Breakdown of Ο κτηνίατρος μας είπε να αλλάξουμε τροφή και να περιμένουμε δύο μέρες.
Questions & Answers about Ο κτηνίατρος μας είπε να αλλάξουμε τροφή και να περιμένουμε δύο μέρες.
Modern Greek generally doesn’t use an infinitive the way English does. Instead, it uses να + subjunctive:
- να αλλάξουμε = to change (literally that we change)
- να περιμένουμε = to wait (literally that we wait)
After many verbs of saying, advising, ordering, etc. (like είπε he said/told), Greek commonly uses να
- a verb form.
μας here means to us (indirect object). With verbs like λέω (I say/tell), Greek often uses a weak (clitic) pronoun for to me/to you/to us, placed before the verb:
- μας είπε = he/she told us It’s not our in this sentence; it’s us as the people receiving the message.
Ο is the masculine singular nominative article (the). In Greek, articles are used very frequently, often even where English might omit them.
Here Ο κτηνίατρος most naturally reads as the vet (a specific vet known in context). If you wanted to emphasize a vet (one of many) you’d usually still often see an article, but context would do the work; Greek doesn’t rely on “a/an” vs “the” in the same way English does.
Ο κτηνίατρος is nominative (subject case). You can tell because:
- It uses the nominative article ο
- The noun ends in a typical nominative masculine ending -ος And it matches the role: the vet is the one who είπε (said/told).
είπε is the simple past (aorist) of λέω (I say / I tell). It refers to a completed event in the past:
- μας είπε = he/she told us (once, at that moment)
The dictionary form is typically 1st person singular present: αλλάζω (I change).
After να, you use the subjunctive form, and here it’s 1st person plural aorist subjunctive:
- να αλλάξουμε = for us to change / that we change (one complete change)
So the verb changes because (1) the subject is we, and (2) the aspect is aorist (one completed action).
περιμένουμε is 1st person plural (“we wait / we are waiting”). Conveniently, for many verbs, the present subjunctive form after να looks identical to the present indicative:
- περιμένουμε can mean we wait (indicative) or (that) we wait (subjunctive), depending on whether να is present.
So να περιμένουμε is correct and complete as-is.
Greek often chooses aspect (aorist vs present) based on how the action is viewed:
- να αλλάξουμε τροφή (aorist) = change the food once (a single completed switch)
- να περιμένουμε δύο μέρες (present) = wait as a process/duration (keep waiting over time)
You can sometimes use other choices depending on nuance, but this combination is very natural here.
Greek can omit the article when speaking more generally about something like a type/category, especially in set medical/advice contexts:
- να αλλάξουμε τροφή = to change (their) food / change diet/food Adding an article (την τροφή) would sound more like a specific, already-defined food (e.g., that particular food). Without the article, it’s more general: change what we’re feeding them.
Both exist:
- μέρα is the common everyday word for day
- ημέρα is more formal (and also common in certain fixed phrases)
So δύο μέρες is simply the natural conversational choice.
δύο μέρες is in the accusative because it functions as a time duration (how long to wait). Greek commonly uses the accusative for “for X time”:
- να περιμένουμε δύο μέρες = to wait for two days
Also note δύο doesn’t change form for gender/case in Modern Greek.
Repeating να keeps both verbs clearly under the same “instruction/advice” structure:
- μας είπε να αλλάξουμε … και να περιμένουμε … = told us to change … and to wait …
If you said και περιμένουμε without να, it would sound like a statement (and we wait) rather than a second instruction, unless the context was very specific. Repeating να is the normal, clear way.