Το κοινό χειροκροτεί.

Το is the definite article in Greek, meaning the.

In Το κοινό χειροκροτεί, το κοινό means the audience.

Greek articles change for gender, number, and case, so το is the form used here because κοινό is neuter singular in this sentence.

Because Greek, like English, can treat audience as a collective singular noun.

So το κοινό is grammatically singular, even though it refers to many people. That is why the verb is also singular:

• το κοινό = the audience
• χειροκροτεί = applauds / is applauding for he/she/it

So the sentence is structured as:

• subject: το κοινό
• verb: χειροκροτεί

It is originally very commonly an adjective meaning things like common, shared, or public, depending on context.

But in this sentence, το κοινό is being used as a noun, meaning the public or the audience.

This is very common in Greek: an adjective can become a noun when used with the article.

For example:

• κοινός / κοινή / κοινό = common
• το κοινό = the public / the audience

So here it is best learned as a set phrase: το κοινό = the audience.

Χειροκροτεί is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb χειροκροτώ, which means to applaud or to clap.

So:

• εγώ χειροκροτώ = I applaud
• εσύ χειροκροτείς = you applaud
• αυτός/αυτή/αυτό χειροκροτεί = he/she/it applauds

Since το κοινό is singular, Greek uses χειροκροτεί.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The Greek present tense often covers both:

• The audience applauds
• The audience is applauding

Greek does not always separate simple present and present continuous the way English does. Context tells you which one is more natural.

A rough pronunciation is:

to kee-NO hee-ro-kro-TEE

A few helpful notes:

• το = to
• κοινό sounds roughly like kee-NO
• χειροκροτεί sounds roughly like hee-ro-kro-TEE

The stressed syllables are:

• κοινό
• χειροκροτεί

Those written accent marks are important in Greek and show you where the stress goes.

In Modern Greek, the accent mark shows which syllable is stressed.

So:

• κοινό → stress on the last syllable
• χειροκροτεί → stress on the last syllable

Stress matters in Greek pronunciation and is always worth paying attention to when learning new words.

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

The neutral, standard order here is:

• Το κοινό χειροκροτεί.

But Greek can change word order for emphasis. For example, you might also see:

• Χειροκροτεί το κοινό.

That could sound more marked or context-driven, something like The audience is applauding with a different focus.

For a beginner, though, Το κοινό χειροκροτεί is the safest and most natural pattern to learn.

Yes. That is a very common alternative in Modern Greek.

The verb χειροκροτώ can appear as:

• χειροκροτεί
• χειροκροτάει

Both mean the same thing here: applauds / is applauding.

In many verbs of this type, Greek has both a shorter and a fuller present-tense form. For learners, it is useful to recognize both.

So both of these are natural:

• Το κοινό χειροκροτεί.
• Το κοινό χειροκροτάει.

It can do both.

It can be used intransitively:

• Το κοινό χειροκροτεί.
• The audience is applauding.

And it can also take an object:

• Το κοινό χειροκροτεί τον καλλιτέχνη.
• The audience applauds the performer.

So in your sentence, no object is needed. The meaning is complete as it stands.

Normally, you need the article: το κοινό.

Greek uses the definite article much more regularly than English in many situations, and το κοινό is the normal way to say the audience or the public.

Without the article, κοινό would not sound natural here.

So the standard sentence is:

• Το κοινό χειροκροτεί.

not

• Κοινό χειροκροτεί.

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

So:

• το κοινό = nominative singular
• χειροκροτεί = verb agreeing with that singular subject

A simple way to think about it is: this is the thing doing the action.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In a performance setting, το κοινό is usually best translated as the audience.

In a broader context, it can also mean the public.

So in this sentence, if the situation is a concert, play, speech, or show, the audience is the most natural English meaning.