Ο προπονητής λέει ότι κάθε πάσα και κάθε ντρίμπλα είναι σημαντική.

Ο is the masculine singular nominative definite article, so ο προπονητής means the coach.

Greek uses the definite article much more often than English, especially with subjects. So a sentence like Ο προπονητής λέει... sounds very natural in Greek.

Προπονητής is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case. It is the subject of λέει.

Its basic meaning is coach or trainer, depending on context. The ending -τής is a very common masculine noun ending in Greek.

Λέει is the 3rd person singular present form of λέω, which means to say or to tell.

So ο προπονητής λέει means the coach says or, depending on context, the coach is saying.

This is the normal modern form. A learner may also see the more formal/older-looking λέγει, but λέει is the everyday form.

Ότι introduces a clause after a verb of saying, thinking, knowing, etc. In this sentence, it means that:

Ο προπονητής λέει ότι... = The coach says that...

A very common alternative is πως:

Ο προπονητής λέει πως...

Both are fine here.

Also, do not confuse ότι with ό,τι.

• ότι = that
• ό,τι = whatever / anything that

Κάθε means every or each, and it is followed by a singular noun:

• κάθε πάσα = every pass
• κάθε ντρίμπλα = every dribble

That is why the nouns are singular, even though the meaning is general.

Another useful point: κάθε does not change form for gender or case. It stays κάθε.

Because κάθε already functions as the determiner. In Greek, you normally say:

• κάθε πάσα
• κάθε ντρίμπλα

not κάθε η πάσα or κάθε η ντρίμπλα.

So the lack of an article here is exactly what you should expect after κάθε.

Repeating κάθε makes the distributive meaning clear: every pass and every dribble.

Greek normally prefers the repetition here. It shows that the speaker is talking about both items individually, not just mentioning two nouns in a loose list.

So κάθε πάσα και κάθε ντρίμπλα is the natural way to say it.

They are common sports words in Modern Greek, and both are loanwords.

• πάσα = pass
• ντρίμπλα = dribble

In Greek, many nouns ending in -α are treated as feminine, so these are feminine nouns:

• η πάσα
• η ντρίμπλα

That helps explain why the adjective later is feminine too.

Because κάθε πάσα και κάθε ντρίμπλα is a distributive expression: the idea is each pass and each dribble is important.

Greek often uses a singular predicate in this kind of pattern, because the statement applies to each item individually rather than treating them as one ordinary plural group.

That is why the sentence has σημαντική and not σημαντικές.

It also helps that both nouns are feminine singular, so the adjective appears in the feminine singular form.

A useful comparison:

• Κάθε πάσα και κάθε ντρίμπλα είναι σημαντική.
  = each one is important

• Οι πάσες και οι ντρίμπλες είναι σημαντικές.
  = the passes and dribbles are important

Because in Greek, when ότι introduces a content clause after a verb like λέω, you normally do not put a comma before it.

So this is standard:

Ο προπονητής λέει ότι κάθε πάσα και κάθε ντρίμπλα είναι σημαντική.

The same is usually true with πως in the same kind of sentence.

At the beginning of a Greek word, ντ is usually pronounced like English d.

So ντρίμπλα is pronounced roughly like DRIB-la, with a Greek r sound.

This spelling is common in Greek for words that contain an English d sound.