Learn Hardcore Greek: Σήμερα ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο για τον αδερφό μου. - Today the mail carrier brought a package for my brother.

έφερε = he brought (a single, completed action in the past)
- Σήμερα ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο…
  = Today the postman brought a package…

Compare with:

φέρει = he brings / he will bring (present or sometimes future, depending on context, but not past)
έχει φέρει = he has brought (present perfect, like English “has brought”), but in everyday Greek the simple past έφερε is more common than έχει φέρει in situations like this.

So here έφερε is the normal, natural way to describe a past, completed action: the bringing already happened today.

What’s the difference between έφερε and έφερνε?

Both come from φέρνω (to bring), but they express different aspects of the past:

έφερε (aorist) = a completed action
- Focus on the fact that it happened once and is finished.
έφερνε (imperfect) = ongoing or repeated action in the past
- Ο ταχυδρόμος έφερνε πακέτα κάθε μέρα.
  = The postman used to bring / was bringing packages every day.

In your sentence, έφερε is used because we’re talking about one specific act of bringing: one package, one time.

Why is there an ο in ο ταχυδρόμος? Could I just say ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο?

Ο is the definite article (“the”) in the masculine nominative singular.
Ο ταχυδρόμος = the postman.

In Greek, the definite article is used much more often than in English. In this sentence, leaving it out (ταχυδρόμος έφερε…) sounds incomplete or unnatural in standard modern Greek.

So:

Ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο… ✅ natural
Ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο… ❌ sounds wrong in normal speech

We normally use the article with professions when referring to a specific person in a sentence like this.

What gender is ταχυδρόμος, and how can I tell?

Ταχυδρόμος is masculine.

Clues:

The article is ο (ο ταχυδρόμος), which is the masculine singular nominative form of “the”.
Many masculine nouns in modern Greek end in -ος:
- ο φίλος (friend), ο γιατρός (doctor), ο δρόμος (road).

So ο ταχυδρόμος = masculine, nominative, singular, used here as the subject of the verb.

Why is it ένα πακέτο and not ένας πακέτο?

Ένα is the neuter form of the indefinite article (“a / an”).
The noun πακέτο (package) is neuter, so it takes the neuter article:

Masculine: ένας (e.g. ένας φίλος = a friend)
Feminine: μία / μια (e.g. μια τσάντα = a bag)
Neuter: ένα (e.g. ένα πακέτο = a package)

So ένα πακέτο is grammatically correct because πακέτο is a neuter noun.

Why does αδερφό look different from αδερφός?

This is a case change:

ο αδερφός = the brother (nominative – subject form)
τον αδερφό = the brother (accusative – object form)

In your sentence, τον αδερφό is the object of the preposition για (“for”), not the subject of the verb, so it must be in the accusative case:

Subject: ο αδερφός (e.g. Ο αδερφός ήρθε. – The brother came.)
Object: για τον αδερφό (for the brother)

Why do we use ο with ταχυδρόμος but τον with αδερφό?

Both ο and τον are forms of the masculine definite article “the”; they simply belong to different cases:

ο = nominative (for the subject)
- ο ταχυδρόμος = the postman (subject of the verb έφερε)
τον = accusative (for the direct object / after many prepositions)
- για τον αδερφό μου = for my brother (object of the preposition για)

Greek changes (“declines”) the article according to the role of the noun in the sentence.

What case is τον αδερφό μου, and why is that case used?

Τον αδερφό μου is in the accusative case.

Reasons:

It is the object of the preposition για (“for”). Many Greek prepositions, including για, are followed by the accusative.
More generally, the accusative is used for direct objects and for many prepositional phrases.

So για + τον αδερφό μου correctly uses the accusative form.

What does για mean here, and what is the difference between για τον αδερφό μου and στον αδερφό μου?

Για usually means for.

για τον αδερφό μου = for my brother
→ The package is intended for my brother (it belongs to him / is meant for him).

If you said:

Ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο στον αδερφό μου.
= The postman brought a package to my brother.

This focuses more on the destination / movement toward your brother (he is the recipient, he physically received it).

So:

για τον αδερφό μου → for his benefit / addressed to him
στον αδερφό μου → to him (as the person to whom it was brought or given)

In many real-life contexts, both could be possible, but the nuance is slightly different.

Why is μου after αδερφό? Why not μου αδερφό like “my brother”?

In Greek, the unstressed possessive pronouns like μου, σου, του are usually placed after the noun:

ο αδερφός μου = my brother
το βιβλίο μου = my book
το σπίτι σου = your house

So τον αδερφό μου literally looks like “the brother my”, but this is the normal word order in Greek for possessives.

If you put μου before the noun (μου αδερφός), it sounds poetic, old-fashioned, or incorrect in everyday modern Greek, depending on context.

Why is Σήμερα at the beginning, and can I move it to another position?

Σήμερα means today and functions as an adverb of time.

Greek word order is fairly flexible. You can say:

Σήμερα ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε ένα πακέτο για τον αδερφό μου.
Ο ταχυδρόμος σήμερα έφερε ένα πακέτο για τον αδερφό μου.
Ο ταχυδρόμος έφερε σήμερα ένα πακέτο για τον αδερφό μου.

All are grammatically correct. Putting Σήμερα at the beginning gives a little extra emphasis to “today” (setting the time frame first), which is very natural.

There is no article before Σήμερα because adverbs (today, now, tomorrow, etc.) don’t take articles in Greek.

What does the accent mark (´) in words like Σήμερα, ταχυδρόμος, and αδερφό indicate?

The accent mark (τόνος) in modern Greek shows which syllable is stressed when you pronounce the word.

Σήμερα → ΣΊ-με-ρα (stress on the first syllable)
ταχυδρόμος → τα-χυ-ΔΡΌ-μος (stress on the third syllable from the end)
αδερφό → α-δερ-ΦΌ (stress on the last syllable)

Every Greek word of more than one syllable has exactly one accent mark, and the position of the stress is important for correct pronunciation and sometimes for distinguishing words.

How do you pronounce ταχυδρόμος and πακέτο?

Approximate pronunciation (in IPA and rough English):

ταχυδρόμος → /taçiˈðromos/
- τα = “ta” as in “tar” (short)
- χυ = like a soft “hi” but with a German “ich” sound [ç]
- δρό = “thro” with a soft “th” (as in “this”), and the stress is here
- μος = “mos” as in “Moss” (short o)
πακέτο → /paˈketo/
- πα = “pa” as in “papa”
- κέ = “keh” with the stress here
- το = “to” as in “top” but shorter “o”

So you get something like: ta-chi-THRO-mos and pa-KE-to (with Greek vowel qualities).

Is there a difference between αδερφός and αδελφός?

They both mean “brother”.

αδερφός is the normal, everyday modern spelling and pronunciation.
αδελφός is more formal / older (katharevousa-style). You might see it in literature, official texts, or religious contexts.

In spoken modern Greek, you’ll overwhelmingly hear αδερφός (and its forms like αδερφό).

Is there a reason the subject is ο ταχυδρόμος and not a pronoun like αυτός?

We use ο ταχυδρόμος because we want to specify who did the action: the postman.

Greek often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from the verb, e.g.:

Έφερε ένα πακέτο.
= He/She brought a package. (subject understood from context)

But here, if we said Αυτός έφερε ένα πακέτο για τον αδερφό μου, it would mean “He brought a package for my brother”, without telling us that “he” is the postman. Using ο ταχυδρόμος makes it clear who the subject is.