Learn Hardcore Greek: Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα είναι χορτοφάγος και πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ. - The person next to me in class is vegetarian and always brings a healthy snack.

Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα είναι χορτοφάγος και πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ.

The person next to me in class is vegetarian and always brings a healthy snack.

Breakdown of Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα είναι χορτοφάγος και πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ.

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Questions & Answers about Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα είναι χορτοφάγος και πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ.

What does Ο διπλανός μου literally mean, and why is μου after the noun instead of before it like “my” in English?

Ο διπλανός μου literally means “the person next to me” / “my neighbor (in this context, the one sitting next to me)”.

διπλανός = “next (to), adjacent, neighboring”
μου = “my”
ο = masculine singular definite article “the”

In Greek, unstressed possessive pronouns like μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους usually come after the noun:

το βιβλίο μου = my book
ο φίλος σου = your friend
ο διπλανός μου = my neighbor / the person next to me

So the structure is [article] + [noun] + [possessive clitic].
Putting μου before (μου διπλανός) is ungrammatical in modern Greek.

Why is it στο μάθημα and not something like σε το μάθημα? What exactly is στο?

στο is a contraction of the preposition σε (“in, at, to”) and the neuter article το (“the”):

σε + το = στο

So:

στο μάθημα = σε το μάθημα = “in/at the class / lesson”

You’ll see this very often:

σε + τον = στον (masc.) → στον φίλο μου = to my friend
σε + την = στην (fem.) → στην κουζίνα = in the kitchen
σε + το = στο (neut.) → στο μάθημα = in class

μάθημα is a neuter noun, so it takes το in the singular → hence στο μάθημα.

Why is there no article before χορτοφάγος in είναι χορτοφάγος? Could I say είναι ένας χορτοφάγος?

In Greek, when you state someone’s profession, nationality, religion, or a classification, you normally omit the article:

Είναι γιατρός. = He/She is a doctor.
Είναι Έλληνας. = He is Greek.
Είναι χριστιανός. = He is Christian.
Είναι χορτοφάγος. = He/She is vegetarian.

You can say είναι ένας χορτοφάγος, but it sounds more like:

“He is a (certain kind of) vegetarian” / “He is one of those vegetarians”,
often with some extra nuance, emphasis, or sometimes a slightly judgmental tone.

So for a neutral description, είναι χορτοφάγος is the normal form.

Is χορτοφάγος only masculine? How do you say “she is vegetarian”?

χορτοφάγος is one of those adjectives/nouns that has the same form for masculine and feminine.

Ο χορτοφάγος = the (male) vegetarian
Η χορτοφάγος = the (female) vegetarian

In your sentence, the subject is understood from context (the classmate sitting next to “me”), so:

Είναι χορτοφάγος.
can mean “He is vegetarian” or “She is vegetarian”, depending on context.

If you explicitly mention the person:

Ο διπλανός μου είναι χορτοφάγος. = My (male) neighbor/classmate is vegetarian.
Η διπλανή μου είναι χορτοφάγος. = My (female) neighbor/classmate is vegetarian.

Note how διπλανός changes to διπλανή for the feminine, but χορτοφάγος stays the same form.

Why is it πάντα φέρνει and not φέρνει πάντα? Does the position of πάντα change the meaning?

Both πάντα φέρνει and φέρνει πάντα are grammatically correct and very natural.

πάντα = “always”, and typical positions are:

Before the verb: Πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ.
After the verb: Φέρνει πάντα υγιεινό σνακ.

The difference is very small and mostly about rhythm or slight emphasis. Some general tendencies:

Πάντα φέρνει…: a tiny bit more emphasis on the habitual nature (“he/she always brings…”).
Φέρνει πάντα…: flows more like a simple “he/she brings (always) a healthy snack”.

In everyday speech, both word orders are used interchangeably without a strong change in meaning.

What exactly does φέρνει mean, and how is it conjugated? Is it like “brings” in English?

Yes, φέρνει is the 3rd person singular, present tense of the verb φέρνω, which corresponds to English “bring”:

φέρνω = I bring
φέρνεις = you bring (sg.)
φέρνει = he/she/it brings
φέρνουμε = we bring
φέρνετε = you bring (pl./formal)
φέρνουν(ε) = they bring

In your sentence:

(Αυτός/Αυτή) πάντα φέρνει υγιεινό σνακ.
→ The subject αυτός/αυτή (“he/she”) is dropped because Greek normally omits subject pronouns when the verb ending makes the subject clear.

Why is it υγιεινό σνακ and not something like υγιής σνακ? What’s the difference between υγιεινός and υγιής?

Greek distinguishes between:

υγιής = healthy (as a state), used mainly for people or living beings
- Είναι υγιής. = He/She is healthy.
υγιεινός = healthy / healthful (good for your health), used for food, habits, environments
- υγιεινό φαγητό = healthy food
- υγιεινός τρόπος ζωής = healthy lifestyle

So for a snack that is good for you, you naturally use υγιεινό:

υγιεινό σνακ = a healthy snack (nutritious, not junk food)

υγιής σνακ would sound wrong; σνακ is not itself healthy or sick, it’s healthful or unhealthful, so υγιεινό is the correct choice.

Why is the adjective υγιεινό in that exact form? What is it agreeing with?

Greek adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.

σνακ is treated as a neuter singular noun here, used as the direct object, so it is in the accusative singular neuter.
Therefore, υγιεινός must also be neuter, singular, accusative → υγιεινό.

Basic forms of υγιεινός:

Masculine: υγιεινός (nom. sg.)
Feminine: υγιεινή (nom. sg.)
Neuter: υγιεινό (nom./acc. sg.)

Examples:

υγιεινό σνακ (neuter)
υγιεινό φαγητό (neuter)
υγιεινός άνθρωπος (masc.) – “a health-conscious person”
υγιεινή διατροφή (fem.) – “healthy diet”

What about the word σνακ? Does it decline in Greek, and what gender is it?

σνακ is a loanword from English and in modern Greek it is generally indeclinable:

το σνακ (nom. sg.)
το σνακ (acc. sg.)
τα σνακ (nom./acc. pl.)

So the form σνακ stays the same in singular and plural; the article and the adjective show number and case:

το υγιεινό σνακ = the healthy snack (sg.)
τα υγιεινά σνακ = the healthy snacks (pl.)

Loanwords like σνακ, μπαρ, πάρτι are usually treated as neuter in Greek, so adjectives modifying them take neuter forms (like υγιεινό).

Could I say ο δίπλα μου στο μάθημα instead of ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα?

No, ο δίπλα μου is not idiomatic for “the person next to me”.

δίπλα is an adverb meaning “next to / beside”:
- Κάθεται δίπλα μου. = He/She sits next to me.

To turn the idea into a noun phrase (“the one next to me”), modern Greek uses the adjective διπλανός:

ο διπλανός μου = the person next to me (lit. “my next-to-one”)

So:

Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα είναι χορτοφάγος. ✅
Ο δίπλα μου στο μάθημα… ❌ (ungrammatical in standard Modern Greek)

Can I drop μου and just say Ο διπλανός στο μάθημα? What changes?

Ο διπλανός μου στο μάθημα… = literally “the next-to-me in class”, i.e. my neighbor/classmate (the one sitting next to me).
Ο διπλανός στο μάθημα… would mean “the neighbor/adjacent one in class” but without specifying to whom. It sounds incomplete or unclear: adjacent to what or whom?

In practice, to talk about the person sitting next to you, you almost always say:

Ο διπλανός μου (στο μάθημα) = my (desk) neighbor in class.

So μου is essential here to give the intended, natural meaning in Greek.

How is υγιεινό pronounced, and why are there so many i-sounds in the spelling?

υγιεινό is pronounced approximately as:

[iʝiˈno] → “ee-yee-NO”

Breakdown:

υγι- → υγι is pronounced yi, like “yee”
-ει- → ει is also i
νό → stressed syllable -νό

So you get three written vowels (υ, ι, ει) that are all pronounced as /i/ in modern Greek. This reflects historical spelling, not modern pronunciation.

Stress is on the last syllable: υ-γι-νό.