Learn Hardcore Greek: Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός έχει μεγάλη ιστορία και πολλές παραδόσεις. - Greek culture has a long history and many traditions.

Gender: πολιτισμός is masculine.
Number: It is singular (one culture/civilization).
Case: Nominative, so this phrase is the subject of the verb έχει.
Definiteness: We are talking about the Greek culture/civilization in general, not just “a” Greek culture.

So Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός = “The Greek culture / civilization.”

Why is ελληνικός in that form, and how does it agree with πολιτισμός?

ελληνικός is an adjective meaning “Greek” (relating to Greece).

It follows the regular pattern for adjectives of this type:

Masculine: ελληνικός
Feminine: ελληνική
Neuter: ελληνικό

It must agree with the noun it describes in:

Gender: πολιτισμός is masculine → ελληνικός (masculine).
Number: πολιτισμός is singular → ελληνικός (singular).
Case: πολιτισμός is nominative → ελληνικός (nominative).

So you get Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός, not η ελληνική πολιτισμός or το ελληνικό πολιτισμός.

Why is ελληνικός not capitalized like “Greek” in English?

In Greek, adjectives of nationality are not capitalized, even though English capitalizes them.

English: Greek culture
Greek: ελληνικός πολιτισμός (lowercase ε)

Only proper names are capitalized in Greek:

η Ελλάδα (Greece)
η Ελληνική Δημοκρατία (The Hellenic Republic – here Ελληνική is part of the official name, so it’s capitalized)

Could I say η ελληνική κουλτούρα instead of ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός?

You can say η ελληνική κουλτούρα, but it is not exactly the same:

πολιτισμός = culture in a broader sense, often closer to “civilization”: history, art, institutions, achievements of a people.
κουλτούρα = culture in a narrower or more “cultural tastes” sense (arts, lifestyle, habits, subcultures). It also sounds somewhat more modern/colloquial.

In a general statement about the long history and traditions of Greece, ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός is more natural and standard.

Could I drop the article and say Ελληνικός πολιτισμός έχει μεγάλη ιστορία…?

That would sound unnatural in Greek.

For general statements like this, Greek normally uses the definite article:

Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός έχει μεγάλη ιστορία… = “Greek culture has a long history…” (as a general fact)

Without the article, Ελληνικός πολιτισμός sounds like a title or a fragment, not a normal subject in a sentence.

Why is the verb έχει used here instead of είναι?

έχει means “has”, from the verb έχω (to have).

The structure is exactly like English:

Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός έχει μεγάλη ιστορία…
= “Greek culture has a long history…”

Using είναι (“is”) would change the meaning:

Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός είναι μεγάλος… = “Greek culture is great/large…”
Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός είναι ιστορία… = “Greek culture is history…” (very different meaning, and odd)

So έχει is correct because ιστορία and παραδόσεις are things that the culture possesses.

What tense is έχει, and how would I say “had a long history”?

έχει is present tense, third person singular:

έχω – I have
έχεις – you have
έχει – he/she/it has

To say “had a long history”, you use the past tense (imperfect):

Ο ελληνικός πολιτισμός είχε μεγάλη ιστορία.
= “Greek culture had a long history.”

You might say this if you are speaking from the viewpoint of a later time, or contrasting it with something else.

Why is μεγάλη in the feminine form? What’s its base form?

The adjective μεγάλη comes from the base adjective:

Masculine: μεγάλος
Feminine: μεγάλη
Neuter: μεγάλο

It must agree with ιστορία, which is:

η ιστορία – feminine
Singular
Here: accusative (object of έχει)

So:

μεγάλη ιστορία (feminine singular accusative)

You cannot say μεγάλος ιστορία or μεγάλο ιστορία.

Does μεγάλη ιστορία literally mean “big history”? Why is it translated as “long history”?

Literally, μεγάλη means “big / great / large.”
However, with ιστορία, in Greek it commonly implies:

long in duration (a long history over many centuries)
important / significant history

So μεγάλη ιστορία is very naturally understood as “long history” or “great (rich, important) history.”

It is not about physical size; it’s about extent in time and significance.

Why is it πολλές παραδόσεις and not πολλοί or πολλά?

πολλές is the feminine plural form of the adjective πολύς (much, many):

Masculine: πολύς (singular), πολλοί (plural)
Feminine: πολλή (singular), πολλές (plural)
Neuter: πολύ (singular), πολλά (plural)

The noun παράδοση (tradition) is:

Feminine: η παράδοση
Plural: οι παραδόσεις

In the sentence, πολλές παραδόσεις is:

Feminine
Plural
Accusative (object of έχει)

So the adjective must match: πολλές παραδόσεις, not πολλοί παραδόσεις or πολλά παραδόσεις.

What is the singular form of παραδόσεις, and why does it change like that?

The singular is:

η παράδοση – “tradition”

The plural is:

οι παραδόσεις

This is a common pattern in Greek for feminine nouns ending in -ση in the singular:

η παράδοση → οι παραδόσεις
η απόφαση (decision) → οι αποφάσεις

The change -ση → -σεις in the plural is regular for this group of nouns.

Why is there no article before μεγάλη ιστορία and πολλές παραδόσεις?

In Greek, direct objects that are indefinite or general often appear without an article.

Here, μεγάλη ιστορία and πολλές παραδόσεις are understood as:

“a long history” (not a specific, unique one)
“many traditions” (not some specific set already known)

English uses “a” and “many”, but Greek often just uses the adjective/quantifier:

έχει μεγάλη ιστορία ≈ “(it) has a long history”
έχει πολλές παραδόσεις ≈ “(it) has many traditions”

If you added an article (e.g. μια μεγάλη ιστορία), you’d put more emphasis on one particular long history, which is not what is meant here.

Can I change the word order, for example say έχει ιστορία μεγάλη or παραδόσεις πολλές?

You can, but it usually sounds:

more emphatic, or
more poetic / literary, or
a bit marked / unusual in everyday speech.

The normal, neutral order for adjectives is before the noun:

μεγάλη ιστορία
πολλές παραδόσεις

If you say έχει ιστορία μεγάλη, you are emphasizing μεγάλη more, almost like:

“it has a history, a big/long one”

For learners, it’s best to stick with the standard order: adjective + noun in this kind of sentence.

How is the stress (accent) and pronunciation in ελληνικός and πολιτισμός?

Greek words have one stressed syllable, marked with an accent (´):

ελληνικός → ε-λλη-νι-κός
Stress on the last syllable: -κός.
πολιτισμός → πο-λι-τι-σμός
Stress on the last syllable: -σμός.

Roughly in Latin characters:

ελληνικός → el-li-ni-KÓS
πολιτισμός → po-li-tis-MÓS

Accents are important in Greek: changing the stressed syllable can change how natural or understandable the word sounds.