Breakdown of Το βράδυ φοράω ακουστικά, για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα.
Questions & Answers about Το βράδυ φοράω ακουστικά, για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα.
Το βράδυ literally means “the evening / the night-time”.
In Greek, it’s very common to use the definite article with parts of the day when talking about time in a general, habitual way:
- Το πρωί – in the morning
- Το μεσημέρι – at noon / lunchtime
- Το βράδυ – in the evening / at night
English usually drops the article (“in the evening”, “at night”), but Greek keeps it. So το here is grammatically necessary, even though it isn’t translated as “the” in natural English.
Both can be translated “at night”, but there’s a nuance:
- Το βράδυ → evening and early night, roughly after sunset up to around 10–11 p.m. It’s often used for normal “evening” activities: watching TV, going out, having dinner, etc.
- Τη νύχτα → the (late) night, usually when people are asleep, after midnight, or at least “proper night-time”.
In your sentence, Το βράδυ φοράω ακουστικά…, το βράδυ suggests a typical evening routine rather than the middle of the night.
Φοράω and φορώ are two forms of the same verb φοράω/φορώ = “to wear” (clothes, glasses, headphones, etc.).
- φοράω is the more colloquial, everyday form.
- φορώ is a bit more formal/literary but also fully correct.
Both mean “I wear / I am wearing”. So you could also say:
- Το βράδυ φορώ ακουστικά… (a bit more formal)
- Το βράδυ φοράω ακουστικά… (neutral, everyday speech – the one in the sentence)
The present tense here expresses a habitual action: “At night I (usually) wear headphones.”
Ακουστικά is a neuter plural noun meaning “headphones” (literally “listening devices”).
In Greek, you often omit the article with plural objects when you mean them in a general, non-specific way—similar to English using a “bare plural”:
- Πίνω καφέ. – I drink coffee.
- Διαβάζω βιβλία. – I read books.
- Φοράω ακουστικά. – I wear headphones.
If you said φοράω τα ακουστικά, it would sound more like “I wear the headphones”, referring to some specific, known pair. Here, the sentence just means “I wear headphones (in general)”.
για να introduces a purpose clause: it means “in order to / so that”.
Structure:
- (Main clause)
- για να
- subjunctive verb
- για να
In your sentence:
- φοράω ακουστικά – I wear headphones
- για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος… – so that the sound is not heard…
Using only να can introduce many kinds of subordinate clauses (wishes, possibilities, complements, etc.). για να is specifically goal/purpose:
- Πάω στο σούπερ μάρκετ για να αγοράσω ψωμί.
I’m going to the supermarket to buy bread / in order to buy bread.
So here για να clearly shows the reason/goal of wearing the headphones.
Greek has two main negatives:
- δεν – used with indicative verbs (normal statements: present, past, future indicative)
- μη(ν) – used with subjunctive and imperative (and in a few fixed expressions)
After να / για να, the verb is in the subjunctive, so you must use μη(ν):
- για να μην ακούγεται – so that it not be heard
Compare:
- Δεν ακούγεται ο ήχος. – The sound is not heard. (statement → δεν)
- να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος – (that) the sound not be heard. (subjunctive → μην)
ακούγεται is the 3rd person singular, present passive of ακούω = “to hear / to be heard”.
- Active: ακούω – I hear
- Passive: ακούγομαι – I am heard
- 3rd sg passive: ακούγεται – it is heard / it can be heard
In English we say “so the sound can’t be heard in the kitchen”. Greek does this literally with the passive:
- να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος – so that the sound is not heard.
If you said να μην ακούει ο ήχος, that would be “so that the sound doesn’t hear (something)” – which doesn’t make sense. The subject ο ήχος is not the hearer, it’s the thing being heard, so the passive is needed.
You can say it, but the meaning shifts slightly.
για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα
→ focus on the sound itself: “so that the sound is not (able to be) heard in the kitchen.”για να μην ακούνε τον ήχο στην κουζίνα
→ focus on the people in the kitchen: “so that they don’t hear the sound in the kitchen.”
Both are understandable. The original sentence is more impersonal and natural: it talks about the presence/absence of audible sound in the kitchen, rather than about what specific people hear.
Greek uses the definite article much more than English, especially with specific, countable nouns.
Here, ο ήχος refers to that particular sound (the sound coming from what you’re listening to with headphones). So Greek uses the definite article:
- ο ήχος – the sound
- ο θόρυβος – the noise
If you drop the article (ήχος), it sounds more like an abstract idea: “sound (as a concept)”. In normal speech, talking about a concrete sound, you almost always say ο ήχος.
στην κουζίνα is:
- σε (preposition “in / at / to”)
- την (feminine accusative singular article “the”)
→ στην (contracted form: σε + την)
Κουζίνα is a feminine noun in the accusative (because σε + accusative is the usual pattern).
So στην κουζίνα literally is “in the kitchen” (with the article). Again, English may say simply “in the kitchen” without “the”, but Greek requires την here.
Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:
- …για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα.
- …για να μην ακούγεται στην κουζίνα ο ήχος.
The normal, neutral order is verb – subject – complements:
- ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα
If you move ο ήχος to the end, you slightly emphasize “the sound”:
- …στην κουζίνα ο ήχος → “in the kitchen, the sound [in particular].”
In most everyday contexts there’s no big difference in meaning; the original order feels more straightforward and natural.
The comma separates:
The main clause:
Το βράδυ φοράω ακουστικά – At night I wear headphonesThe purpose clause introduced by για να:
για να μην ακούγεται ο ήχος στην κουζίνα – so that the sound isn’t heard in the kitchen.
In Greek (and English) it’s common to use a comma before clauses of reason or purpose, especially when the second clause feels like a separate “thought” explaining why you do something.