ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

INSTITUTE OF MODERN GREEK STUDIES

Manolis Triandaphyllidis Foundation

Manolis A. Triandaphyllidis

CONCISE
MODERN GREEK
GRAMMAR

Translated by
John B. Burke

T HES S AL ON I K I 1997
 Tτλος του πρωτοτπου:
Mανλης A. Tριανταφυλλδης
Mικρ Nεοελληνικ Γραμματικ
1η κδοση: Aθνα 1949
2η κδοση (με βελτισεις): Θεσσαλονκη 1975

ISBN 960-231-083-9

© 1949, 1975, 1997 Institute of Modern Greek Studies

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki 540 06, Tel. (+30 31) 997128, Fax (+30 31) 997122

Printed in Greece
The English translation is dedicated to the memory of
Maria Vertsoni-Kokolis
 CONTENTS

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE 1

P A RT O NE
SOUNDS AND LETTERS

CHAPTER ONE: THE SOUNDS OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE 9

The sounds of the Greek language § 1 – The letters of the Greek language § 4
– Correspondence between sounds and letters § 7 – Vowels and consonants § 8
– Initial and final letters § 13 – Final consonants § 15 – Double letters § 16 –
Digraphs § 18 – Classification and description of consonants § 24 – Table of
consonants § 25 – Diphthongs § 26 – Double consonants § 28 – The combina-
tions αυ, ευ § 31 – The nasal clusters μπ, ντ, γκ, γγ § 32 – Silent letters § 35

CHAPTER TWO: WORDS AND SYLLABLES 17

Words § 36 – Syllabification § 38

CHAPTER THREE: ACCENTUATION 20

Accents § 45 – Base accent § 50 – Orthography: Rules of the monotonic system
§ 53 – Accent position § 62 – Unaccented or proclitic words § 63 – Enclitics §
64

CHAPTER FOUR: OTHER ORTHOGRAPHICAL MARKS. PUNCTUATION. ABBRE-

VIATIONS 25
Other orthographical marks § 67 – Punctuation and pronunciation § 72 – Punc-
tuation § 74 – The period § 75 – The semicolon § 77 – The comma § 78 – The
question mark § 79 – The exclamation mark § 81 – The colon § 86 – The paren-
thesis § 88 – The suspense mark § 90 – The dash § 92 – Quotation marks § 95 –
Abbreviations § 99

CHAPTER FIVE: SOUND MODIFICATION 37

Vowels. Adjacent vowels § 101 – Diphthongisation § 103 – Synizesis § 105 –
Vowel reduction § 108 – Initial vowels § 128 – Syncope and apocope § 132 –
Consonants § 134 – Final ν § 135 – Consonant sound change across word
boundaries § 138 – Consonant clusters § 141 – Spelling of consonant clusters §
142

xi
 C O NT E NT S

P A RT T W O
VOCABULARY

CHAPTER ONE: THE ORIGINS OF GREEK WORDS 49

The origins of Greek words § 143 – Vernacular words and learned words § 146
– Differences between vernacular and learned words § 149

WORD FORMATION

CHAPTER TWO: ONOMATOPOEIA. CHANGE OF GRAMMATICAL TYPE 53

Onomatopoeia § 151 – Change of grammatical type § 154

WORD PRODUCTION

CHAPTER THREE: OVERVIEW 56

General concepts § 156 – The base of derivatives and compounds § 163 –
Words with two stems § 165 – Vernacular and learned derivation and composi-
tion § 168 – Word families § 169 – Vernacular and learned words in derivation
and composition § 171

CHAPTER FOUR: DERIVATION 62

Verb derivatives § 172 – Noun derivatives § 176 – Adjective derivatives § 202 –
Adverb derivatives § 212

CHAPTER FIVE: COMPOSITION 73

Composition § 213 – Composition with prefixes § 214 – Prefixes § 214 – The
principal learned prefixes § 219 – Compounding. The meaning of compounds §
220 – Copulative compounds § 221 – Determinative compounds § 227 – Pos-
sessive compounds § 230 – Objective compounds § 231 – Observations on the
meaning of compounds § 232 – The form of compounds. General observations
about their formation § 235 – The compounding vowel § 236 – First compo-
nents § 241 – Second components § 257 – Accentuation of compounds § 274 –
Table of learned components § 279 – Derived compounds § 282 – Genuine
compounding and pseudocompounding § 284

THE MEANING OF WORDS

CHAPTER SIX: CHANGES IN MEANING 94

Concrete and abstract meaning § 286 – Literal and metaphorical meaning § 287

CHAPTER SEVEN: HOMONYMS. PARONYMS. SYNONYMS. EQUIVALENTS. ID-

IOMATIC EXPRESSIONS. PROVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS 96
Homonyms § 289 – Paronyms § 292 – Synonyms § 297 – Equivalents § 301 – Pho-
netic doublets § 303 – Idiomatic expressions and proverbial expressions § 306

xii
 C O NT E NT S

CHAPTER EIGHT: PROPER NOUNS 103

General § 312 – Personal names § 313 – Toponyms § 317

P A RT T H RE E
MORPHOLOGY – PARTS OF SPEECH

GENERAL GRAMMATICAL TERMS 107

Parts of speech. Inflected and uninflected. Form, ending, stem, characteristic §
320 – Case. Gender and number § 323

I. INFLECTED PARTS OF SPEECH

CHAPTER ONE: ARTICLES 110

The definite article § 327 – The indefinite article § 330

NOUNS

CHAPTER TWO: MEANING OF NOUNS. TYPES OF NOUNS 112

Proper nouns and common nouns § 334

CHAPTER THREE: GENDER IN NOUNS 114

General § 341 – Formation of feminines § 345 – Nouns with two genders § 351
– Change of gender according to meaning § 353

CHAPTER FOUR: NUMBER IN NOUNS 118

Special meanings of the singular and plural § 357

CHAPTER FIVE: THE THREE DECLENSIONS OF NOUNS 120

General § 364 – Declension of masculine nouns § 368 – First class § 369 –
Masculines in -ας : parisyllabic § 370 – Masculines in -ας : imparisyllabic § 372
– Masculines in -ης : parisyllabic § 374 – Masculines in -τς with two plurals §
376 – Masculines in -ης : imparisyllabic § 377 – Masculines in ες § 379 –
Masculines in -ους § 380 – Second class § 381 – Masculines in -ος § 381 –
Accentuation of proparoxytones § 383 – Plurals of family names § 388 –
Summary table of masculines § 389 – General observations § 390
Declension of feminine nouns § 392 – Feminines in -α § 394 – Accentuation §
395 – Feminines in -η § 399 – Feminines in -η with archaic endings § 401 –
Feminines in -ω § 404 – Feminines in -ος with archaic endings § 407 – Fem-
inines in -ο § 410 – Summary table of feminines § 411 – General observations
§ 413
Declension of neuter nouns § 415 – First class: parisyllabic. Neuters in -o § 416 –
Neuters in -ι § 419 – Neuters in -ος § 422 – Second class: imparisyllabic § 426 –
Neuters in -μα § 427 – Neuters in -σιμο (-ξιμο, -ψιμο) § 429 – Neuters in -ας,
-ως § 431 – Summary table of neuters § 432 – General observations § 433

xiii
 C O NT E NT S

CHAPTER SIX: IRREGULAR NOUNS 141

General § 434 – Indeclinable nouns § 435 – Defective nouns § 437 – Idiomor-
phic nouns § 439 – Dual declension nouns § 443 – Biform nouns § 446 – Dual
ending nouns § 452

ADJECTIVES

CHAPTER SEVEN: DECLENSION OF ADJECTIVES 147

General § 455 – A. Adjectives with masculine -ος. Adjectives in -ος, -η, -ο §
458 – Adjectives in -ος, -α, -ο § 459 – Adjectives in -ς, -ι, - § 464 – B.
Adjectives with masculine -ς, -ς. Adjectives in -ς, -ι, -; -ς, -ι, - § 466 –
C. Adjectives with masculine -ης (imparisyllabic). Adjectives in -ης, -α, -ικο §
470 – Irregular adjectives § 475

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES 154

Degree § 477 – Formation of secondary degrees § 480 – Formation of
comparative § 481 – Formation of superlative § 485 – Adjectives with defective
comparison § 490

CHAPTER NINE: NUMERALS 159

Cardinal numerals § 503 – Ordinal numerals § 519 – Other types of numerals §
524 – Use of the alphabet to represent numbers § 531

CHAPTER TEN: PRONOUNS 166

General § 535 – Personal pronouns § 537 – Possessive pronouns § 559 – Re-
flexive pronouns § 563 – Definite pronouns § 565 – Demonstrative pronouns §
566 – Relative pronouns § 567 – Interrogative pronouns § 577 – Indefinite pro-
nouns § 581 – Correlative pronouns § 597

VERBS

CHAPTER ELEVEN: DISPOSITION AND VOICE 177

Disposition § 600 – Voice § 604

CHAPTER TWELVE: MOOD AND TENSE. NUMBER AND PERSON 181

Mood § 613 – Tense § 619 – Meaning of tenses in the indicative § 624 –
Meaning of tenses in other moods § 629 – Formation of subjunctive and imper-
ative § 631 – Number § 635 – Person § 637

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE ELEMENTS OF VERB FORMATION 187

Ending § 643 – Stem § 645 – Augment § 649 – Orthography: the augment § 654
– Auxiliary elements in verb formation § 657 – Inflection of auxiliary verbs §
658

xiv
 C O NT E NT S

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CONJUGATION 191

Conjugation § 660 – First conjugation verbs § 662 – General observations on
verb inflection § 671 – Observations on first conjugation verbs § 673 – Second
conjugation verbs § 678 – Contract verbs § 687

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: STEMS 208

The present stem § 691 – The six categories of present stems § 692 – Orthog-
raphy: present tense endings § 693 – Parallel verbs 694 – Verbs with dual stems
§ 698 – The aorist active stem § 701 – Sigmatic aorist § 703 – Irregular aorist
actives § 706 – Asigmatic aorist § 707 – Thematic vowel variation according to
mood § 710 – Orthography: aorist forms § 713 – Stem of aorist passive and
passive participle § 714 – Irregular aorist passives and passive participles § 719
– Second aorist passive § 722 – Irregular passive participles § 724 – Orthogra-
phy: perfect passive participle § 729

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: DEFECTIVE, IMPERSONAL AND IRREGULAR VERBS 224

Defective verbs § 730 – Impersonal verbs § 731 – Irregular verbs § 733

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: PARTICIPLES 228

II. UNINFLECTED PARTS OF SPEECH

CHAPTER ONE: ADVERBS 230

Adverbs § 741 – Correlative adverbs § 758 – Orthography: adverbs § 760

CHAPTER TWO: PREPOSITIONS 235

CHAPTER THREE: CONJUNCTIONS 237

CHAPTER FOUR: INTERJECTIONS 239

INDEX OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS

Greek 243
English 251

xv
 EDI T OR ’ S FOR WAR D

The Institute of Modern Greek Studies has undertaken the publica-

tion of Manolis Triandaphyllidis’ Concise Modern Greek Grammar in a
number of European and other languages. The translations form part
of the Institute’s series of materials for teaching Modern Greek as a
second language.
The Concise Modern Greek Grammar is a shorter version of the
Grammar of Modern Demotic Greek, which was prepared by a special
commission and originally published in 1941 by the Greek Government
Schoolbook Press. An abridged version, issued since 1974 by the Min-
istry of Education and revised in the light of subsequent orthographical
reforms, continues to be used at the elementary and secondary levels of
the Greek public education system. The orthographical reforms, of
which the most important relates to accentuation, have been incorpo-
rated into the text of the translations.
The translators are all native speakers of the languages into which
they translate, and most hold university appointments. The English
translation is by John Burke, Senior Lecturer in Modern Greek at the
University of Melbourne, Australia.
The translations published to date include French (1975, second
edition 1994), Spanish (1994), Albanian (1995), Italian (1995), Russian
(1995), Serbian (1995), Bulgarian (1996), Romanian (1996), and Ger-
man (1996). The Arabic, Catalan, Georgian, Polish and Turkish trans-
lations are currently in preparation.

The Institute of Modern Greek Studies

vii
 AUT HOR ’ S PR EFACE

Commissioned by the Ministry of Education and published by the

Greek Government Schoolbook Press in 1941, the Grammar of Mod-
ern Demotic Greek was necessarily comprehensive and detailed in its
approach and, inevitably, a work of considerable length. As was
stressed in the preface to that edition, there was an obvious need for a
shorter, more manageable edition. Rather than making the ‘Govern-
ment Grammar’ redundant, a concise edition would complement it as a
handy reference for the same readers: teachers (especially in elemen-
tary schools), writers of school texts, young people, authors, and every
educated individual looking for quick and simple advice on questions
related to the spelling and grammar of Greek and who, rightly or other-
wise, found the ‘Government Grammar’ an awkward volume to handle.
The Concise Modern Greek Grammar was also conceived as a text-
book for students in the junior years of high school (years 1–3 or 1–4,
depending on the forthcoming ministry curriculum), and possibly in the
sixth grade as well – as long as students at this level remain without a
primer and workbook designed for their specific needs, or as long as it
continues to be thought necessary that they acquire a full overview of
the language.
For students in the senior years of high school, for high school
teachers, and for elementary school teachers who may want to consult
a wider range of examples, enhance their teaching with a deeper knowl-
edge of the subject, and resolve all kinds of questions which the Con-
cise Grammar leaves unanswered, the ‘Government Grammar’ will re-
main essential.
In this shorter edition the number of examples has been signifi-
cantly reduced; less important issues, observations, information (mainly
historical and syntactical) and references to earlier orthography have
been omitted; and formulations and definitions have been simplified
wherever this enabled the text to become more accessible to student

viii
 A U T H O R’ S P RE F A C E

readers. Other minor changes effected with the same intention include,
for example, replacement of the terms apheresis in collocution and
apheresis with prodelision and apheresis. The grammatical and ortho-
graphical forms presented are identical with those of the ‘Government
Grammar’, as was inevitable. Part Two, which is concerned with words
and their meaning, and with derivation and composition, is given
greater prominence in the Concise Grammar than is usual in Greek
grammars, for the reasons set out in the preface to the ‘Government
Grammar’.
The author hopes that the Concise Modern Greek Grammar will be
received as favourably as was the ‘Government Grammar’, and that it
will be of assistance outside schools – and, one day, within schools – in
making the Modern Greek language better known, loved and culti-
vated.

Manolis Triandaphyllidis
Athens, 24 December 1948

ix