Ο πελάτης περιμένει ήρεμα τον λογαριασμό στο εστιατόριο.

The customer is calmly waiting for the bill at the restaurant.

Breakdown of Ο πελάτης περιμένει ήρεμα τον λογαριασμό στο εστιατόριο.

• σε: at
• περιμένω: to wait
• το εστιατόριο: the restaurant
• ο λογαριασμός: the bill

Questions & Answers about Ο πελάτης περιμένει ήρεμα τον λογαριασμό στο εστιατόριο.

Why do we say Ο πελάτης here? What does Ο mean and why this form?

Ο is the masculine singular definite article in the nominative case.

• Ο = the (masculine, singular, nominative)
• πελάτης = customer/client (masculine noun, nominative singular)

In Greek, the subject of the sentence (the one doing the action) normally appears in the nominative case. So we need the nominative article Ο in front of πελάτης.

Roughly:

• Ο πελάτης = the customer (as subject of the sentence)

What form of the verb is περιμένει, and why don’t we see anything like “is waiting” with a separate word for “is”?

περιμένει is the 3rd person singular, present tense of the verb περιμένω (to wait).

• περιμένω = I wait / I am waiting
• περιμένεις = you wait / you are waiting
• περιμένει = he/she/it waits / is waiting

Greek does not make a grammatical difference between simple present and present continuous as English does. One Greek present form covers both:

• Ο πελάτης περιμένει
  = The customer waits
  or The customer is waiting

There is no separate “is” verb here; περιμένει already includes the idea of “is waiting.”