LingoflyCalling out to someone: Νίκο!
Greek has a special shape for calling out to a person, and it is alive in daily speech. Names ending in -ος drop that ending: Νίκος (Níkos) becomes Νίκο (Níko)! Γιώργος becomes Γιώργο! For example: “Νίκο (Níko), τι κάνεις;” (ti kánis) — Nikos, how are you? A rule from the Greek course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Greek has a special shape for calling out to a person, and it is alive in daily speech. Names ending in -ος drop that ending: Νίκος (Níkos) becomes Νίκο (Níko)! Γιώργος becomes Γιώργο!
English does the same job with tone alone — "John!". Greek changes the word itself, and the change is not optional. Calling someone by the plain dictionary shape sounds like reading a name off a list.
The word for "the" never comes along: not ο Νίκο (Níko) (o Níko), just Νίκο (Níko). Women's names and most other words keep their usual shape. The only thing to hold is masculine -ος → -ε or -ο (-o).
By example
- Γιατρέ, με ακούτε;yatré, me akúte?Doctor, can you hear me?
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Calling out to someone: how does it work in Greek?
Greek has a special shape for calling out to a person, and it is alive in daily speech. Names ending in -ος drop that ending: Νίκος (Níkos) becomes Νίκο (Níko)! Γιώργος becomes Γιώργο!
What does it look like in a Greek example sentence?
“Νίκο (Níko), τι κάνεις;” (ti kánis) (Níko, ti kánis?) — Nikos, how are you? A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.