Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο.

Το is the neuter singular definite article, meaning the. So το πορτρέτο means the portrait.

In Greek, you normally use the article with a specific noun like this. So Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο is the natural full sentence for The portrait is beautiful.

Πορτρέτο is a neuter noun. You can tell that here from the article το, which is the neuter form of the.

Greek nouns have grammatical gender, so learners need to notice not just the noun itself, but also the article that goes with it:

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

Here, το πορτρέτο shows that πορτρέτο is neuter.

Because the adjective has to agree with the noun.

Since πορτρέτο is neuter singular, the adjective also appears in the neuter singular form:

• masculine: όμορφος
• feminine: όμορφη
• neuter: όμορφο

So:

• Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο.
• Η εικόνα είναι όμορφη.
• Ο πίνακας είναι όμορφος.

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

In this sentence, it means is:

• Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο = The portrait is beautiful

A useful thing to remember is that είναι is used for both:

• he/she/it is
• they are

So the form stays the same, and the subject tells you whether it is singular or plural.

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

The adjective όμορφο is also in the nominative because it is describing the subject after είναι.

So grammatically, the structure is:

• Το πορτρέτο = subject, nominative
• είναι = verb
• όμορφο = predicate adjective, agreeing with the subject

In a normal sentence like this, no—you normally keep it.

Greek usually says:

• Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο.

Leaving out είναι would sound incomplete in standard speech, unless you are using a very short caption, note, or special stylistic phrasing.

So for learners, the safe rule is: keep the verb.

A rough pronunciation is:

to por-TRE-to EE-ne O-mor-fo

The accent marks show which syllable gets the stress:

• πορτρέτο → stress on τρέ
• είναι → stress on εί
• όμορφο → stress on ό

So the stressed syllables are very important in Greek pronunciation.

Yes, Greek word order is more flexible than English, but the sentence as given is the most neutral and straightforward:

Το πορτρέτο είναι όμορφο.

If you change the order, you often change the emphasis. For example:

• Όμορφο είναι το πορτρέτο. = more emphasis on beautiful
• Είναι όμορφο το πορτρέτο. = possible in context, often a bit more conversational or marked

For a beginner, the original order is the best one to use first.

You would change the article, the noun, and the adjective:

Τα πορτρέτα είναι όμορφα. = The portraits are beautiful.

Notice the changes:

• το → τα
• πορτρέτο → πορτρέτα
• όμορφο → όμορφα

But the verb stays the same:

• singular: είναι
• plural: είναι