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Learn Hardcore Greek: Η βάρκα είναι μικρή. - The boat is small.

Hardcore Greek
/Mending clothes at home
/Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

Word

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

Meaning

The boat is small.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Mending clothes at home

Breakdown of Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

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Questions & Answers about Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

Is the first word Η the same as the English letter H?

No. Η here is the Greek capital letter eta, not the English H.

In Modern Greek, Η / η is pronounced ee /i/.
So Η βάρκα is pronounced roughly ee VAR-ka.
English speakers often misread it as H, but in this sentence it is just the feminine singular definite article: the.

How do you pronounce the whole sentence?

A natural pronunciation is:

ee VAR-ka EE-ne mee-KREE

More closely:

Η = /i/
βάρκα = /ˈvarka/
είναι = /ˈine/
μικρή = /miˈkri/

A few useful notes:

β in Modern Greek sounds like v, not English b.
ρ is a rolled or tapped r.
The stress marks show which syllable gets the emphasis.

What does η do here?

η is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

η βάρκα = the boat

If you wanted a boat, you would usually say:

μια βάρκα = a boat

In this sentence, η is there because the noun is:

singular
feminine
definite

Why is βάρκα feminine? Boats are not female.

Because Greek nouns have grammatical gender, and that does not have to match real-life sex.

So βάρκα is grammatically feminine simply because that is how the noun behaves in Greek.

You can often recognize feminine nouns by endings like:

-α
-η

Since βάρκα is feminine singular, the article is η and the adjective also has to be feminine singular:

η βάρκα είναι μικρή

What exactly is είναι?

είναι is the verb to be in the present tense.

Here it means is:

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή. = The boat is small.

A useful thing to know:

είναι is used for both he/she/it is and they are

Examples:

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή. = The boat is small.
Οι βάρκες είναι μικρές. = The boats are small.

So Greek does not change this form between 3rd person singular and plural.

Why does μικρή end in -ή?

Because the adjective must agree with βάρκα.

Since βάρκα is:

feminine
singular
nominative

the adjective also appears in the feminine singular nominative form:

μικρή = small for a feminine singular noun

Compare:

μικρός = masculine singular
μικρή = feminine singular
μικρό = neuter singular

So:

ο κήπος είναι μικρός = the garden is small
η βάρκα είναι μικρή = the boat is small
το σπίτι είναι μικρό = the house is small

What case are the words in?

Both η βάρκα and μικρή are in the nominative.

Why?

βάρκα is the subject of the sentence, so it is nominative.
After είναι, the predicate adjective also agrees with the subject, so it is nominative too.

So the full grammar is:

η = feminine singular nominative article
βάρκα = feminine singular nominative noun
μικρή = feminine singular nominative adjective

Why is the adjective not directly before the noun?

Because this sentence is using small as a predicate adjective, not as an adjective inside the noun phrase.

Compare:

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή. = The boat is small.
Η μικρή βάρκα. = The small boat.

So:

η βάρκα = the boat
είναι = is
μικρή = small

In the sentence you gave, Greek is following the same basic idea as English:

subject + is + adjective

Can the word order change?

Yes. Greek word order is more flexible than English, although Η βάρκα είναι μικρή is the most neutral and standard order.

You may also hear:

Μικρή είναι η βάρκα.

That can sound more emphatic, something like:

The boat is small
or It’s the boat that is small

But for a learner, the safest default is:

Η βάρκα είναι μικρή.

What do the accent marks mean in βάρκα, είναι, and μικρή?

The accent marks show which syllable is stressed.

βάρκα → stress on βάρ-
είναι → stress on εί-
μικρή → stress on -κρή

This is important because stress matters in Greek pronunciation.

Notice that η has no accent mark here because it is a monosyllabic unstressed article.

Why is there no separate word for it?

Because Greek does not need a dummy subject like English it in a sentence like this.

English says:

It is small
The boat is small

Greek can simply say:

Είναι μικρή. = It is small / She is small (depending on context)
Η βάρκα είναι μικρή. = The boat is small

Once the subject is stated, Greek does not need an extra it.

How would this change in the plural?

You would make the article, noun, and adjective plural:

Οι βάρκες είναι μικρές. = The boats are small.

Changes:

Η → Οι
βάρκα → βάρκες
μικρή → μικρές
είναι stays the same

This is a good example of agreement in Greek:

article + noun + adjective all change together
the verb είναι does not change here

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