαίνω από το σπίτι, και ξαφνικά αρχίζει να βρέχει.
- Greek often tells a past story using the present for dramatic effect:
In English, in a neutral narrative you’d normally shift to past:
- “The moment I went/left, it started raining.”
In Greek, both styles are possible:
- General / vivid: Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
- Plain past: Τη στιγμή που βγήκα από το σπίτι, άρχισε να βρέχει.
βγαίνω and βγω are different aspects of the same verb “to go out / come out”:
βγαίνω = present / imperfective
Focuses on the process or repeated action: “I am going out / I (habitually) go out”.βγω = aorist subjunctive form
Used mainly after να, θα, or certain conjunctions for a single, complete event in the future or hypothetical time:- όταν βγω – when I (will) go out
- να βγω – (for me) to go out
So:
Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι…
→ Either a vivid present event, or a general pattern.Τη στιγμή που βγω από το σπίτι…
Sounds like a future situation: “The moment (that) I go out (later)…”
Used in something like:
- Τη στιγμή που βγω από το σπίτι, πάρε μου τηλέφωνο.
“The moment I go out of the house, call me.”
In your original sentence, if we keep everything in present and talk about a general pattern, βγαίνω is the appropriate form.
από is the standard preposition meaning “from / out of / away from”. With motion verbs, it often marks the starting point or the place you are leaving:
- φεύγω από το σπίτι – I leave the house
- βγαίνω από το δωμάτιο – I go out of the room
- κατεβαίνω από το λεωφορείο – I get off the bus
So βγαίνω από το σπίτι literally means “I go out from the house”.
You cannot omit από here:
- ✗ βγαίνω το σπίτι – wrong; βγαίνω is intransitive, it does not take a direct object.
Another preposition wouldn’t be natural. For the idea of exiting/coming out, από is the normal choice.
Greek uses the definite article much more often than English, especially with places like σπίτι, δουλειά, σχολείο, etc., when they are specific or familiar.
- από το σπίτι = “from the house / from home” (usually my house, the known house)
- από σπίτι = “from a house” (indefinite, some house, not specified)
In everyday speech, από το σπίτι is what you’d normally say when referring to your home or the contextually known house:
- Γυρίζω από το σπίτι. – I’m coming back from (my/the) house.
So in your sentence, το σπίτι with the article is natural and expected. You would only drop the article (από σπίτι) if you really meant “from some house or other” in a very generic way, which is not the case here.
Greek no longer has an infinitive, so it uses να + subjunctive where English would often use “to + verb”.
The pattern here is:
- αρχίζω να + [verb in the subjunctive]
= “to begin / start to do something”
Examples:
- αρχίζω να δουλεύω – I start working
- αρχίζει να χιονίζει – It starts snowing
- άρχισαν να μιλάνε – They started talking
In αρχίζει να βρέχει:
- αρχίζει = “it begins”
- να βρέχει = “to rain / to be raining” (subjunctive, present aspect)
So the whole thing means “it starts raining” / “it begins to rain”.
The difference is aspect:
να βρέχει – present (imperfective) subjunctive
Focuses on the ongoing action: “(for it) to be raining”.να βρέξει – aorist (perfective) subjunctive
Focuses on the single, complete event: “(for it) to rain (once / as a completed act)”.
With αρχίζω, Greek very typically uses the present subjunctive because you’re starting something that will continue:
- άρχισε να βρέχει – it started raining (the process began and went on)
- άρχισε να δουλεύει – he/she started working
αρχίζει να βρέξει is possible in some contexts but is much less common and feels odd in this sentence; it would sound like focusing on the occurrence of rain as a single event, not on the process of it actually raining.
So αρχίζει να βρέχει is the natural choice here.
In Greek, many weather verbs are impersonal: they appear only in the 3rd person singular, with no explicit subject.
Examples:
- βρέχει – it is raining / it rains
- χιονίζει – it is snowing
- αστράφτει – there is lightning
- κάνει κρύο – it is cold
English uses a dummy subject “it” (“it rains”) just to fill the subject slot. Greek simply doesn’t need that. The verb form βρέχει by itself already contains the idea “it rains”.
So:
- Αρχίζει να βρέχει. literally “Begins to rain.”
Natural English: “It starts raining.”
There is no Greek word corresponding to that dummy “it” in such sentences.
Yes, you can change the order:
- Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
- Αρχίζει να βρέχει τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι.
Both are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing.
Nuance / emphasis:
Starting with Τη στιγμή που… puts a bit more emphasis on the timing:
- “The moment I go out of the house, it starts raining.”
Starting with Αρχίζει να βρέχει… puts a bit more emphasis on the event of raining, and then explains when:
- “It starts raining the moment I go out of the house.”
Punctuation:
- With the temporal clause first, you normally use a comma:
- Τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι, αρχίζει να βρέχει.
- With the main clause first, you usually don’t need a comma:
- Αρχίζει να βρέχει τη στιγμή που βγαίνω από το σπίτι.
Two very natural past‑tense versions are:
Τη στιγμή που βγήκα από το σπίτι, άρχισε να βρέχει.
- βγήκα = aorist (“I came out / I stepped out,” single completed action)
- άρχισε = aorist (“started”)
→ “The moment I stepped out of the house, it started raining.”
Τη στιγμή που έβγαινα από το σπίτι, άρχισε να βρέχει.
- έβγαινα = past continuous (“I was going out,” focusing on the process)
- άρχισε = aorist
→ “At the moment I was going out of the house, it started raining.”
(emphasises that the rain started in the middle of the action of going out)
Both are correct; you choose between βγήκα and έβγαινα depending on whether you want to see the “going out” as a whole event (βγήκα) or as an ongoing action in progress (έβγαινα) at the moment the rain started.