Definiteness
Modern Greek has
The Definite Article
Similar to how English use the definite article “the”, modern Greek has a way to distinguish nouns based on their definiteness.
Declension
English has a single definite article, namely the word “the”. However, the definite article in modern Greek has multiple forms depending on the gender, case and number of the noun in pertains to.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | ο | η | το | οι | τα | |
| Genitive | του | της | του | των | ||
| Accusative | το(ν) | τη(ν) | το | τους | τις | τα |
The accusative masculine and feminine singular of the definite article always end in -ν when the next word starts with a vowel or one of κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ. The final -ν is optional in all other situations. Nevertheless, the full form τον is usually used when the article relates to a proper name such as τον Στέφανο.
Usage
The Indefinite Article
Declension
These are the forms of the indefinite article of modern Greek.
| Singular | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | ένας | μια | ένα |
| Genitive | ενός | μιας | ενός |
| Accusative | ένα(ν) | μια(ν) | ένα |
The feminine singular forms differ only in pronunciation but not in usage or anything else.