Word Classes

There are 10 word classes in Greek, which are listed below into two groups. These groups are called variable and invariable word classes. The variable word classes either decline or conjugate while the invariable word classes are always the same form.

CASE, GENDER & NUMBER

All the variable word classes above-with the exception of verbs-decline according to case, gender and number.

There are three genders in Modern Greek.  They are Masculine, Feminine and Neuter.  They are grammatical genders rather than biological genders.

There are two numbers in Modern Greek – singular and plural.  Cases show the function of the nouns (pronoun or adjective) in a sentence. Each case has, more or less, its own specific jobs.  The cases of Modern Greek are nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative cases.

In Modern Greek, nouns modifying a collective numeral and other words indicating measure, quantity and the like occur in the same case as the noun they modify.

DEFINITION OF CASES

Nominative Case

This case of the grammatical subject, in a sentence, of the adjective and noun predicated (subjective complement), and of the modifiers and appositions.

            Ο μπαμπάς έρχεται. Father is coming (subject)
            Ο Μάρκος είναι όμορφος. Mark is handsome. (predicate, adjective)
            Η Μαρία γίνεται ιατρός. Maria’s becoming a doctor. (predicate)
            Η μικρή μου αδελφή έχει τώρα δουλειά. My young sister has a job now. (modifier of subject)
            Τα Ισπανικά είναι μιά σεξουαλική γλώσσα. Spanish is a sexual language. (modifier of predicate)
            Ο Άρης, ο πλανήτης, είναι γείτονάς μας. Mars, the planet, is our neighbour. (appositive)

Genitive Case

1) The genitive or the possessive case is used to indicate the indirect object of a verb, the object or complement of certain prepositions, adverbs of exclamatory words and their modifiers and appositives.

            Έδωσα της Μαρίας τη τσάντα. I gave Maria the bag. (indirect object)
            Αντί του προέδρου, μίλησε ο αντιπρόεδρος. Instead of the president, he spoke to the vice-president. (object of a preposition)
            Μπράβο του! Good for him! (complement of an exclamatory word)
            Ο Γιάννης είπε του Πέτρου, του φίλου του, να τον βοηθήσει. John said to Peter, his friend, to help him. (appositive)

The use of the genitive case to indicate the direct object is limited.  It is frequently substituted by a preposition – usually σε – plus the accusative case, especially in the plural number.

            Έδωσα της μαθήτριάς μου το λεξικο. I gave my student the dictionary
            Έδωσα το λεξικο στις μαθήτριές μου. I gave my students the dictionary

2) The genitive case is mostly used as a modifier of a noun, in other case, to indicate various relationships such as possession, kinship, or affinity, origin, measure, age, value, contents, identity, cause etc.

It may also indicate the subject or the object of the action expressed by the modified verbal noun.

            Το αυτοκίνητο του παιδιού. The child’s car.
            H δοuλειά του ιατρού. The doctor’s job.
            το μαχαίρι του κρεοπώλη. The butcher’s knife.
            Σακος τριών κιλών. Three kilo bag.
            Παραμονή Χριστουγέννων. Christmas Eve.

The genitive case of nouns may also modify an adjective, mostly a nominalised adjective.

            Υπεύθυνος του δυστυχήματος. Responsible for the accident.

This case tells you to whom does something belong or whose is it.  It also tells one what something is apart of.   For example, «Το Πούρο του γερού.» (The cigar of the old man), «Η Σελίδα του βιβλίου.» (the pages of the book).  In other words, the cigar belongs to the old man and the page is a part of the book.  In ancient Greek the dative case existed.  This fell out of use and the genitive case replaced it.  Two example of this usage is: «Αγοράζω την κούκλα της Μαρίας» (I may buying the doll for Maria) and «Δίνεις το κρασί του ανθρώπου;» (Can you give the wine to the man).  The doll was FOR Maria and the wine was given TO the man.  In both these cases, the mean of the genitive case may be mistaken as the original meaning of the case.  To avoid this ambiguity, σε is used with the accusative case, when the translation is to plus the object; as it is with the third example.  If the translation is for plus the object, as it is with the fourth example, the preposition used is για.  This preposition directly translates to for.  The examples above could be «Αγοράζω την κούκλα για την Μαρία» and «Δίνεις το κρασί στον άνθρωπο.»

Accusative Case

1) The accusative case (or objective case) is used to indicate the direct object of a verb, the objective complement, the complement of certain exclamatory words and their modifiers and appositives.

            Η γιαγιά αγώρασε τη σοκολάτα. Grandmother bought the chocolate. (Direct object)
            Έβγαλαν τον Πέτρο πρόεδρο. They elected Peter president. (Objective compliment)
            Ήρθα από την Ρώμη. I came from Rome. (Object of preposition)
            Νά με! (Here me) Here I am. (Complement of the demonstrative particle νά)
            Είδα τον γαλατά, τον Ανδρέα. I saw the milkman, Andrew. (Appositive)

The accusative may also indicate the indirect object after certain verbs.

            Σας μαθαίνω ελληνικά. I am teaching you Greek.

2) The accusative case may also be used adverbially to indicate various relationships, such as time, place, measure, quantity, value, purpose etc.

            Σε περιμένω τρεις ώρες. I have been waiting three hours.
            Πήγε πανεπιστήμιο η γιαγιά. Grandmother went to university.

Vocative Case

The vocative case is used to indicate direct address or call in speech and writing.  Appositives also occur in the vocative case.  It requires no articles (ο, ένας etc).

            Ξάδελφε, τρεξε στη μαμά σου. Cousin, run to your mum!.

It is used for the object of the verb "to be called."

            Με λένε Πέτρος. I am called Peter.

GENDER

Modern Greek differentiates between three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. This classification is purely grammatical and does not correspond to any semantic categories.  In general, nouns which denote the male sex belong to the masculine gender.  For example, ο πατέρας (father), ο ανιψιός (nephew), and ο ταύρος (bull).  Nouns, which denote the female sex belong to the feminine gender.  For example, η μητέρα (mother), η αδελφή (sister), and η αγελάδα (cow).  Other nouns mainly inanimate, belong to the neuter gender.  For example, το τραπέζι (table), το φαρμακείο (pharmacy), and το κράτος (state).  However, many inanimate nouns belong also to the masculine or the feminine gender, while some animate nouns, especially certain diminutives, belong to the neuter gender.  For example, ο τοίχος (wall) and ο κανόνας (rule) are masculine; η εικόνα (picture) and η φωνή (voice) are feminine; but το αγόρι (boy), το κορίτσι (girl) and το γαταάκι (kitten) are neuter.

The grammatical gender of an inflected word is usually determined by its characteristic singular ending, especially the nominative singular.  For example, ο νικητής (winner; masculine), η φωνή (voice; feminine), το χαρτί (paper; feminine), ο κανόνας (rule, masculine).

NUMBER

Only two numbers exist in Modern Greek. These are the singular and plural numbers. Sometimes choosing which number is very tricky. For example, «Νερό» (water) has a plural form. If one talks about a huge quantity of water, like in the ocean, then it will still be in the singular number, though if one talks about huge quantities of water, which are stored in separate contains, like bottles, then it will be plural.

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