Breakdown of Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα χωρίς να κουράζομαι.
Questions & Answers about Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα χωρίς να κουράζομαι.
In Modern Greek, unstressed possessive pronouns like μου, σου, του usually come between the adjective and the noun:
- ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός = my ideal goal
- το καινούριο μου βιβλίο = my new book
- η παλιά σου φίλη = your old friend
So the usual pattern is:
article + adjective + possessive + noun
You can sometimes hear ο ιδανικός σκοπός μου, but that feels more marked or emphatic (often used in contrast or special stress). For a neutral, everyday sentence, ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός is the most natural order.
Modern Greek no longer has an infinitive like older stages of Greek did. Instead, it expresses “to do something” with να + subjunctive.
So English:
- “My ideal goal is to read every day…”
Greek:
- Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα…
Here να διαβάζω is the equivalent of “to read”, but grammatically it is να + subjunctive form of the verb. This construction is standard after many verbs and expressions that in English would take an infinitive:
- θέλω να διαβάζω = I want to read
- πρέπει να διαβάζω = I must / should read
- είναι καλό να διαβάζεις = it’s good to read
Greek verbs have aspect: imperfective (ongoing / repeated) vs aorist (single, complete event).
- διαβάζω (imperfective subjunctive here with να) suggests an ongoing or habitual action: reading regularly, as an activity.
- διαβάσω (aorist subjunctive) suggests one complete act of reading.
Since the sentence talks about a habit (“every day”):
- να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα = to be reading / to read regularly every day
If you said:
- Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάσω κάθε μέρα.
it would sound like: “My ideal goal is that I (should) manage to read once on each day (perhaps in a specific limited period)” – a more finite, “achieve-it” reading rather than the general, habitual lifestyle goal implied by the original.
κάθε μέρα means “every day”.
In this sentence:
- Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα χωρίς να κουράζομαι.
it naturally sits after the verb phrase να διαβάζω, just like in English “to read every day”.
You can move it a bit without changing the meaning much:
- …να διαβάζω χωρίς να κουράζομαι κάθε μέρα. (less usual; sounds like you’re pushing “every day” towards the whole phrase “without getting tired”)
- Κάθε μέρα, ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω χωρίς να κουράζομαι. (fronted for emphasis on “every day”)
The most neutral and natural in this specific sentence is exactly as given: να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα.
χωρίς means “without”.
When you want to say “without doing something”, Modern Greek uses:
χωρίς + να + subjunctive
So:
- χωρίς να κουράζομαι = without getting tired
- χωρίς να μιλάω = without speaking
- χωρίς να το καταλάβω = without realizing it
So χωρίς να κουράζομαι literally is “without that I get tired”, but functionally it is exactly “without getting tired” / “without becoming tired”.
Greek often uses the mediopassive form (-ομαι) when the subject is affected by the action, especially for states like being tired, washed, dressed, etc.
- κουράζω = I tire (someone else), I make (someone) tired
- κουράζομαι = I get tired / I become tired
In this sentence, I am the one getting tired, so the correct choice is κουράζομαι:
- χωρίς να κουράζομαι = without (me) getting tired
Compare:
- Πάντα κουράζω τον εαυτό μου. = I always tire myself out.
- Πάντα κουράζομαι. = I always get tired.
The second is what you need here.
Yes. With να, the verb is in the subjunctive, but the -ομαι ending just shows mediopassive voice, not tense or mood by itself.
The full form here is (να) κουράζομαι:
- voice: mediopassive (subject experiences the action)
- aspect: imperfective (ongoing / repeated: getting tired in general)
- mood: subjunctive (because of να, after χωρίς)
So να κουράζομαι = “(for me) to get tired (as a process or generally)”.
If you used the aorist subjunctive:
- χωρίς να κουραστώ = without getting (once) tired / without ending up tired (in that particular instance)
The original sentence talks about a general, ongoing goal (a habit), so να κουράζομαι (imperfective) is more appropriate.
Modern Greek uses the definite article much more than English, including:
- with nouns that have a possessive: ο φίλος μου, το βιβλίο σου
- with abstract nouns and general statements: Η αγάπη είναι όμορφη.
Here, ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός is “my ideal goal” as a specific concept, so the article ο is natural and expected.
You can sometimes drop the article for stylistic or headline-like language (titles, slogans, poetry), but in normal prose or speech, you would normally keep it:
- Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω… ✅ (normal)
- Ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω… (possible but feels more like a heading or a stylized phrase)
Both are grammatically possible, but they differ in naturalness and emphasis:
Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός
- most common, neutral word order
- feels like a single unit “my ideal goal”
Ο ιδανικός σκοπός μου
- puts σκοπός closer to μου, which can sound a bit more emphatic or contrastive, depending on intonation
- might be used if you’re contrasting “my ideal goal” with someone else’s, or with other kinds of goals you have
For a simple, neutral sentence, stick with Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός.
Both σκοπός and στόχος can translate as “goal”, but they have slightly different nuances:
- σκοπός = purpose, aim, reason for doing something; more abstract or “why”
- στόχος = target, objective; often more concrete or measurable
In your sentence:
- Ο ιδανικός μου σκοπός είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα…
= My ideal purpose/aim is to read every day…
You could say:
- Ο ιδανικός μου στόχος είναι να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα χωρίς να κουράζομαι.
This sounds perfectly natural too, and leans a bit more towards “my ideal target/objective”. In everyday speech, many people would use στόχος in this kind of self-improvement context, but σκοπός is also fully correct.