Το φάντασμα δεν είναι εδώ.

Because φάντασμα is a neuter noun in Greek. The definite article has to match the noun’s gender, number, and case.

So here:

• ο = masculine singular
• η = feminine singular
• το = neuter singular

Since φάντασμα is neuter singular, the correct article is το.

No. In Greek, grammatical gender and real-world sex are not the same thing.

Φάντασμα is simply a noun that happens to be grammatically neuter. That does not necessarily tell you anything about whether the ghost is male, female, or unspecified in the story.

English has very little grammatical gender, so this often feels strange at first.

It is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

A useful thing to know is that for many neuter singular nouns, the nominative and accusative look the same. So το φάντασμα can appear in more than one role, but here it is clearly the subject.

Δεν is the normal Greek word used to make a verb negative.

So:

• είναι = is
• δεν είναι = is not

In Greek, δεν usually goes directly before the verb it negates.

Because that is the normal Greek position for the negative particle: before the finite verb.

So:

• δεν είναι = is not

You would not normally move δεν after the verb. For an English speaker, the easiest rule is:

δεν + verb

Είναι is the present tense form of είμαι, meaning to be.

In this sentence it is the 3rd person singular form, matching το φάντασμα.

A small but important point: Greek verbs do not change for masculine/feminine/neuter. They change for person and number, not for grammatical gender.

Because Greek already has the noun το φάντασμα as the subject, so no extra pronoun is needed.

English could say:

• The ghost is not here.
• It is not here.

Greek works similarly. If you already say το φάντασμα, you do not also need a separate word meaning it.

Εδώ is an adverb, meaning here.

It does not change for gender, number, or case. It stays εδώ no matter what noun or subject is in the sentence.

So it is much more like English here than like an adjective.

Normally, no, not if you mean the ghost in ordinary Greek.

Greek uses the definite article very regularly, so το φάντασμα is the natural way to say the ghost.

If you mean a ghost, you would say:

• ένα φάντασμα

Leaving out the article altogether would usually sound unnatural, poetic, or very context-dependent.

Yes, Greek word order is more flexible than English word order.

The most neutral version here is:

• Το φάντασμα δεν είναι εδώ.

But Greek can also move things around for emphasis, for example:

• Δεν είναι εδώ το φάντασμα.

That can sound more like The ghost isn’t here with extra emphasis on the fact that it is absent.

Even when word order changes, δεν still stays with the verb.

A rough pronunciation is:

to FAN-daz-ma then EE-ne e-THO

A few helpful notes:

• φ sounds like f
• ντ inside a word often sounds like d
• δ sounds like the th in this
• αι in είναι sounds like e
• the stress marks show which syllable is stressed:
  • φΆντασμα
  • Είναι
  • εδΏ

So the main stressed syllables are:

• FAN-daz-ma
• EE-ne
• e-THO