Learn Hardcore Greek: Ο νονός είπε ότι θέλει να βαφτίσει το παιδί το πρωί και μετά να πάμε όλοι για φαγητό. - The godfather said that he wants to baptize the child in the morning and then for all of us to go eat.

Word

Ο νονός είπε ότι θέλει να βαφτίσει το παιδί το πρωί και μετά να πάμε όλοι για φαγητό.

Meaning

The godfather said that he wants to baptize the child in the morning and then for all of us to go eat.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of Ο νονός είπε ότι θέλει να βαφτίσει το παιδί το πρωί και μετά να πάμε όλοι για φαγητό.

What does Ο νονός mean, and why is there an article?

Ο νονός means the godfather.

Greek uses the definite article very often, so ο νονός is the normal way to say the godfather.

Why is it είπε but then θέλει? Shouldn’t both be in the past?

Not necessarily. Greek often does not backshift tenses the way English does.

So Greek can say:

In natural English, we often translate that as:

So είπε is past because the act of saying happened in the past, while θέλει stays present because it reflects what he said he wants.

What does ότι mean here?

Here ότι means that and introduces reported speech or a content clause:

A useful extra note: ότι can often be replaced by πως in this kind of sentence:

Both are natural.

Is ότι the same as ?