Greek personal pronouns take the place of nouns in a sentence.

Learning them helps you avoid repeating the same words over and over again.

They’re a core building block for anyone starting to speak the language.

In Greek, pronouns change depending on their role in the sentence.

I’ll show you exactly how to use subject, object, and possessive pronouns.

Subject pronouns in Greek

Subject pronouns tell you who or what is performing the action in a sentence.

They’re the direct equivalent of words like “I”, “you”, “he”, and “she” in English.

In Greek, you don’t always need to use these subject pronouns.

The ending of the Greek verb usually tells you exactly who is doing the action.

You only use subject pronouns when you want to add emphasis or clear up confusion.

Direct object pronouns in Greek

Direct object pronouns receive the action of the verb directly.

They answer the question of “who” or “what” is being acted upon.

Greek has both “strong” and “weak” object pronouns, but the weak ones are used in everyday speech.

Weak direct object pronouns almost always go right before the verb.

Here’s how direct object pronouns look in a basic sentence.

Indirect object pronouns in Greek

Indirect object pronouns tell you “to whom” or “for whom” an action is done.

In Modern Greek, the plural forms of indirect object pronouns look very similar to direct object pronouns.

However, the singular forms use the genitive case to show direction toward someone.

These pronouns also sit right before the verb in a standard sentence.

Possessive pronouns in Greek

Possessive pronouns show ownership of an object or person.

They’re the equivalent of “my”, “your”, “his”, and “her” in English.

In Greek, these are technically the exact same weak pronouns you learned in the indirect object table above.

The most important rule is that possessive pronouns always go directly after the noun they belong to.

You must also remember to include the definite article (the word for “the”) before the noun.