Modern Greek grammar


The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elements of Katharevousa, the archaic, learned variety of Greek imitating Classical Greek forms, which used to be the official language of Greece through much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern Greek grammar has preserved many features of Ancient Greek, but has also undergone changes in a similar direction as many other modern Indo-European languages, from more synthetic to more analytic structures.

General characteristics

Syntax

The predominant word order in Greek is SVO, but word order is quite freely variable, with VSO and other orders as frequent alternatives. Within the noun phrase, adjectives commonly precede the noun. Adjectives may also follow the noun when marked for emphasis, as in ένα βιβλίο νέο, 'a new book', instead of the usual order ένα νέο βιβλίο. When, however, the adjective describes an intrinsic characteristic, it often follows the noun. For example, the order γάλα κατσικίσιο 'goat milk', with the neuter form of the adjective κατσικίσιος 'referring or belonging to goats' following the noun, is about equally common as the order κατσικίσιο γάλα. Possessors generally follow the noun. If both an adjective and a possessive occur, the possessive may be placed before the noun: το μεγάλο μου σπίτι ⇔ το μεγάλο σπίτι μου, 'my big house'. Some other alternative constructions involving the opposite order of constituents are possible as a marked option
Greek is a pro-drop language, and subjects are typically not overtly expressed whenever they are inferable from context. While the word order of the major elements within the clause is fairly free, certain grammatical elements attach to the verb as clitics and form a rigidly ordered group together with it; this applies particularly to unstressed object pronouns, negation particles, the tense particle θα, and the subjunctive particle να. Likewise, possessive pronouns are enclitic to the nouns they modify.

Morphology

Greek is a largely synthetic language. Although the complexity of the inflectional system has been somewhat reduced in comparison to Ancient Greek, there is also a considerable degree of continuity in the morphological system, and Greek still has a somewhat archaic character compared with other Indo-European languages of Europe. Nouns, adjectives and verbs are each divided into several inflectional classes, which have different sets of endings. In the nominals, the ancient inflectional system is well preserved, with the exception of the loss of one case, the dative, and the restructuring of several of the inflectional classes. In the verbal system, the loss of synthetic inflectional categories is somewhat greater, and several new analytic constructions have evolved instead.

Characteristics of the Balkan language area

Modern Greek shares several syntactic characteristics with its geographical neighbours, with which it forms the so-called Balkan language area. Among these characteristics are:
  • The lack of an infinitive. In Greek, verbal complementation in contexts where English would use an infinitive is typically formed with the help of finite verb forms.
  • The merger of the dative and the genitive case. In Greek, indirect objects are expressed partly through genitive forms of nouns or pronouns, and partly through a periphrasis consisting of the preposition σε and the accusative.
  • The use of a future construction derived from the verb 'want'.
  • A tendency to use pre-verbal clitic object pronouns redundantly, doubling an object that is also expressed elsewhere in the clause: for example, το είδα το αυτοκίνητο.
On the other hand, one prominent feature of the Balkan language area that Greek does not share is the use of a postposed definite article. The Greek article stands before the noun.

Accent

Modern Greek has a stress accent, similar to English. The accent is notated with a stroke over the accented vowel and is called οξεία or τόνος in Greek. The former term is taken from one of the accents used in polytonic orthography which officially became obsolete in 1982.
As in Ancient Greek, in Modern Greek the accent cannot be placed before the antepenultimate syllable. As a result, in many words that have the accent on their antepenultimate in their base form, the stress shifts to the next syllable in inflection forms with longer affixes. For example, μάθημα but μαθήματος and μαθήματα etc. In some words, the accent moves forward even without the addition of a syllable. For example, άνθρωπος but ανθρώπου, ανθρώπων and ανθρώπους. This accentuation is inherited from Ancient Greek, where long vowels and diphthongs occupied two morae, having the same effect as the addition of a syllable.
Accent shifts can also be triggered by the addition of enclitic elements after a word. Enclitics are phonologically weak personal pronouns that form a single phonological unit together with the word they are attached to. The three-syllable rule then applies to the unit as a whole. When the previous word is accented on the antepenultimate syllable, the enclitic causes the ultimate syllable to be accented too. For example, δάσκαλος but δάσκαλός μου and φόρεσε but φόρεσέ το. If two enclitic elements are added to a word, the extra accent appears on the first enclitic. For example, φέρε μού το.
As a rule, monosyllabic words do not carry an orthographic accent, except for a few words where the accent marker is used to orthographically distinguish them from an otherwise homonymous item. Moreover, weak personal pronouns are accented in cases where they may be mistaken for enclitics. For example, ο σκύλος μού γάβγισε instead of ο σκύλος μου γάβγισε.

Verbs

Aspects and moods

Greek verb morphology is structured around a basic 2-by-2 contrast of two aspects:
and two tenses:
The aspects are expressed by distinct verb stems, while the tenses are marked mainly by different sets of endings. Of the four possible combinations, only three can be used in indicative function: the present, the imperfect and the aorist. All four combinations can be used in subjunctive function, where they are typically preceded by the particle να or by one of a set of subordinating conjunctions. There are also two imperatives, one for each aspect.

Periphrastic constructions

In addition to these basic forms, Greek also has several periphrastic verb constructions.

θα

All the basic forms can be combined with the future particle θα.
Future tense
  • θα combined with the imperfective present form creates the imperfective future
  • θα combined with the perfective present form creates the '''perfective future'''
    θα combined with past forms
  • θα combined with the imperfective past form is used to form the conditional mood
  • θα combined with the perfective past form is used to form the '''inferential mood'''

    έχω

There is also a perfect, which is expressed with an inflected form of the auxiliary verb έχω. It occurs both as a past perfect and as a present perfect.

Non-finite forms

Modern Greek verbs additionally have three non-finite forms.
There is a form traditionally called "απαρέμφατο", which is historically derived from the perfective infinitive, but has today lost all syntactical functions typically associated with that category. It is used only to form the periphrastic perfect and pluperfect, and is always formally identical to the 3rd person singular of the perfective non-past.
There is also a passive participle, typically ending in -menos , which is inflected as a regular adjective. Its use is either as a canonical adjective, or as a part of a second, alternative perfect periphrasis with transitive verbs.
Finally, there is another invariant form, formed from the present tense and typically ending in -ontas, which is variably called either a participle or a gerund by modern authors. It is historically derived from an old present participle, and its sole use today is to form non-finite adjunct adverbial clauses of time or manner, roughly corresponding to an -ing participle in English.
  • Regular perfect periphrasis, with aparemphato, for example:
  • * Έχω γράψει την επιταγή
  • Alternative perfect periphrasis, with passive participle, for example:
  • * Έχω την επιταγή γραμμένη
  • Adverbial clause with present participle/gerund form, for example:
  • * Έτρεξε στον δρόμο τραγουδώντας
The tables below exemplify the range of forms with those of one large inflectional class of verbs, the first conjugation.

First conjugation

AspectStemNon-pastPastImperative
Imperfectiveγραφ-Present
Imperfect
Imperfectiveγραφ-'''
Imperfectiveγραφ'-γράφωέγραφα
Imperfectiveγραφ-γράφειςέγραφεςγράφε
Imperfectiveγραφ-γράφειέγραφε
Imperfectiveγραφ-γράφουμεγράφαμε
Imperfectiveγραφ-γράφετεγράφατεγράφετε
Imperfectiveγραφ-γράφουνέγραφαν
Perfectiveγραψ-SubjunctiveAorist
Perfectiveγραψ-'''
Perfectiveγραψ'-γράψωέγραψα
Perfectiveγραψ-γράψειςέγραψεςγράψε
Perfectiveγραψ-γράψειέγραψε
Perfectiveγραψ-γράψουμεγράψαμε
Perfectiveγραψ-γράψετεγράψατεγράψτε
Perfectiveγραψ-γράψουνέγραψαν
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		Present Past
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		''
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχω γράψειείχα γράψει
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχεις γράψειείχες γράψει
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχει γράψειείχε γράψει
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχουμε γράψειείχαμε γράψει
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχετε γράψειείχατε γράψει
Perfectεχ-
γράψει		έχουν γράψειείχαν γράψει