αυτός
“αυτός” (aftós) — he in Greek. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. av before the k sound reads af. Gender follows the noun, not the person: coffee (o kafés, masculine) is aftós, a door (i pórta) is aftí, a house (to spíti) is aftó. In a live sentence: “Αυτός είναι ο φίλος μου” — He is my friend. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters α, υ, τ. One of 26 words in the set “pronouns” in the Greek course.
In short
| Written in Greek | αυτός |
| Read in Latin letters | aftós |
| Translation | he |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
- αυτόςaftóshe
Why it looks that way
av before the k sound reads af. Gender follows the noun, not the person: coffee (o kafés, masculine) is aftós, a door (i pórta) is aftí, a house (to spíti) is aftó
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Αυτός είναι ο φίλος μουaftós íne o fílos muHe is my friend
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- εγώegóIalmost always dropped in speech — the verb ending already shows the person. Egó appears only for contrast: as in 'well, I for one...'
- εσύesíyoufor friends, peers and children; a stranger gets esís. Like egó, it usually stays out of the sentence
- εσείςesísyou (plural)one word for the polite 'you' and for several people. Here ei is the ordinary ee sound
- εμείςemíswethe partner of egó. Its verbs end in -oume: ménume — we stay, pínume — we drink
- αυτοίaftítheythe plural of aftós; the final oi reads ee. For women it is aftés
- μουmumyplaced after the word and never changes: to spíti mu — my house, literally the house my
- σουsuyourthe same scheme as mu: it follows the word and stays unchanged
- μαςmasourthe same little word also means 'to us' — the slot in the phrase tells you which
- σαςsasyour (plural)both 'your' for several owners and the polite 'your' for one person addressed formally
- του, της, τουςtu, tis, tushis, her, theirthree forms agreeing with the owner in gender and number, not with the thing owned
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “he” in Greek?
av before the k sound reads af. Gender follows the noun, not the person: coffee (o kafés, masculine) is aftós, a door (i pórta) is aftí, a house (to spíti) is aftó
- How do you say “your” in Greek?
the same scheme as mu: it follows the word and stays unchanged
- How do you say “you (plural)” in Greek?
one word for the polite 'you' and for several people. Here ei is the ordinary ee sound
- How do you say “his, her, their” in Greek?
three forms agreeing with the owner in gender and number, not with the thing owned
- How do you say “my” in Greek?
placed after the word and never changes: to spíti mu — my house, literally the house my
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “he” in Greek?
«αυτός», read “aftós”. In a live sentence: “Αυτός είναι ο φίλος μου” — He is my friend. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters α, υ, τ.
How is “αυτός” written in Latin letters?
aftós. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
av before the k sound reads af. Gender follows the noun, not the person: coffee (o kafés, masculine) is aftós, a door (i pórta) is aftí, a house (to spíti) is aftó. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.