Η υπάλληλος μού είπε ότι μπορώ να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο, αν αυτό το φούτερ είναι πολύ στενό.

Η is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

You use η υπάλληλος because the sentence is talking about a specific employee: the employee / the sales assistant.

A useful detail is that υπάλληλος can refer to either a male or a female employee. The article shows the gender here:

• ο υπάλληλος = the male employee
• η υπάλληλος = the female employee

So in this sentence, Η υπάλληλος tells you the person speaking was a woman.

Μού means to me.

So:

• είπε = said / told
• μού είπε = told me

This is the weak form of the pronoun μου. You will often see it written as μού when it is stressed or when the writer wants to make the pronunciation especially clear, but in everyday writing μου είπε is also very common.

Grammatically, μου / μού is an indirect object pronoun.

Examples:

• Μου είπε την αλήθεια. = She told me the truth.
• Μου έδωσε το βιβλίο. = She gave me the book.

Είπε is the aorist form of λέω and means said or told.

Here it is third person singular:

• λέω = I say
• είπα = I said
• είπε = he/she/it said

In this sentence, Η υπάλληλος μού είπε ότι... means The employee told me that...

Greek often uses the aorist for a single completed action in the past, which fits well here: the employee said something once.

Ότι means that and introduces a content clause, just like English that in She told me that...

So:

• μού είπε ότι... = she told me that...

In everyday speech, Greek speakers sometimes omit ότι, just as English sometimes omits that:

• Μου είπε ότι μπορώ...
• Μου είπε μπορώ... is generally not standard in this structure, so here ότι is the normal choice.

Do not confuse this ότι with ό,τι, which means whatever / anything that.
The accenting is different:

• ότι = that
• ό,τι = whatever

Να introduces a verb form that is usually called the subjunctive in Greek grammar.

So:

• μπορώ = I can
• να δοκιμάσω = to try / that I try in this structure
• μπορώ να δοκιμάσω = I can try

After verbs like μπορώ, Greek normally uses να + verb:

• Μπορώ να πάω. = I can go.
• Μπορώ να δω. = I can see.
• Μπορώ να δοκιμάσω. = I can try.

English often uses an infinitive after can, but Modern Greek does not have an infinitive like English to try. Instead, it uses να + a finite verb form.

This is a very common question.

After να, Greek can use either an imperfective form or a perfective form, depending on the meaning.

Here:

• να δοκιμάσω = to try it once / to have a try
• να δοκιμάζω = to be trying / to try repeatedly or habitually

In a shop, if someone says you can try another size, the idea is usually a single, complete action: try on another size once. That is why δοκιμάσω is natural here.

Compare:

• Μπορώ να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο; = Can I try another size?
• Μπορώ να δοκιμάζω ρούχα εδώ; = Am I allowed to try on clothes here (in general / repeatedly)?

So δοκιμάσω fits the one-time event.

In this sentence, δοκιμάσω means try on.

The verb δοκιμάζω can mean several things depending on context:

• try
• test
• taste
• try on

Because the sentence is about clothing and sizes, the meaning here is clearly try on.

So να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο means to try another size on.

Άλλο νούμερο means another size.

A few things are happening here:

• άλλο = another / different
• νούμερο = number, but in clothing context it means size

Both words are neuter singular, because νούμερο is a neuter noun.

So the adjective must agree with the noun:

• άλλος = masculine
• άλλη = feminine
• άλλο = neuter

Since νούμερο is neuter, Greek uses άλλο νούμερο.

Yes, literally νούμερο means number, but in shopping and clothing contexts it often means size.

This is very natural in Greek. A clothing size is treated as a numbered size, so νούμερο is commonly used where English would say size.

For example:

• Τι νούμερο φοράτε; = What size do you wear?
• Δεν έχουμε αυτό το νούμερο. = We don’t have this size.
• Να σας φέρω άλλο νούμερο; = Shall I bring you another size?

So in this sentence, άλλο νούμερο is exactly what you would expect in a store.

This is a conditional clause introduced by αν, which means if.

So:

• αν = if
• αυτό το φούτερ = this sweatshirt
• είναι πολύ στενό = is very tight

Together: if this sweatshirt is very tight

Greek uses αν very commonly for if clauses. You may also see εάν, which is more formal, but αν is the normal everyday form.

In Greek, when a demonstrative like this comes before a noun, it is normally followed by the definite article.

So Greek says:

• αυτό το φούτερ = this sweatshirt
• literally something like this the sweatshirt

This is completely normal Greek grammar.

Other examples:

• αυτή η μπλούζα = this shirt/blouse
• αυτό το παντελόνι = these pants / this pair of trousers
• εκείνο το βιβλίο = that book

So even though English says this sweatshirt, Greek usually says this the sweatshirt.

Φούτερ is a borrowed word, from English sweater / footer-like clothing term, and in Modern Greek it is treated as a neuter noun.

Like many borrowed neuter nouns, it often has the same form in the singular nominative and accusative:

• το φούτερ = the sweatshirt
• βλέπω το φούτερ = I see the sweatshirt

So in this sentence, αυτό το φούτερ is perfectly normal.

A learner should also notice that loanwords in Greek do not always behave exactly like older native Greek nouns, so some of them have less obvious endings.

Στενό agrees with φούτερ, which is a neuter singular noun.

The adjective στενός means narrow / tight. Its forms here are:

• στενός = masculine
• στενή = feminine
• στενό = neuter

Since φούτερ is neuter, Greek uses στενό:

• αυτό το φούτερ είναι στενό = this sweatshirt is tight

In clothing contexts, στενός / στενή / στενό often means tight rather than just narrow.

Πολύ here means very.

So:

• στενό = tight
• πολύ στενό = very tight

Greek πολύ can function in different ways depending on context:

• as very before adjectives/adverbs: πολύ καλός, πολύ γρήγορα
• as much / a lot in other contexts: πολύ νερό, δουλεύω πολύ

Here it modifies the adjective στενό, so the meaning is very tight.

The sentence is natural as it stands, but Greek word order is often more flexible than English word order.

The neutral version here is:

Η υπάλληλος μού είπε ότι μπορώ να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο, αν αυτό το φούτερ είναι πολύ στενό.

But Greek can move things around for emphasis. For example:

• Η υπάλληλος είπε ότι μπορώ να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο, αν αυτό το φούτερ είναι πολύ στενό.
• Μου είπε η υπάλληλος ότι μπορώ να δοκιμάσω άλλο νούμερο...

These can all be grammatical, but they may shift emphasis slightly.

The given word order is very natural and conversational.

Those would mean something different.

In the original sentence:

• μπορώ να δοκιμάσω = I can try

If you say:

• μπορούσα να δοκιμάσω = I could try / I was able to try
• θα μπορούσα να δοκιμάσω = I could try / I would be able to try

So the original sentence reports what the employee said was possible now: I can try another size.

If you changed the form, you would change the meaning or tone:

• θα μπορούσα να δοκιμάσω... often sounds more polite or tentative
• μπορούσα... usually shifts things into a past or more contextual meaning

In natural speech, μού είπε or μου είπε is often pronounced very smoothly, almost as one unit.

A rough guide:

• μου sounds like moo
• είπε sounds roughly like EE-pe

So together:

• μου είπε ≈ moo EE-pe

Also, Greek rhythm tends to keep unstressed pronouns like μου very light unless they are emphasized.

So in fast speech, learners may hear something like:

• mu 'ipe

That is normal.