Learn Hardcore Greek: Η φίλη μου παρακολουθεί ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για την Ελλάδα, ενώ εγώ διαβάζω ελληνικές λέξεις στο κινητό. - My friend is watching a documentary about Greece while I am reading Greek words on my phone.

You do not normally put the possessive before the noun the way English does.
Forms like μου φίλη sound poetic or old‑fashioned and aren’t used in everyday speech for simple possession.

What is the difference between φίλη and φίλος?

They are the feminine and masculine forms of friend:

ο φίλος = male friend
η φίλη = female friend

The article also changes with gender:

ο for masculine singular
η for feminine singular
το for neuter singular

So η φίλη μου clearly refers to a female friend. If you said ο φίλος μου, it would be a male friend.

Why is the possessive μου after the noun (in φίλη μου) instead of before it?

Greek possessive pronouns (μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους) normally follow the noun:

η φίλη μου – my friend
το σπίτι σου – your house
το αυτοκίνητό του – his car

Placing μου before the noun (like μου φίλη) is unusual in modern spoken Greek and tends to sound literary, emotional, or poetic, and not like a neutral my friend.

Why is παρακολουθεί used here instead of a simpler verb like βλέπει?

Both verbs are about watching, but they have different nuances:

βλέπω = to see, to watch (more general, like see/watch TV, see a movie)
παρακολουθώ = to follow/watch something attentively, often over a period of time (a documentary, a series, a course, a lecture)

A documentary is something you pay attention to and often follow, so:

παρακολουθεί ένα ντοκιμαντέρ suggests she is watching / following a documentary (attentively).

You could say βλέπει ένα ντοκιμαντέρ, and it would still be correct, just a bit more neutral and less “focused”.

Does παρακολουθεί mean she watches or she is watching?

It can mean both. Modern Greek does not have a separate present continuous form. The simple present (Ενεστώτας) covers:

she watches (habit)
she is watching (right now)

So Η φίλη μου παρακολουθεί ένα ντοκιμαντέρ could be:

My friend is watching a documentary (now)
or
My friend watches a documentary (regularly)

Context – and here the rest of the sentence – usually tells you it’s right now.

Why do we say ένα ντοκιμαντέρ and not just ντοκιμαντέρ, since in English we might say is watching documentary films in general?

ένα is the indefinite article (a / an). In this sentence:

ένα ντοκιμαντέρ = a documentary / one documentary

It describes one specific (though not identified) documentary that she’s watching at that moment.

If you wanted to talk about documentaries in general, you’d normally use the plural:

παρακολουθεί ντοκιμαντέρ – she watches documentaries (no article, general idea)
παρακολουθεί τα ντοκιμαντέρ – she watches the documentaries (a specific set)

Here, ένα ντοκιμαντέρ is natural because it’s a single documentary she is watching right now.

Why is it για την Ελλάδα and not για η Ελλάδα? What is going on with την?

Ελλάδα is a feminine noun (like η Ελλάδα = Greece).

Greek articles change form depending on case. After most prepositions, Greek uses the accusative case. The feminine accusative singular article is:

την (before consonants)
often written τη before consonants in everyday writing, but still pronounced tin

So:

η Ελλάδα (nominative, subject form)
την Ελλάδα (accusative, after a preposition like για)

για την Ελλάδα literally = about/toward Greece, and the grammar demands την, not η.

What does για mean here, and why does it take την Ελλάδα in the accusative?

για is a very common preposition. Here it means about:

ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για την Ελλάδα = a documentary about Greece

In Greek, prepositions almost always require the accusative case for the following noun. So:

για + η Ελλάδα → για την Ελλάδα (accusative feminine singular)

You don’t have to “feel” the case change as an English speaker at first; just learn the correct article form that follows each preposition.

What exactly does ενώ mean, and how is it different from words like όταν or καθώς?

ενώ is a conjunction that connects two actions and often translates as:

while (two things happening at the same time)
or whereas (contrast)

In this sentence, it is temporal (time) and mildly contrastive:

ενώ εγώ διαβάζω… = while I (on the other hand) am reading…

Rough comparison:

όταν = when (time, more neutral: όταν διαβάζω, δεν μιλάω – when I read, I don’t talk)
καθώς = as / while (often descriptive, parallel background action)
ενώ = while with a feel of contrast between clauses

Here, the contrast is between what my friend is doing and what I am doing.

Why is εγώ written explicitly? Could we just say ενώ διαβάζω ελληνικές λέξεις?

In Greek you can usually drop the subject pronoun because the verb ending shows the person:

διαβάζω already tells you I read / I am reading.

So:

ενώ διαβάζω ελληνικές λέξεις… is grammatically correct.

However, including εγώ adds emphasis or contrast:

ενώ εγώ διαβάζω… ≈ while I (by contrast) am reading…

It highlights the difference between my friend and me. That’s why εγώ is kept here.

How do ελληνικές and λέξεις match each other grammatically?

λέξη (word) is a feminine noun:

singular: η λέξη
plural: οι λέξεις

In the sentence we have:

ελληνικές λέξεις – Greek words

Both words are:

feminine
plural
accusative (because they are the direct object of διαβάζω)

So ελληνικές is the feminine plural accusative form of the adjective ελληνικός, -ή, -ό, agreeing fully with λέξεις in gender, number, and case.

Word order: In Greek, adjectives commonly come before the noun:

ελληνικές λέξεις = Greek words

Why is it στο κινητό and not σε το κινητό? What does στο mean exactly?

στο is a contraction of the preposition σε + the neuter article το:

σε + το = στο
σε + τον = στον (masc.)
σε + την = στην (fem.)

σε by itself is very flexible and can correspond to in, on, at, or to, depending on context.

Here:

στο κινητό literally: in/on the mobile
but it is understood as on the mobile phone or on (my) phone.

English chooses on here, but Greek uses σε (→ στο) for many locations, including places, devices, and screens.

Why does στο κινητό mean on my phone even though there is no μου?

Greek often omits the possessive when context makes it obvious. If you say:

διαβάζω λέξεις στο κινητό, in a normal context people assume your own phone.

To make it explicit, you can say:

στο κινητό μου – on my phone

Both are correct. The version without μου is just less specific, but usually understood as “my” in everyday conversation.

What exactly is κινητό here? Is it short for something?

Yes. Literally:

κινητός = mobile / movable (adjective)
κινητό τηλέφωνο = mobile phone

In everyday speech, Greeks usually shorten κινητό τηλέφωνο to just:

το κινητό – the mobile (phone)

It’s a neuter noun here. That’s why it takes the neuter article το, and in the contracted form with σε you get στο κινητό.

Can you explain the accents and stress in words like φίλη, Ελλάδα, εγώ, κινητό, παρακολουθεί?

Greek accents mark the stressed syllable of the word. A few from the sentence:

φίλη – stress on φί‑ (FI‑li)
Ελλάδα – stress on ‑λά‑ (e‑LA‑tha)
εγώ – stress on ‑γώ (e‑GO)
κινητό – stress on ‑τό (ki‑ni‑TO)
παρακολουθεί – stress on ‑θεί (pa‑ra‑ko‑lou‑THI)

Key points:

Each word has one written accent (except a few special cases like enclitics/combinations).
The accent shows which syllable you stress when pronouncing.
Stress is important: changing stress can change meaning or make a word sound wrong to native speakers.

The word ντοκιμαντέρ keeps the foreign stress; in practice it is pronounced with stress on the last syllable (ndo‑ki‑man‑TER), but it doesn’t take a written accent in many spellings because it’s a recent loanword, and usage varies.