Greek grammar A1: beginner

At level A1, you learn the grammar you need for your first conversations in Greek. You introduce yourself, describe people and things, say what happened and make plans.

By the end of level A1, you will be able to:

• say who you are and where you are from, with είμαι: Είμαι από την Αγγλία. (“I am from England.”);
• say what you do, with the present (present simple) of verbs in -ω, -άω, -ώ and -μαι: Δουλεύω στην Αθήνα. (“I work in Athens.”, “I am working in Athens.”);
• usually leave out the subject pronoun, since the ending of the verb shows the person: Μένουμε εδώ. (“We live here.”);
• tell the gender, the number and the case of a noun from the article before it;
• name people and things, with the article: ο άντρας (“the man”), η γυναίκα (“the woman”), το παιδί (“the child”);
• say who does what, with the nominative and the accusative: Βλέπω τον Νίκο. (“I see Nikos.”);
• call someone, with the vocative: Γεια σου, Νίκο! (“Hi, Nikos!”);
• describe and compare people and things, with adjectives that agree with the noun and πιο … από: Η πόλη μας είναι πιο ήσυχη από την Αθήνα. (“Our town is quieter than Athens.”);
• talk about people and things without naming them again, with the pronouns. A weak object pronoun is placed before the verb: Τον ξέρω. (“I know him.”);
• say whose something is, with μου, σου, του and της after the noun: το σπίτι μου (“my house”);
• count, tell the time and say when: Το λεωφορείο έρχεται στις τρεις παρά είκοσι. (“The bus comes at twenty to three.”);
• ask questions and say what is not so, with question words, δεν and μην: Δεν καταλαβαίνω. (“I don't understand.”);
• say what happened, with the simple past (past simple) of active verbs: Χθες δούλεψα πολύ. (“I worked a lot yesterday.”);
• say what you will do, with θα and the simple future (will): Αύριο θα πάω στη θάλασσα. (“Tomorrow I will go to the sea.”);
• say what you want or can do, with να and the να-form, since Greek has no infinitive: Θέλω να φύγω. (“I want to leave.”);
• say what you want someone else to do, with να and a verb in that person: Θέλω να έρθεις. (“I want you to come.”);
• tell people what to do, with the simple imperative (imperative): Έλα εδώ! (“Come here!”);
• join sentences, with και, αλλά, γιατί, όταν and ότι;
• write every word of two syllables or more with its accent mark (and the question words πού and πώς);
• end a question with ;: Πού μένεις; (“Where do you live?”).