Greek grammar
Greek grammar explained in plain words. Half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing. What is harder: familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive.
Notes
- 📐The article of three genders: ο, η, τοGreek puts a little word in front of the noun and rarely lets it go — the article, which names the gender outright: ο…
- 📐Four cases, and three of them do the workGreek has four cases left: nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative. There is no dative at all — its job was taken…
- 📐The vocative: how to call out to someoneThe fourth case is the vocative, and it is alive: it calls rather than describes. Names in -ος change their ending…
- 📐The stress mark is a letter of the spellingThe dash over a vowel in Greek is not a learner's hint; it is an obligatory part of the written word. A word longer…
- 📐The verb "to be": είμαιThe linking verb is obligatory where English does without it: Greek has no "I tired" — only είμαι κουρασμένος, with the…
- 📐Present tense: two conjugationsThere are only two conjugations, and they differ by where the stress sits. First: stress on the stem — μέν-ω, μέν-εις…
- 📐Two "not"s: δεν and μηνNegation is a separate word in front of the verb, not a prefix: δεν καταλαβαίνω — "I don't understand". But there are…
- 📐The little pronouns: μου, σου, τουGreek keeps two sets of short pronouns, and neither sits where an English eye expects it.
- 📐No infinitive: the να constructionGreek lost the infinitive completely — a form meaning "to do", "to drink", "to go" does not exist. Where English lines…
- 📐The aorist: the past in one pieceThe main past tense of Greek is the aorist: an action taken whole, with no attention to how long it lasted. English…
- 📐The future: one word, θαThe future is the easiest corner of Greek grammar. The particle θα goes in front of the verb, and that is all: θα πάω…
- 📐Dimotiki and katharevousa: two languages in oneUntil 1976 Greece had two written languages at once. Dimotiki — the living speech of the people; katharevousa — an…
- 📐Comparison: πιο φτηνό από αυτόThe comparative in Greek is assembled from three bricks, exactly like "more expensive than" in English: πιο (more)…
- 📐Three declension patterns: δρόμος, πόρτα, σπίτιYou already know the article — it shows gender and case. Now the word itself changes together with it, and there are…
- 📐What hurts: με πονάει το κεφάλι"My head hurts" turns around in Greek: the aching thing is the subject, and the person stands aside in the accusative.…
- 📐The second past: έβρεχε against έβρεξεYou know the aorist: it takes the action whole. Beside it lives the imperfect — the past of what stretched on, repeated…
- 📐Request and command: γράψε, γράψτε, μην γράφειςThe Greek imperative comes in two storeys: one form for "you" (one person), another for "you" (several people). The…
- 📐Prepositions and the fused article: στο, στη, στονModern Greek has few prepositions, and all of them demand the accusative — no exceptions. This is one of the easiest…
- 📐There is and there isn't: υπάρχει, έχει, δεν υπάρχειEnglish "there is" is said in Greek two ways, and both are needed.
- 📐Adjectives agree: μαύρος, μαύρη, μαύροA Greek adjective changes together with its noun — by gender, number and case. There are three patterns, and the first…
- 📐Verbs in -ομαι: χαίρομαι, φοβάμαι, βαριέμαιA Greek verb has two sets of endings. You know the first: -ω, -εις, -ει. The second — in -ομαι — does three different…
- 📐Must, can, must not: πρέπει, μπορώ, απαγορεύεταιObligation in Greek is built impersonally: πρέπει να never changes, and who must is shown by the verb after να. Πρέπει…
- 📐The one word for "which": πουEnglish "which/who/that" is already invariable — but Greek που goes further still: it never changes and never moves.…
- 📐Questions: ποιος, πού, πότε, πώς, γιατίThe first thing to know about the Greek question: the words do not move. Έχεις σήμα. — you have signal, Έχεις σήμα…
- 📐My: το σπίτι μου και το δικό μου σπίτιThe ordinary "my" in Greek is a short unstressed word, and it stands after the noun, while the article stays in place…
- 📐Ordinals and dates: πρώτος, στις τρεις ΜαρτίουAn ordinal in Greek is an ordinary adjective in -ος, -η, -ο, and it behaves like any other: ο πρώτος όροφος, η πρώτη…
- 📐When and if: όταν, ενώ, πριν, αφού, ανTime clauses are opened by όταν (when), μόλις (as soon as), ενώ (while), πριν (before), αφού (after). Condition — αν…
- 📐The perfect: έχω περάσει τις εξετάσειςBeside the aorist Greek has the perfect — "έχω" plus an unchanging verb form: έχω γράψει, έχω πάει, έχω δει. It answers…
- 📐The passive voice: ο λογαριασμός πληρώθηκεPaper Greek — banking, tax, bureaucratic — stands on the passive voice. You already know its present: these are the…
- 📐Other people's words: είπε ότι, ρώτησε αν, μου είπε ναReporting speech is easier in Greek than in English — and for once English is the one paying: the tense in the clause…
- 📐ότι, να or που: what joins whatOne little word of English — "that", or its silent partners — covers several different jobs, and Greek keeps them…
- 📐Where the pronoun stands: μου το έδωσε, δώσε μου τοYou know the forms μου, σου, του, το, τα. Harder than the forms is their seat: Greek puts them where English does not…
- 📐Adverbs from adjectives: γρήγορος → γρήγοραGreek makes an adverb from an adjective in one move: take the neuter plural form, that is, the ending -α. γρήγορος →…
- 📐Someone, no one, nothing: κάποιος, κανένας, τίποταThe indefinite and the negative in Greek go in pairs, and each pair is one word holding two jobs.
- 📐The numbers that decline: ένας, τρεις, τέσσεριςGood news: of all the Greek numerals exactly four change by gender and case. All the rest — δύο, πέντε, δέκα, είκοσι…
- 📐να γράφω or να γράψω: the aspect after "να"You know the να construction: it replaces the to-form Greek does not have. Now for the choice it demands every time.
- 📐The hinges of speech: όμως, ωστόσο, δηλαδή, λοιπόνWords that mean little by themselves and hold the thought together. You cannot learn them from a dictionary one by one…
- 📐How words are made: -ση, -τής, -ικόςHalf of the unfamiliar Greek words need not be memorized — they can be taken apart: a known root plus a suffix with a…
- 📐Like, miss, interest: μου αρέσειA whole row of Greek verbs of feeling is built inside out: the one who feels stands aside, and the thing causing the…
- 📐How much of what: ένα κιλό ντομάτεςThe measure and the measured stand in Greek side by side, with no preposition and no genitive: ένα κιλό ντομάτες, δύο…
- 📐The diminutive in -άκι: not only about sizeThe suffix -άκι turns any noun into a small neuter one: το σπίτι → το σπιτάκι, ο καφές → το καφεδάκι, η ώρα → το ωράκι.…
- 📐If: three different "ifs" and three different answersCondition in Greek is built in three ways, and what chooses between them is not the time but how true it is.
- 📐Verbs without a subject: βρέχει, χιονίζει, νυχτώνειGreek speaks of the weather with verbs that have no subject at all. Not "the rain is falling" but simply βρέχει — one…
- 📐Exactly where: μπροστά από, δίπλα σε, γύρω απόThe plain σε answers only "whereabouts". An exact position is assembled from two words: an adverb plus από or σε, and…
- 📐The -οντας participle: μαθαίνοντας, διαβάζονταςTo say "doing something", Greek takes the present stem and adds -οντας: διαβάζω → διαβάζοντας, μαθαίνω → μαθαίνοντας…
- 📐Words that decline differently: η πόλη, το μέροςThe three patterns of the first wave cover most words, but not all. The remainder is small and very frequent, so it is…
- 📐Politeness through the past: θα ήθελα, θα μπορούσατεA direct request in Greek sounds harsher than its words. What softens it is not "please" but the shape of the verb: the…
- 📐The gender of professions: ο δάσκαλος, η δασκάλα, ο και η γιατρόςMost profession names in Greek have two forms, and the choice is made by the person, not by courtesy. Ο δάσκαλος — a…
- 📐Fractions, multiples and percents: τα δύο τρίτα, διπλάσιος, τοις εκατόHalf — το μισό — is an adjective: μισό κιλό, μισή ώρα, μισός μισθός. As a word of its own it takes the neuter article…
- 📐They say that: λένε ότι, λέγεται ότι, θεωρείταιWhen the source goes unnamed, Greek reaches for an impersonal turn. The most conversational — λένε ότι, literally "they…
- 📐Exclaiming and intensifying: τι ωραία, πόσο, τόσο, καθόλουExclamation is built from two different words, and they do not interchange. Τι stands before a noun or an adjective…
- 📐The more, the better: όσο πιο, τόσο πιο, ο πιο, -τατος"The more … the more" is, in Greek, the pair όσο … τόσο: Όσο πιο πολύ προπονείσαι, τόσο πιο γρήγορα τρέχεις. Both…
- 📐What time is it: στις τρεις και μισή, παρά τέταρτοThe hour in Greek is feminine, because behind it stands the understood word η ώρα. Hence η μία, οι δύο, οι τρεις — a…
- 📐Oneself and each other: πλένομαι, ο εαυτός μουReflexivity in Greek is expressed not by a separate word but by the verb form — the very one in -ομαι that you know…
- 📐The genitive: one form, five jobsThe genitive in Greek works harder than the English "of", and its jobs are worth knowing as a list — the form, after…
- 📐Moved to the front: «Το βιβλίο το διάβασα»Word order in Greek is free, and it is rearranged not for beauty but to announce what we are talking about. A word…
- 📐Although and in spite of: αν και, παρόλο που, αςConcession is when one thing hinders another and it happens anyway. Greek builds it in three ways, which do not…
- 📐This and that: αυτός, εκείνος, αυτό εδώGreek has two demonstratives: αυτός — this, the near one, and εκείνος — that, the far one. Both decline like ordinary…
- 📐There and here: πάω, έρχομαι, προς τα πάνωThe pair πάω and έρχομαι differs not by direction in general but by where the speaker stands. Πάω — away from me…
- 📐Roughly so much: καμιά δεκαριά, γύρω σταGreek names an exact number rarely — in speech an approximation sounds almost always, and there are several ways to…
- 📐Begin, keep on, give up: αρχίζω να, σταματάω ναThe verbs of beginning and ending attach the next action through να, and the aspect after να works exactly as you…
- 📐An action as the subject: «Το να μαθαίνεις»Greek has no to-form, and that creates a difficulty exactly where English leans on it: "reading is useful", "it is…
- 📐How long and when: πριν, σε, για, από… ωςTime in Greek splits into four questions, and each has its own preposition.
- 📐Like: σαν, όπως, μοιάζει μεGreek can liken one thing to another in three ways, and they are not to be mixed: each answers a different question.
- 📐The language of instructions: how to read what nobody saysYou already know the two branches of Greek — the living demotic and the bookish katharevousa. Here is how the second…
- 📐How stories are told: the aorist carries the plot, the imperfect the backdropA story in Greek stands on two tenses, and their parts are strictly cast.
- 📐Wishes with να and μακάριA wish in Greek is built with the same να as everything else — and this is perhaps its most frequent use in living…
- 📐Γεια σου and Γεια σας: to friends and to everyone elseThe Greek greeting is the word γεια, "health", and on its own it is incomplete: behind it must come the person you wish…
- 📐Παρακαλώ and τίποτα: two answers to "thank you"To ευχαριστώ a Greek answers with one of two words, and both are correct. The difference is not in politeness but in…
- 📐Καλημέρα and καλησπέρα: where noon runsBoth words are assembled the same way: kalí, "good", fused with the time of day into one word. kalí plus méra gives…
What is hard about Greek and what comes for free
Hard: familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive.
Easy: half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing.
This is not a verdict on the language but a hint on where to spend effort. The hard parts are best taken a little at a time and often; the easy parts — left alone while they work by themselves.
Frequently asked
Is the grammar of Greek complicated?
Familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive is the main difficulty. In return, half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing.
Should grammar be learned separately?
Not as a separate course. A rule learned before you need it is forgotten before you meet it. It is more useful to work it out at the moment you stumble over it.