Αν αργήσει ο διανομέας, μπορεί να μην προλάβω να πάρω το πακέτο σήμερα.

If the delivery man is late, I may not manage to pick up the package today.

Breakdown of Αν αργήσει ο διανομέας, μπορεί να μην προλάβω να πάρω το πακέτο σήμερα.

• μπορώ: to be able
• να: to
• σήμερα: today
• μην: not

Questions & Answers about Αν αργήσει ο διανομέας, μπορεί να μην προλάβω να πάρω το πακέτο σήμερα.

Why is it Αν αργήσει ο διανομέας and not αν αργεί ο διανομέας?

Because Greek is treating this as a single future possibility: if the delivery person is late on this particular occasion.

• αργήσει is the perfective non-past form of αργώ
• after αν, Greek often uses this form for a future/open condition
• it suggests one complete event: the courier ends up being late

By contrast, αν αργεί would sound more like:

• if he is being late / if he tends to be late
• a more ongoing, habitual, or less event-focused idea

So in this sentence, αν αργήσει is the natural choice because we are talking about today’s delivery, not a general habit.

Is αργήσει a future tense?

Not exactly.

It has a future meaning in context, but grammatically it is not the ordinary future with θα. It is the perfective non-past form, used after words like αν and να.

So:

• θα αργήσει = he will be late
• αν αργήσει = if he is late / if he ends up being late

English often uses a present tense after if, and Greek uses this special dependent form instead.

Why is the subject ο διανομέας after the verb?