Subject Pronouns

Προσωπικές αντωνυμίες ονομαστικές ??

Subject pronouns, literally called "nominative personal pronouns" in Greek, indicate who or what is performing the action of a verb. The different subject pronouns are determined by number and person.

• Number is divided into “singular” (one) and “plural” (more than one).
• Person includes “first person” (the speaker), “second person” (the listener), and “third person” (neither the speaker nor the listener).

Thus with two numbers and three persons, Greek has a total of six grammatical persons and six verb conjugations. Each grammatical person has up to three subject pronouns:

Notes

Unlike "I," εγώ is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.

There are two Greek words for "you" (exactly like the French words for “you”): εσύ is singular and informal (like tu), while εσείς is plural and / or formal (like vous).

In addition to "he" and "she," αυτός and αυτή mean “it” when they replace a noun of that gender, so ο καιρός (the weather) becomes αυτός and η ώρα (the hour) becomes αυτή.

As for third person plural,

• Αυτοί is used for men, masculine nouns, and mixed gender groups – it is the default when referring to plural groups.
• Αυτές can be used only for a group of women and/or feminine nouns.
• Likewise, αυτά can be used only for a group of neuter nouns.

Greek subject pronouns are used far less commonly than their English equivalents because Greek (like Spanish) is a "pro-drop" language, meaning that pronouns are not required**: the verb conjugation tells you who or what is performing the action of the verb.

** In fact, my Greek teachers insist that I not use them unless I need to stress the subject, such as to contradict what someone just said.

Related lessons

• Cases
• Type A verbs
• Type AB verbs
• Type B1 verbs
• Type B2 verbs