Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά όταν μιλάω ελληνικά με τη φίλη μου.

I feel great joy when I speak Greek with my friend (female).

Breakdown of Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά όταν μιλάω ελληνικά με τη φίλη μου.

• μιλάω: to speak
• ελληνικά: in Greek
• η φίλη: the female friend
• μου: my
• με: with
• μεγάλος: big
• όταν: when
• νιώθω: to feel
• η χαρά: the joy

Questions & Answers about Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά όταν μιλάω ελληνικά με τη φίλη μου.

What does Νιώθω mean, and is it the same as αισθάνομαι?

Νιώθω means “I feel” (emotionally or physically).

• Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά = I feel great joy / I’m very happy.
• Νιώθω κούραση = I feel tiredness / I feel tired.

Αισθάνομαι also means “I feel”, but it is a bit more formal or “careful” Greek. In everyday speech, people use νιώθω more often.

In this sentence, you could say:

• Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά… (very natural, everyday)
• Αισθάνομαι μεγάλη χαρά… (a bit more formal/literary)

Both are grammatically correct.

Why is there no “I” (εγώ) in the sentence before Νιώθω?

Greek verb endings already show who the subject is.

The ending -ω in νιώθω tells us the subject is “I”. So:

• (Εγώ) νιώθω = I feel
• (Εσύ) νιώθεις = you feel
• (Αυτός/αυτή/αυτό) νιώθει = he/she/it feels

Because the subject is clear from the ending, εγώ is usually omitted unless you want to emphasize it:

• Εγώ νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά, όχι εσύ.
  I feel great joy, not you.

Why is there no article before μεγάλη χαρά? Why not τη μεγάλη χαρά?

Μεγάλη χαρά here is indefinite: great joy / a lot of joy in general, not a specific, known joy.

Greek normally uses an article with a specific noun:

• Τη μεγάλη χαρά = the great joy (a particular joy that we both know about)

But when talking about a feeling in a general, non-specific way, Greek often omits the article:

• Νιώθω χαρά = I feel joy
• Νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά = I feel great joy

So no article here is the natural choice.

Why is the adjective μεγάλη before χαρά and not after it?

The normal order in Greek is:

article – adjective – noun
or, when there is no article: adjective – noun

So you usually say:

• μεγάλη χαρά (great joy)
• ασπρο μαλλί (white hair)
• ένα ωραίο βιβλίο (a nice book)

Greeks do sometimes put the adjective after the noun, but that usually changes the nuance or is used in specific patterns.

For this sentence, μεγάλη χαρά (adjective before noun) is the standard word order.

Could I also say νιώθω πολύ χαρά? What is the difference between μεγάλη χαρά and πολύ χαρά?

Yes, you can say νιώθω πολύ χαρά, and it is correct.

Difference in nuance:

• μεγάλη χαρά = literally “big joy” → sounds a bit more expressive, emotional.
• πολύ χαρά = “a lot of joy” → focuses more on quantity, a bit more neutral.

Both can usually be translated as “I feel a lot of joy / I feel very happy.”

What is the difference between μιλάω and μιλώ?

They are two forms of the same verb, meaning “I speak / I talk”.

• μιλάω and μιλώ are both 1st person singular, present tense of μιλάω / μιλώ.

The conjugation has two parallel forms:

• μιλάω, μιλάς, μιλάει…
• μιλώ, μιλάς, μιλά…

In everyday speech, μιλάω is very common and sounds a bit more colloquial. Μιλώ is slightly more formal or “shorter-sounding”, but also perfectly normal. In this sentence, both are fine:

• …όταν μιλάω ελληνικά…
• …όταν μιλώ ελληνικά…

Why is it όταν μιλάω and not όταν μιλήσω?

Both forms exist, but they express different aspects:

• Όταν μιλάω ελληνικά…

  • Present tense
  • Describes something habitual / repeated
  • Meaning: Whenever I speak Greek / When I (usually) speak Greek…

• Όταν μιλήσω ελληνικά…

  • Aorist subjunctive
  • Refers to one specific future event
  • Meaning: When I (once) speak Greek… / When I get to speak Greek… (at some point)

In this sentence the meaning is habitual (“I feel joy whenever I speak Greek with my friend”), so όταν μιλάω is the correct choice.

Why is ελληνικά in the neuter plural, and why is there no word for “language”?

Names of languages in Greek are often used in the neuter plural form to mean “the language”:

• τα ελληνικά = Greek (language)
• τα αγγλικά = English
• τα ιταλικά = Italian

When you say μιλάω ελληνικά, the article τα is usually omitted:

• Μιλάω ελληνικά. = I speak Greek.
• Μιλάω αγγλικά. = I speak English.

You can also use the explicit word γλώσσα (language):

• Μιλάω την ελληνική γλώσσα. = I speak the Greek language.

That is grammatically correct but sounds very formal or heavy in everyday conversation. The natural way is μιλάω ελληνικά.

Why is it με τη φίλη μου and not με την φίλη μου?

The full form of the feminine accusative article is την.
In everyday modern Greek, the final -ν is often dropped before many consonants:

• την φίλη → τη φίλη
• την πόρτα → τη πόρτα

We keep the final -ν mainly before vowels and some consonants (κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ), to make pronunciation smoother:

• την καρέκλα
• την επιστολή
• την τσάντα

So here, because φ is a consonant where we normally drop the -ν, we say:

• με τη φίλη μου

What is the gender and meaning of φίλη? How is it different from φίλος?

• φίλη = female friend (feminine noun)
• φίλος = male friend (masculine noun)

So:

• η φίλη μου = my (female) friend
• ο φίλος μου = my (male) friend

In the sentence:

• …με τη φίλη μου. = …with my (female) friend.

How does μου work here? Why isn’t there a separate word for “my”?

Μου is an enclitic pronoun that means “my” (also “to me” / “for me” in other contexts).

In possessive phrases, it comes after the noun:

• η φίλη μου = my friend
• το σπίτι μου = my house
• τα παιδιά μου = my children

So με τη φίλη μου literally is “with the friend my”, but in English we translate it as “with my friend”. There is no extra word like “my” before the noun; μου after the noun does the job.

Does the present tense here mean “right now” or “in general”?

In Greek, the present tense can mean both:

1. Right now / at the moment
2. Habitual / repeated action

In this sentence, όταν μιλάω ελληνικά με τη φίλη μου describes something that happens regularly or whenever the situation occurs.

So the whole sentence means more like:

• I (generally) feel great joy whenever I speak Greek with my friend.

If you wanted to emphasize “right now” in Greek, you could add a time phrase:

• Τώρα νιώθω μεγάλη χαρά, γιατί μιλάω ελληνικά με τη φίλη μου.
  Right now I feel great joy, because I’m speaking Greek with my friend.