Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό.

At night it is very windy in the village.

Breakdown of Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό.

• πολύ: very
• σε: in
• τη νύχτα: at night
• το χωριό: the village
• φυσάω: to be windy

Questions & Answers about Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό.

Why does Τη νύχτα mean “at night” even though there is no preposition like “at”?

Greek often uses the accusative case of time without a preposition to mean “at” a certain time.

So τη νύχτα literally is “the night” (accusative), but functionally it means “at night / during the night.”
Other very common examples:

• Το πρωί διαβάζω. – I read in the morning.
• Το βράδυ δουλεύω. – I work in the evening / at night.
• Κάθε Κυριακή πηγαίνω στο χωριό. – I go to the village every Sunday.

So you don’t say στο νύχτα; you simply use τη νύχτα in the accusative to express “at night.”

Why is there an article in Τη νύχτα when in English we just say “at night”, not “at the night”?

Greek uses the definite article much more often than English, especially with:

• periods of the day: το πρωί, το μεσημέρι, το βράδυ
• days / dates / times: την Δευτέρα, το Σάββατο το βράδυ

So τη νύχτα with the article is the normal, idiomatic way to say “at night.”

You can say:

• Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ. – It’s very windy at night.
• Τη μέρα έχει ήλιο. – It’s sunny in the daytime.

Leaving out the article (νύχτα φυσάει πολύ) sounds wrong or at least very unnatural.

Why is it written Τη νύχτα and not Την νύχτα? When do we keep or drop the final -ν?

The feminine accusative article has two written forms:

• τη
• την

Modern spelling rules (for standard Greek) say:

• Keep the final -ν (την) before vowels and before certain consonants: κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ.
• You can drop the -ν in other cases.

Examples:

• την ώρα (vowel)
• την κόρη (before κ)
• την πόρτα (before π)
• τη νύχτα (ν is not in that special list, so writing τη νύχτα is standard)

In speech, many people keep the -ν more often than they write it, so you will hear both τη νύχτα and την νύχτα, but τη νύχτα is the typical written form in standard modern Greek.

What exactly is φυσάει grammatically, and why does it translate as “it’s windy”?

Φυσάει is:

• the 3rd person singular,
• present tense,
• active voice,
  of the verb φυσάω / φυσώ = to blow (wind).

In Greek, this verb is usually impersonal when talking about the weather:

• Φυσάει. – Literally “(it) blows.” → It’s windy.
• Φυσάει πολύ. – “(it) blows a lot.” → It’s very windy.

So in Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό, φυσάει corresponds to English “it blows / it is windy,” even though Greek doesn’t show an explicit subject like “it.”

Why is there no word for “it” in Φυσάει? Where is the subject?

Greek often uses impersonal verbs for weather and similar phenomena and does not use a dummy subject like English “it.”

Examples:

• Βρέχει. – It’s raining.
• Χιονίζει. – It’s snowing.
• Ζεσταίνει. – It’s getting warm / it’s warm.
• Φυσάει. – It’s windy / the wind is blowing.

So φυσάει contains all the information: tense, person, number. There is no separate subject pronoun (no word for “it”) because Greek doesn’t need a dummy subject here. The “it” is just understood from the verb form.

What does πολύ do in this sentence, and why doesn’t it change form?

Here πολύ is an adverb modifying the verb φυσάει:

• φυσάει πολύ = it blows a lot / very much → it’s very windy.

As an adverb, πολύ is invariable: it does not change for gender, number, or case.

Compare:

• πολύς / πολλή / πολύ – adjective, changes form:

  • πολύς αέρας – a lot of wind
  • πολλή βροχή – a lot of rain
  • πολύ νερό – a lot of water

• πολύ – adverb, invariable:

  • Φυσάει πολύ. – It’s very windy.
  • Δουλεύει πολύ. – He/She works a lot.
  • Μου αρέσει πολύ. – I like it very much.

In Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό, πολύ is clearly an adverb because it answers “how does it blow?”

What exactly is στο χωριό? How is that formed?

Στο χωριό is a contraction plus a noun:

• σε (preposition, “in / at / to”)
• το (neuter definite article, “the”)
  → σε + το = στο

So:

• σε
  • το χωριό → στο χωριό = “in the village” / “at the village”.

This contraction is very common:

• σε + τον → στον (e.g. στον φίλο μου – to my friend)
• σε + την → στη(ν) (e.g. στη δουλειά – at work)
• σε + τους → στους
• σε + τις → στις

So στο χωριό literally means “in/to the village,” and in this context it’s “in the village.”

Why is it στο χωριό and not something like εις το χωριό?

Older or more formal Greek used the preposition εις:

• εις το χωρίον (older / katharevousa style)

In modern standard Greek, εις has been replaced in everyday use by σε, and σε + article is almost always contracted:

• σε το χωριό → στο χωριό
• σε την πόλη → στην πόλη
• σε τον κήπο → στον κήπο

You will still see εις in very old texts, formal mottos, inscriptions, or some fixed expressions, but in normal modern Greek speech and writing you say στο χωριό, not εις το χωριό.

Is the word order Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό fixed, or can I move things around?

Greek word order is fairly flexible, especially for adverbs and time / place expressions.

Your sentence:

• Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό.
  Time – Verb – Adverb – Place

Other natural orders include:

• Στο χωριό φυσάει πολύ τη νύχτα.
• Φυσάει πολύ τη νύχτα στο χωριό.
• Φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό τη νύχτα.

The most common patterns put time and place near the beginning or end of the sentence. Moving parts can slightly change the emphasis, but all these versions are grammatically correct and idiomatic.

What you cannot do is break up phrases in a strange way, e.g.
Τη φυσάει νύχτα πολύ στο χωριό – that would be ungrammatical.

What is the difference between τη νύχτα and το βράδυ? Could I say Το βράδυ φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό?

Yes, you can say:

• Το βράδυ φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό.

Nuance:

• τη νύχτα – literally “at night,” typically refers to the nighttime in general, often from when it’s dark until early morning; can suggest late-night hours.
• το βράδυ – “in the evening / at night,” usually refers more to the evening / early night, from around sunset until late evening.

In many contexts they overlap, and both are fine. If you want to stress the whole night / the nighttime as a period, τη νύχτα is the most direct choice, which fits well with talking about weather patterns.

What is the gender and plural of το χωριό, and does its meaning match the English “village”?

Χωριό is:

• neuter noun
• singular: το χωριό – the village
• plural: τα χωριά – the villages

Basic forms:

• το χωριό (nom./acc. sg.)
• του χωριού (gen. sg.)
• τα χωριά (nom./acc. pl.)
• των χωριών (gen. pl.)

Meaning-wise, χωριό matches English “village”: a small settlement, usually in the countryside, smaller than a town (πόλη).

So στο χωριό = “in the village (in the countryside place where people live).”

How do you pronounce the whole sentence Τη νύχτα φυσάει πολύ στο χωριό?

Approximate phonetic transcription (modern Greek):

• Τη – /ti/
• νύχτα – /ˈnixta/ (NYCH-ta, with a hard ch like German Bach)
• φυσάει – /fiˈsa.i/ or more smoothly /fiˈsai/ (fi-SA-ee)
• πολύ – /poˈli/ (po-LEE)
• στο – /sto/
• χωριό – /xorˈʝo/ (ẖor-YO, with a harsh h from the back of the throat)

Said naturally:

[ti ˈnixta fiˈsai poˈli sto xorˈʝo]

Rhythmically, Greek tends to stress each word on its written stress:

Τη ΝΎχτα φυΣΆει ποΛΎ στο χωΡΙΌ.