Breakdown of Όταν τελειώνει η πρόβα, μαζεύουμε γρήγορα τα πράγματά μας και κινούμαστε όλοι μαζί προς τον πεζόδρομο.
Questions & Answers about Όταν τελειώνει η πρόβα, μαζεύουμε γρήγορα τα πράγματά μας και κινούμαστε όλοι μαζί προς τον πεζόδρομο.
In Greek, the present tense is often used in clauses with όταν (when) to express repeated / habitual actions or general truths.
So Όταν τελειώνει η πρόβα means: “Whenever the rehearsal ends / When the rehearsal ends (in general)”, not one single, specific time.
If you wanted to stress one specific future occasion, you could say:
- Όταν θα τελειώσει η πρόβα… – When the rehearsal will finish… (more clearly one future instance)
But for a routine (“every time the rehearsal ends”), present is the normal and most natural choice in Greek.
Yes, Όταν τελειώσει η πρόβα is also correct, but it changes the nuance.
Όταν τελειώνει η πρόβα (present):
Emphasizes a habitual / repeated situation – Whenever the rehearsal ends (every time we have rehearsal).Όταν τελειώσει η πρόβα (aorist subjunctive):
Sounds more like a specific future event or a single occurrence – When the rehearsal finishes (this time).
In many everyday contexts, both are possible, but Greek speakers choose between them depending on whether they’re thinking of:
- a routine (present) or
- a single event / concrete future (aorist subjunctive).
The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause.
- Subordinate clause: Όταν τελειώνει η πρόβα – When the rehearsal ends
- Main clause: μαζεύουμε γρήγορα τα πράγματά μας και κινούμαστε όλοι μαζί προς τον πεζόδρομο – we quickly gather our things and move together toward the pedestrian street
In Greek, it is standard to put a comma after clauses starting with όταν, επειδή, αν, etc., when the clause comes before the main clause, just like in English:
- When the rehearsal ends, we…
Greek uses the definite article much more often than English.
Here, η πρόβα is “the rehearsal”, a specific rehearsal the speakers know about (e.g. today’s rehearsal). The article η agrees with πρόβα:
- gender: feminine
- number: singular
- case: nominative
Dropping the article (Όταν τελειώνει πρόβα) would sound unnatural and usually wrong in modern Greek. Bare nouns without articles exist in Greek, but they occur in more limited, specific patterns (titles, certain fixed expressions, etc.), and this is not one of them.
Μαζεύουμε comes from μαζεύω, whose core meaning is “to gather / collect / pick up / tidy up”, very common in everyday speech.
In this context, μαζεύουμε τα πράγματά μας means:
- we gather up our things, we pack up our stuff, we pick up our belongings.
Συλλέγω / συλλέγουμε exists, but it sounds more formal or is used for things like collecting stamps, data, signatures, etc. In a casual, real-life situation after a rehearsal, Greeks would naturally say μαζεύουμε.
The noun πράγμα is:
- gender: neuter
- plural nominative/accusative article: τα
So in the accusative plural, we say:
- τα πράγματα – the things
In τα πράγματά μας:
- τα is the neuter plural article (accusative)
- πράγματά is the neuter plural noun with an extra stress to keep the accent in the right place before the clitic
- μας is the possessive clitic (our)
So, τα πράγματά μας = our things.
Using οι would be wrong because οι is the masculine (or feminine) nominative plural article, not neuter.
Without the possessive, the word is:
- τα πράγματα – stress on the first syllable: ΠΡΑ-γμα-τα
When you add a clitic (like μας, σας, του, etc.), Greek often shifts the stress one syllable to the right to obey its stress rules (the stress can’t move further than the third syllable from the end of the whole phonological word).
So:
- τα πράγματά μας – PRA-gma-TA mas
The extra accent on πράγματά shows that the stress has moved. This is standard with many nouns + clitic combinations in Greek.
In this sentence, μας is a possessive clitic meaning “our”. Greek normally places possessive clitics after the noun phrase they modify:
- το βιβλίο μου – my book
- η τσάντα σου – your bag
- τα πράγματά μας – our things
If you say μας τα πράγματα, μας would not be possessive; it would instead look like an object pronoun (“[someone] gives us the things”). That would change the meaning and grammar entirely.
So for possession, the natural pattern is article + noun (+ adjective) + possessive clitic.
Γρήγορα here is an adverb meaning “quickly”.
- The adjective is γρήγορος, -η, -ο = quick, fast (a quick car, a fast runner, etc.).
- The adverb form γρήγορα modifies the verb:
- μαζεύουμε γρήγορα – we gather quickly.
Greek frequently forms adverbs from adjectives by taking the neuter plural or a special adverbial form, and γρήγορα is one of the standard adverbs meaning quickly.
Κινούμαστε is the 1st person plural, present, middle/passive of κινούμαι.
- κινούμαι = to move (oneself), to be in motion, to get moving
- κινούμε (active) exists but is used mainly to mean to move something (else), and is much less common in everyday speech.
So:
- κινούμαστε = we move / we get moving / we set off.
This middle form is the normal everyday verb for moving (oneself) from place to place, similar to saying we move (ourselves) or we head off.
They overlap in meaning but are not identical and often appear together.
- όλοι = all (of us) – emphasizes that every member of the group participates.
- μαζί = together – emphasizes that they do it in a coordinated way, as a group, not separately.
Κινούμαστε όλοι μαζί = we all move together
It stresses both:
- nobody stays behind (all of us), and
- we move as a group, not individually (together).
You could say just κινούμαστε μαζί (we move together) or κινούμαστε όλοι (we all move), but όλοι μαζί is a very natural, strong combination in Greek.
- προς means “towards, in the direction of” and always takes the accusative.
- τον πεζόδρομο is accusative singular masculine of ο πεζόδρομος (pedestrian street / walkway).
So προς τον πεζόδρομο literally means:
- towards the pedestrian street – focusing on direction / movement.
Compare:
- πάμε στον πεζόδρομο – we go to the pedestrian street (arrival is more implied).
- πάμε προς τον πεζόδρομο – we go in the direction of the pedestrian street (we may or may not actually reach it; the emphasis is on direction).
In your sentence, κινούμαστε όλοι μαζί προς τον πεζόδρομο stresses that the group moves in that direction.
Greek usually omits subject pronouns (like “I, you, we”) because they are built into the verb ending.
- μαζεύουμε = we gather (1st person plural)
- κινούμαστε = we move (1st person plural)
So the subject “we” is understood from these endings.
You would only say εμείς explicitly if you needed emphasis or contrast, for example:
- Εμείς μαζεύουμε γρήγορα τα πράγματά μας – We are the ones who quickly gather our things (as opposed to others).