Breakdown of Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, παρόλα αυτά καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
Questions & Answers about Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, παρόλα αυτά καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
Δυσκολεύομαι is present tense, 1st person singular, mediopassive voice.
Literally it means something like “I have difficulty / I find it hard”.
In natural English it corresponds to “I struggle (with something)” or “I find it difficult (sometimes)”, not “I am difficult”.
Δυσκολεύομαι is the usual way to say “I find it difficult / I struggle” in Modern Greek; it focuses on your own experience of difficulty.
Δυσκολεύω (active) means “I make something/someone have difficulty / I make things hard” and it’s used with an object, e.g. Η άσκηση με δυσκολεύει = “The exercise makes it hard for me / The exercise gives me trouble.”
In your sentence the subject is you experiencing difficulty, so δυσκολεύομαι is the correct and natural choice.
Grammatically, δυσκολεύομαι is in the mediopassive voice and functions like a deponent verb (it uses the passive ending but has an active-like meaning).
You do not add a reflexive pronoun such as τον εαυτό μου here; δυσκολεύομαι by itself already means “I have difficulty.”
So you say Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, not Δυσκολεύομαι τον εαυτό μου.
Μερικές φορές literally means “some times”; idiomatically it corresponds to English “sometimes”.
- μερικές = “some” (feminine, accusative plural)
- φορές = “times” (from η φορά, feminine noun)
They agree in gender, number, and case: feminine plural accusative.
So the phrase is plural because it literally talks about several occasions.
Greek normally omits the article in these structures:
- Μερικές φορές – adverbial phrase of frequency (“sometimes”). It behaves more like an adverb than “some + noun,” so no article is used.
- Κάθε άσκηση – κάθε (“each / every”) is almost always used without an article:
- κάθε μέρα – every day
- κάθε άσκηση – every exercise
If you add an article (η κάθε άσκηση), it becomes more emphatic or slightly stylistic, not the neutral default.
Παρόλα αυτά (more standard: παρ’ όλα αυτά) is a concessive connector/adverbial phrase meaning “nevertheless / even so / despite that”.
In your sentence it links two clauses that contrast with each other:
- Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, = I have difficulty sometimes,
- παρόλα αυτά καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση. = nevertheless I manage to finish every exercise.
It works like English “however / nevertheless” connecting two statements.
The more standard, school‑book spelling is παρ’ όλα αυτά (three words with an apostrophe):
- παρ’ = contraction of παρά (“despite”)
- όλα = “all”
- αυτά = “these things / that (which was just mentioned)”
Writing it as παρόλα αυτά (one word παρόλα) is very common in everyday writing and online, but many teachers and grammars still recommend παρ’ όλα αυτά for formal or careful writing.
Meaning and usage are the same.
All of them introduce a contrast, but they behave slightly differently:
- αλλά = “but” – a basic coordinating conjunction, usually joining two clauses:
- Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, αλλά τελειώνω κάθε άσκηση.
- όμως = “however / though” – more flexible in position:
- Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, όμως τελειώνω κάθε άσκηση.
- ωστόσο = “however / nevertheless” – a bit more formal or written:
- Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, ωστόσο τελειώνω κάθε άσκηση.
- παρ’ όλα αυτά = “nevertheless / even so” – explicitly means “despite all that,” emphatically concessive.
In your sentence, παρ’ όλα αυτά highlights the contrast between having difficulty and still managing to finish.
Καταφέρνω means “to manage (to do something), to succeed (in doing something)”.
It is typically followed by να + verb in the subjunctive:
- Καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
= “I manage to finish every exercise.”
So the pattern καταφέρνω + να + [subjunctive] is the normal way to express “manage to do X” in Greek.
Greek distinguishes aspect in the subjunctive:
- να τελειώσω – aorist subjunctive → focus on the action as a single, complete event (“to finish”).
- να τελειώνω – present subjunctive → focus on the ongoing / repeated process (“to be finishing, to keep finishing”).
Here, you are talking about successfully completing each exercise, so the aorist (να τελειώσω) is the natural choice.
Να τελειώνω would sound like you are emphasising being in the middle of finishing or a general habit of “being in the process of finishing,” which doesn’t fit as well.
Άσκηση is a feminine noun: η άσκηση.
In κάθε άσκηση, it is feminine accusative singular:
- κάθε does not change form for gender or number.
- άσκηση becomes άσκηση (accusative singular is the same form as nominative for this noun).
Κάθε + singular noun always refers to all the members of a group, one by one:
- κάθε άσκηση = “each exercise / every exercise (in general).”
So although the form is singular, the meaning is distributive over many exercises.
Yes, but the nuance changes:
- τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση = “finish each exercise (one by one, every single one).”
- τελειώσω όλες τις ασκήσεις = “finish all the exercises (the whole set).”
Both imply you complete the whole set, but κάθε άσκηση emphasizes each individual exercise, while όλες τις ασκήσεις emphasizes the entire group as a whole.
Yes, Greek allows some flexibility in word order here. All of these are possible:
- Παρόλα αυτά, δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές, καταφέρνω όμως να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
- Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές· παρόλα αυτά, καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
Moving παρόλα αυτά to the start of the second clause (or even to the very beginning of the sentence) is common and natural.
What you usually don’t change is the close connection of καταφέρνω να τελειώσω (verb + its να‑clause).
There is a comma before παρόλα αυτά because you are separating two main clauses:
- Clause 1: Δυσκολεύομαι μερικές φορές,
- Clause 2: παρόλα αυτά καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
When παρ’ όλα αυτά comes at the start of the second clause, many writers also put a comma after it:
- ..., παρ’ όλα αυτά, καταφέρνω να τελειώσω κάθε άσκηση.
That second comma is common but not absolutely mandatory; the key point is that you do need a comma between the two clauses.