Όταν φορτώνω πολλά πράγματα μόνος μου, στο τέλος με πονάει και η πλάτη και ο σβέρκος.

me

Breakdown of Όταν φορτώνω πολλά πράγματα μόνος μου, στο τέλος με πονάει και η πλάτη και ο σβέρκος.

• με: me
• μόνος: alone
• πολύς: many

Questions & Answers about Όταν φορτώνω πολλά πράγματα μόνος μου, στο τέλος με πονάει και η πλάτη και ο σβέρκος.

Why does the sentence begin with Όταν? Does it mean when or whenever?

Here Όταν means when/whenever and introduces a time clause.

In this sentence, Όταν φορτώνω πολλά πράγματα μόνος μου means something like:

• When I load/carry a lot of things by myself
• or more naturally in English, Whenever I load a lot of things by myself

Greek όταν often covers both ideas, and English chooses when or whenever depending on context.

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A useful pattern is:

• Όταν + present, present
  = a habitual/general situation

So this sentence describes something that happens regularly, not one single event.

Why is φορτώνω in the present tense?

Because the sentence describes a repeated or typical situation, not a one-time event.

φορτώνω = I load / I am loading

In English, for general habits we often use the simple present:

• When I load a lot of things by myself, ...

Greek does the same here. The present tense after όταν is very common when talking about something that generally happens.

If the speaker were talking about one specific past event, the tense would be different.

What exactly does φορτώνω mean here?