Έβαλε το χέρι στο πηγούνι και σκέφτηκε αν πρέπει να πάει ξανά στον γιατρό.

Greek often leaves the subject pronoun out because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

• Έβαλε = he/she put
• σκέφτηκε = he/she thought
• πρέπει = he/she must / should only in context here, but this verb is impersonal
• να πάει = to go / that he/she go

So the sentence does not need αυτός or αυτή. The subject is understood from context.

Both are in the aorist, the most common Greek past tense for a completed event.

• έβαλε = put
• σκέφτηκε = thought

The aorist presents the actions as whole events:

• first, the person put their hand on their chin
• then, they thought about something

If Greek used the imperfect instead, it would suggest an ongoing or repeated action.

The dictionary form is βάζω, meaning to put / place.

In the aorist, βάζω becomes έβαλα in the 1st person singular, and έβαλε in the 3rd person singular.

A very common pattern is:

• βάζω = I put / I am putting
• έβαλα = I put
• έβαλε = he/she put

So Έβαλε το χέρι... literally starts with He/She put the hand...

Because χέρι is a neuter singular noun.

Its article is:

• nominative/accusative singular: το
• genitive singular: του

Here χέρι is the direct object of έβαλε, so Greek uses το χέρι.

A learner may expect something like τον χέρι, but that would be wrong because the gender of χέρι is neuter, not masculine.

Greek often uses the definite article where English would use a possessive.

So Έβαλε το χέρι στο πηγούνι naturally means:

• He/She put his/her hand on his/her chin

even though Greek literally says the hand and the chin.

Because the owner is obvious from context, Greek does not need to say το χέρι του/της unless it wants to emphasize whose hand it was.

στο is a contraction of σε + το.

So:

• σε = to / at / on / in
• το = the
• στο = to the / on the / at the

And πηγούνι means chin, a neuter noun.

So:

• στο πηγούνι = on the chin / to the chin

In this sentence, English would normally say on his/her chin or to his/her chin, but Greek naturally uses στο πηγούνι.

Because the word for chin is simply το πηγούνι.

It is a neuter noun ending in -ι, which is a very common noun ending in Greek. Its main singular forms are:

• nominative/accusative: το πηγούνι
• genitive: του πηγουνιού

So in this sentence, after στο, Greek uses the accusative form, which is the same as the nominative here:

• στο πηγούνι

Here αν means whether / if.

So:

• σκέφτηκε αν πρέπει να πάει... = he/she thought about whether he/she should go...

This is different from a condition like If it rains, I will stay home, although Greek also uses αν in many conditional contexts.

In this sentence, αν introduces an indirect yes/no question:

• Should I go again to the doctor or not?
• Greek expresses that as αν πρέπει να πάει ξανά στον γιατρό

Because after πρέπει Greek normally uses να + verb.

• πρέπει = it is necessary / one must / should
• να πάει = to go / that he/she go

So:

• πρέπει να πάει = he/she should go or it is necessary for him/her to go

The particle να is very important in Greek. It introduces the dependent verb form used after many verbs and expressions.

πάει is the form of πηγαίνω / πάω used after να here.

So:

• να πάει = to go / that he/she go

This is the 3rd person singular form, matching the understood subject he/she.

Greek commonly uses forms from πάω alongside πηγαίνω. Learners often notice that this verb has more than one common present stem. That is normal:

• πάω = I go
• πηγαίνω = I go
• να πάει = for him/her to go

Because the past verb is σκέφτηκε = thought, and what follows is the content of that thought.

The person thought:

• Should I go again to the doctor?

That inner question is naturally expressed with πρέπει in the present, because at that moment the question was about what they should do now/next.

So Greek does not need to shift everything into a past tense the way English sometimes does. It is perfectly natural to say:

• σκέφτηκε αν πρέπει να πάει...
• literally: thought whether he/she should go...

ξανά means again.

Here it modifies να πάει:

• να πάει ξανά = to go again

Its position is flexible, but some placements sound more natural than others. In this sentence, ξανά appears right before στον γιατρό, but it is understood with the verb πάει.

So the idea is:

• whether he/she should go again to the doctor

You will also hear πάλι for again, but ξανά often emphasizes repetition more clearly.

στον is a contraction of σε + τον.

So:

• σε = to / at
• τον = the, masculine accusative singular
• στον = to the

And γιατρό is the accusative singular of γιατρός:

• nominative: ο γιατρός = the doctor
• accusative: τον γιατρό = the doctor

After σε, Greek uses the accusative, so:

• στον γιατρό = to the doctor

The final -ν belongs to the article τον, which survives in the contraction στον.

Because that is how the accusative singular of γιατρός is formed.

The noun changes like this:

• ο γιατρός = the doctor
• τον γιατρό = the doctor
• του γιατρού = of the doctor

So the stress changes position depending on the form. This is very common in Greek noun declension.

In standard modern Greek, στον γιατρό is the normal form here because the full form is σε τον γιατρό.

You may sometimes hear reductions in fast speech, but for learners the correct standard form is:

• στον γιατρό

Compare:

• στο πηγούνι = σε το πηγούνι
• στον γιατρό = σε τον γιατρό

So the form depends on the gender and case of the article that follows σε.

Because και simply joins two actions in a straightforward sequence:

• Έβαλε το χέρι στο πηγούνι
• και σκέφτηκε...

Greek, like English, often does not use a comma before a simple and joining two clauses with the same subject, unless there is some special pause or stylistic reason.

They are close, but not exactly identical.

• σκέφτηκε = thought
• αναρωτήθηκε = wondered

In this sentence, σκέφτηκε αν... means the person thought about whether they should go again.
If you used αναρωτήθηκε αν..., it would focus more strongly on the sense of wondering or asking oneself.

Both can work in similar contexts, but σκέφτηκε is broader and more neutral.