Μην ανησυχείς, αστειεύομαι.

Μην is the negative particle used to make a negative command or negative suggestion in Modern Greek. So μην ανησυχείς means don’t worry.

You will often see μη or μην. Here it is μην because the next word, ανησυχείς, begins with a vowel.

In Modern Greek, negative commands usually are not formed with a separate negative imperative. Instead, Greek uses:

μη(ν) + subjunctive form

So:

• ανησύχησε = worry! / get worried!
• μην ανησυχείς = don’t worry

For learners, the important thing is that μην + verb is the normal way to say don’t ... in Greek.

Ανησυχείς is the 2nd person singular form, so it is speaking to one person informally:

• ανησυχείς = you worry / you are worrying

Greek often leaves out the subject pronoun εσύ because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

If you were speaking to:

• more than one person, or
• one person formally,

you would say μην ανησυχείτε.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Greek.

Μην ανησυχείς uses the imperfective/present form, which sounds natural for a general ongoing idea like:

• don’t worry
• don’t be anxious
• no need to worry

A different form, such as μην ανησυχήσεις, uses the aorist/perfective and can suggest something more like don’t become worried or don’t let yourself get worried.

In this sentence, μην ανησυχείς is the most natural everyday choice.

Not necessarily. Αστειεύομαι means I’m joking / I’m kidding, and here it has an active meaning, even though it uses middle/passive-type endings.

So in this sentence:

• αστειεύομαι = I’m joking

It is just the normal dictionary form of this verb.

Some related forms:

• αστειεύομαι = I’m joking
• αστειεύεσαι = you’re joking
• αστειεύεται = he/she is joking

Greek is a language that often drops subject pronouns when they are obvious from the verb ending.

Here:

• ανησυχείς already tells you you
• αστειεύομαι already tells you I

So Greek does not need to say εσύ or εγώ unless the speaker wants extra emphasis.

For example:

• Εγώ αστειεύομαι can sound more emphatic, like I’m joking.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

meen ah-nee-see-HEES, ah-stee-EV-oh-me

A few details:

• Μην sounds like meen
• ανησυχείς has the stress on the last syllable: ανησυχείς
• αστειεύομαι has the stress on εύ: αστειεύομαι

Also, the χ in ανησυχείς is not like English ch. It is a softer Greek sound, somewhat like the h-like sound in German ich.

The comma separates two short parts of the sentence:

• Μην ανησυχείς = don’t worry
• αστειεύομαι = I’m joking

So the structure is basically:

Don’t worry, I’m joking.

The punctuation works very similarly to English here.