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Hello my beautiful Greek Learners!

Today, we will talk about the Greek accent mark and we will see how we can make our life easier by following some simple and easy rules. Lucky for you, Modern Greek uses a monotonic system and has only two diacritics, unlike Ancient or Koine Greek, which follow the polytonic system and have numerous diacritics.

In Modern Greek, all you need to know is the single accent mark, which looks like this (΄’), and the diaeresis, which looks like this (¨). The accent mark is the most frequent, while the diaeresis is less common and indicates a diphthong or a hiatus.

Today, we’re going to focus only on the single accent mark to digest it better. We will discuss the diaeresis and other punctuation marks in a following lesson.

But let’s dive deeper into the wonderful world of Greek accents.

The Greek Accent Mark

What Does a Greek Accent Do?

The accent in Modern Greek is used to indicate the stressed syllable within a word. In other words, the accent helps you give the right emphasis to a word. Incorrect placement of the accent can alter the meaning of a word and affect its pronunciation, sometimes resulting in a whole new word with different meaning. We will talk about this phenomenon later in this article.

Where to Put the Accent Mark?

1. On the stressed syllable:

The accent mark (‘) is placed above the vowel of the syllable in the word that is pronounced with more emphasis.

• τραπέζι (trapezee) – table
• καφές (kafes) – coffee
• θάλασσα (thalasa) – sea

2. Only on vowels:

The accent mark is ONLY applied to vowels whether plain (ά, έ, ή, ί, ό, ύ, ώ) or a digraph (εί, αί, οί, αύ, εύ υί).

When the vowel is a digraph, the accent mark is always placed over the second letter.

Here are some examples for both cases:

Plain vowel:

• Βιβλίο (vivlio) – book
• Καρέκλα (karekla) – chair
• Νύχτα (neehta) – night

Digraph vowel:

• Χαίρομαι (herome) – I’m happy
• Κουλούρι (kuluree) – bagel
• Ουρανοί (uranee) – skies

3. On the vowel of the diphthong pronounced more strongly

• κορόιδο (koroedo) – fool
• νεράιδα (neraeda) – fairy

4. Before and on the capitalized vowel that is emphasized

• Άγγελος (aggelos) – angel
• Ήλιος (eelios) – sun

Now that we have clarified that only vowels can be accented, it’s time to move on and understand:

Which Words are Stressed?

1. All words that have more than one syllable and are written in lower case need to have an accent mark.

But what is a syllable, you ask? It is a small part of a word and almost always contains a vowel or a diphthong along with the consonant (s).

Examples:

• σοκολάτα (sokolata) – chocolate —> 4 syllables: σο – κο – λά – τα
• πατάτα (patata) – potato —> 3 syllables: πα – τά – τα
• καλό (kalo) – good —> 2 syllables: κα – λό
• και (ke) – and —> 1 syllable: και, no accent mark

Fun fact: The word, syllable derives from the Greek word συλλαβή (seelavee). Can you see the resemblance?

Now that we have understood what a syllable is let’s move on to some other basic rules.

2. Only the final three syllables of a word can be stressed.

So, if you see a Greek word with a lot of syllables, you automatically know that the accent mark goes somewhere towards the end of the word. Yep, examples!

• περιπέτεια (peripeteea) – adventure
• ξεροψημένος (kseropsimenos) – crusty
• ψαρόσουπα (psarosupa) – fish soup

3. Words appearing as monosyllabic after elision ¹or truncation².

Examples of elision:

• ούτε εσύ ούτε εγώ —> o΄ύτ‘ εσύ o΄ύτ‘ εγώ (ut’ esi ut’ego) – neither you nor I
• είναι ανάγκη —> είν‘ ανάγκη (in anagki) – it is necessary

Examples of truncation

• φέρε το —> φέρ‘ το (fer to) – bring it
• άσε την —> άσ‘ την (as tin) – leave her

4. Enclitic words whose accent is transferred to the last syllable of the proparoxytone words.

Often, when I combine a word with one or more weak pronouns (enclitics), I add an additional accent that falls either on the last syllable of the first word or on the first of the two pronouns. This is called enclisis of the accent.

This happens when we have:

a) verbs + weak pronouns:

• φώναξε + την —> φώναξέ την (fonakse tin) – call her

b) nouns/adjectives + possessive pronouns:

• το αυτοκίνητο + μου —> το αυτοκίνητό μου (to aftokinito mu) – my car
• η μεγαλύτερη + μου αμαρτία —> η μεγαλύτερή μου αμαρτία (i megaliteri mu amartia) – my biggest sin

c) adverbs/indeclinable participles followed by weak pronouns:

• απέναντι + μας —> απέναντί μας (apenanti mas) – opposite of us
• αφήνοντας + του —> αφήνοντάς του (afinontas tu) – leaving him

Depending on the syllable that is stressed, a word can be:

Oxytone: Stressed on the last syllable.

• ο χειρουργός (ο heerurgos) – the surgeon
• η πολιτική (ee politikee) – the politic
• το κανονικό (to kanoniko) – the normal

Paroxytone: Stressed on the penultimate syllable.

• ο κάμπος (o kampos) – the meadow
• η καλοσύνη (ee kalosini) – the kindness
• το βιβλίο (to vivlio) – the book

Proparoxytone: Stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.

• ο άρχοντας (o arhontas) – the lord
• η ακαταμάχητη ( ee akatamahitee) – the irresistible
• το όνειρο (to oneero) – the dream

One Syllable Words Don’t Need an Accent Mark Because We Can Understand Where the Stress Falls

But do we have exceptions for that?

We are Greeks, of course he have!

Now let’s analyze the image above and see some examples.

Single Syllable Words That Need an Accent Mark

1. The conjuction ή (ee) – or

• Τι θέλεις να φας; Κρέας ή ψάρι; (Tee thelis na fas? Kreas i psaree?) – What do you want to eat? Meat or fish?

2. The interrogative pronoun πού (pu) – where

• Πού θέλεις να πάμε; (Pu thelis na pame) – Where do you want to go?

3. The interrogative pronoun πώς (pos) – how

• Πώς μπορώ να σας βοηθήσω; (Pos boro na sas voithiso?) – How can I help you?

The words πού and πώς are also accented in the following cases:

• από πού και ως πού (apo pu ke os pu) – how come?
• πού και πού (pu ke pu) – now and then
• αραιά και πού (area ke pu) – once in a while
• πού να σου τα λέω (pu na su ta leo) – there’s so much to tell you
• πώς και πώς (pos ke pos) – look forward
• πώς βαριέμαι! (pos varieme) – I’m so bored!

4. The weak forms of personal pronouns are accented when there is a risk of being mistaken for possessive pronouns. The corresponding possessive pronouns, however, are unaccented.

• Η μητέρα μού είπε (I mitera mu ipe) in other words Η μητέρα είπε σ’ εμένα (I mitera ipe s’ emena) – Mother said to me
• Η μητέρα μου είπε (I mitera mu ipe) in other words Η δική μου μητέρα είπε (I diki mu mitera ipe) – My mother said

Tonal Paronyms

Sometimes, the accent helps me distinguish words that look alike but have different meanings. These words are called tonal paronyms.

The image below will help you understand them better.

Well, that was it for today! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Hasta la vista! Oh, wait! Wrong language… Τα λέμε στο επόμενο μάθημα!

Footnotes:

1. Elision: The phenomenon that can occur in a word ending in a vowel when it is placed in front of a word that begins with a vowel. In the position where the vowel disappears, we use an apostrophe (‘). ↩︎
2. Truncation: The phenomenon where the final vowel of a word may undergo when it is placed in front of the initial consonant of the following word. In the position where the vowel disappears, we use an apostrophe (‘). ↩︎