Learn Hardcore Greek: Ως ενήλικας πρέπει να είμαι πιο υπεύθυνος με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου. - As an adult I have to be more responsible with my time and my money.

ως is:
- more formal/literary,
- often used for roles, capacities, official statuses:
  - ως δάσκαλος = as a teacher (in my professional capacity)
  - ως πολίτης = as a citizen
σαν is:
- more colloquial,
- often used in comparisons (“like”):
  - σαν παιδί = like a child

In many everyday contexts you could also say Σαν ενήλικας…, but Ως ενήλικας… sounds a bit more careful/standard, especially in written language or “serious” speech.

Why is it ενήλικας and not something like ενήλικος or ενήλικα?

Here ενήλικας is a noun meaning “adult (person)”, masculine form.

ενήλικας = (a) male adult / an adult (as a noun)
ενήλικη = (a) female adult
ενήλικος = “adult” as an adjective, e.g. ενήλικος πληθυσμός (adult population)

In Ως ενήλικας:

It’s in the nominative because it refers to the subject (“I”), like “I, (as an adult), must…”.
There’s no article because after ως (in this sense) Greek usually omits the article:
- ως ενήλικας = as an adult
- ως δάσκαλος = as a teacher

You could say ως ένας ενήλικας, but that sounds more “heavy” and is less common in such a short, general statement.

Why is there πρέπει να είμαι? What does πρέπει να do here?

πρέπει means “it is necessary / one must / should”.

πρέπει να + verb is a fixed structure that expresses obligation, necessity, or strong recommendation:

πρέπει να είμαι = I must be / I should be / I have to be.

Grammar-wise:

πρέπει itself is in the present tense, impersonal (“it must / it is necessary”).
The verb after να (είμαι) is in the subjunctive form (though it looks like the present):
- είμαι = I am / (that) I be
πρέπει να είμαι → literally “it is necessary that I be”.

So the whole sentence is:
Ως ενήλικας πρέπει να είμαι… = As an adult, I must be…

Why is the verb είμαι here and not some other form? How is it conjugated?

The subject is “I”, so the verb είμαι (to be) is in 1st person singular:

εγώ είμαι = I am

With πρέπει να, you keep the person of the subject:

εγώ πρέπει να είμαι (I must be)
εσύ πρέπει να είσαι (you must be)
αυτός/αυτή/αυτό πρέπει να είναι (he/she/it must be)
εμείς πρέπει να είμαστε
εσείς πρέπει να είστε
αυτοί πρέπει να είναι

So είμαι matches the implied subject “I”.

What does πιο υπεύθυνος mean, and why not just υπεύθυνος?

υπεύθυνος = responsible
πιο υπεύθυνος = more responsible (comparative degree)

The speaker isn’t just saying “I must be responsible”, but:

I must be more responsible (than before / than I currently am).

πιο is the usual word for “more” before adjectives and adverbs:
- πιο μεγάλος = bigger
- πιο προσεκτικός = more careful

You can also say περισσότερο υπεύθυνος (= more responsible), but:

πιο υπεύθυνος is shorter and more common in everyday speech.
περισσότερο often sounds a bit more formal or emphatic.

Why is υπεύθυνος in this exact form? What changes if the speaker is female?

υπεύθυνος is an adjective meaning responsible. In Greek, adjectives agree with the noun/subject in:

gender
number
case

Here:

subject = implied “I” (a man), so masculine, singular, nominative
adjective = υπεύθυνος (masc. sing. nom.)

If the speaker is female, the adjective must be feminine:

Ως ενήλικη πρέπει να είμαι πιο υπεύθυνη με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου.

Changes:

ενήλικας → ενήλικη (female adult)
υπεύθυνος → υπεύθυνη (responsible, feminine)

For a mixed or all-female group (“we”), you would change both verb and adjective:

Ως ενήλικες πρέπει να είμαστε πιο υπεύθυνοι / υπεύθυνες…
(masc. plural υπεύθυνοι, fem. plural υπεύθυνες)

Why is the preposition με used: πιο υπεύθυνος με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου? Could I use something else?

Here με means “with” in the sense of “in the way I handle / treat / use something”.

είμαι υπεύθυνος με τον χρόνο μου = I am responsible with my time (I manage my time responsibly).
είμαι υπεύθυνος με τα χρήματά μου = I am responsible with my money.

In English we also say “be responsible with money / time”, so με is a very close match.

Other prepositions would change the meaning:

για (for) → είμαι υπεύθυνος για τα χρήματά μου = I am responsible for my money (I am the one in charge of it).
σε (to/at) doesn’t work here.

So με is the natural choice when you mean “use/handle X in a responsible way”.

Why τον χρόνο with the article τον? Could it be just χρόνο?

τον χρόνο is “the time” (accusative, masculine singular):

ο χρόνος → τον χρόνο (object form)

In Greek, the definite article is used more often than “the” in English, especially with abstract nouns like time, life, health, etc.

με τον χρόνο μου = with my time (in general, my time as a resource)

You could say just με χρόνο in some contexts, but that changes the sense to more “with (some) time” in a more indefinite way. In this sentence, τον χρόνο sounds more natural and idiomatic.

If you want to explicitly say “my time”, you can say:

με τον χρόνο μου και τα χρήματά μου
(with my time and my money)

Why is χρήματα plural, while χρόνο is singular? Doesn’t χρήματα just mean “money”?

Yes, χρήματα means money, but grammatically it is:

neuter plural noun: τα χρήματα

This is similar to English “funds”, “earnings”, etc., which are also plural but refer to money as a whole.

So:

τα χρήματα = money (funds, finances)
τα χρήματά μου = my money

By contrast:

ο χρόνος (time) is usually used in the singular when you mean “time” in general.

So the pairing is perfectly normal in Greek:

τον χρόνο (singular)
τα χρήματα (plural)

Why does χρήματά have an accent on the last syllable? Isn’t it usually χρήματα?

The base form is χρήματα (accent on the first syllable).

When you add an enclitic pronoun like μου (“my”) after a word stressed on the antepenultimate (third syllable from the end), Greek spelling rules add a second accent:

base: χρήματα (stress on χρή)
with μου: χρήματά μου
(stress remains on χρή, and we add another accent on -τά)

So χρήματά μου has two written accents, but in speech you mainly hear the original main stress and just a bit of extra prominence at the end.

This is a standard accent rule when attaching enclitics (μου, σου, του, της, μας, σας, τους) to such words.

Why is μου placed after χρήματά? Could it go before? And why isn’t there μου after χρόνο too?

Position of μου:
- Possessive pronouns like μου (my), σου (your), etc., usually come after the noun:
  - τα χρήματά μου = my money
  - το βιβλίο μου = my book
You generally can’t put it before the noun like in English.
Why not τον χρόνο μου as well?
The sentence has:
- με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου
This can mean either:
- with time and my money (only money is explicitly “my”)
- or, more loosely, “with my time and money” (time is also implicitly yours)
If you want to be explicit and fully parallel, you’d say:
- με τον χρόνο μου και τα χρήματά μου
  (with my time and my money)

Both versions are understandable; the one given simply doesn’t repeat μου after χρόνο, which is common in natural speech when the “ownership” is obvious from context.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Ως ενήλικας, πιο υπεύθυνος πρέπει να είμαι…?

Greek word order is relatively flexible, so several variations are possible:

Ως ενήλικας πρέπει να είμαι πιο υπεύθυνος… (original; very natural)
Ως ενήλικας, πιο υπεύθυνος πρέπει να είμαι με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου.
Πρέπει, ως ενήλικας, να είμαι πιο υπεύθυνος…
Πρέπει να είμαι, ως ενήλικας, πιο υπεύθυνος…

The original order is the most straightforward and neutral. Moving πιο υπεύθυνος earlier can add a slight emphasis on “more responsible”, but it’s still correct.

What you cannot do is split fixed chunks like:

πρέπει να must stay together.
χρήματά μου must stay together (you can’t put μου somewhere else).

How would you pronounce the whole sentence? Can you give an approximate transcription?

Modern Greek pronunciation (IPA):

Ως ενήλικας πρέπει να είμαι πιο υπεύθυνος με τον χρόνο και τα χρήματά μου.
/os eˈnilikas ˈprepi na ˈime pço iˈpefθinos me ton ˈxrono ce ta xriˈmata mu/

A simple Latin-letter approximation:

Os enílikas prépi na íme pio ipéfthinos me ton hróno ke ta hriMATÁ mu

Syllable-style breakdown:

Ως / os
ενή‑λι‑κας / e‑NÍ‑li‑kas
πρέ‑πει / PRÉ‑pi
να / na
εί‑μαι / Í‑me
πιο / pio (“pyo”)
υπεύ‑θυ‑νος / i‑PEF‑thi‑nos
με / me
τον / ton
χρό‑νο / HRÓ‑no
και / ke
τα / ta
χρή‑μα‑τά / HRI‑ma‑TÁ
μου / mu