SACE Stage 2 Modern Greek (beginners) key terms

Everyday Greek greeting used when meeting or parting; the singular form suits friends and peers, while the plural form shows politeness to strangers, elders, or groups.

Morning greeting meaning good day, used from early morning until roughly midday; a standard opener in shops, classrooms, and phone calls.

Farewell said late in the evening or before sleep, literally wishing a good night; not used as a general daytime goodbye.

Goodbye used when parting, slightly more formal or final in tone than the casual greeting; common in written messages and when leaving a shop.

Versatile polite word meaning please when making a request, you're welcome when answering thanks, or go ahead when inviting someone to speak or enter.

Expression of thanks; the reply is usually παρακαλώ. A stronger form, ευχαριστώ πολύ, adds the adverb meaning much or very much.

Polite apology or request to repeat something, roughly sorry or excuse me; used to attract attention or to acknowledge a small mistake.

Second-person pronouns for you: the singular is used with family, friends, and children, the plural with strangers, superiors, or more than one person; the choice controls verb endings.

The part of speech expressing an action or state; Greek verbs change endings to show person, number, and tense, so recognising the ending reveals who is acting.

Present tense, describing actions happening now or habitual actions; formed from the verb stem plus personal endings such as -ω, -εις, -ει.

Simple past tense used for completed actions at a definite time; often marked by a changed stem, an augment like έ-, and past endings such as -α or -ες.

Future tense formed with the particle θα plus a verb form; θα γράψω means I will write, and θα πάω means I will go.

Invariant particle placed before a verb to express future time or conditional meaning; its presence usually signals that the action is not happening now.

Subjunctive particle introducing wishes, requests, purpose, and commands after verbs like θέλω; it is followed by a verb form, not by a finite indicative.

Perfect tense built from έχω plus the infinitive form of the verb; it describes a past action whose result still matters now, as in have done.

Definite or indefinite article placed before a noun; Greek articles agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, and the definite article often marks the case itself.

Noun naming a person, thing, place, or idea; in Greek each noun has a fixed gender and is declined for number and case, often with an article.

Adjective describing a noun; it agrees with the noun in gender, number, and case and usually stands before it, as in a small house.

Grammatical gender of nouns and adjectives: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Gender is a property of the word, not of the real object, and controls article and adjective agreement.

Grammatical case showing a noun's role in the sentence; Greek has nominative for subjects, genitive for possession, accusative for objects, and vocative for address.

Nominative case, used for the subject of a verb and for predicate nouns after linking verbs; the dictionary form of most nouns is the nominative singular.

Accusative case, used for direct objects, after most prepositions, and for time expressions; the definite article forms include τον, την, and το.

Genitive case, expressing possession, origin, or relationship, roughly of or 's; the article forms include του, της, and των.

Plural number, used for more than one person or thing; Greek nouns, articles, adjectives, and verbs all change form to agree with a plural subject.

Singular number, referring to one person or thing; articles, nouns, adjectives, and verbs all appear in singular forms that must agree with each other.

A word with a similar meaning to another, such as words for big or happy; identifying them tests vocabulary range and helps avoid repetition in writing.

A word with the opposite meaning to another, such as hot and cold or early and late; matching pairs is a common vocabulary task.

Main clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence and carries the central statement; it may be joined to other clauses by coordinating conjunctions like και or αλλά.

Subordinate clause that cannot stand alone and depends on a main clause, often introduced by words like ότι, να, or όταν; it adds information such as content, purpose, or time.

Conjunction joining words or clauses, such as και for addition, αλλά for contrast, or γιατί for reason; choosing the right one shapes the logic of a text.

The written accent mark showing which syllable is stressed; every Greek word of more than one syllable normally carries exactly one, and it can change meaning between otherwise identical words.

Two dots placed over ι or υ to show it is pronounced separately from the preceding vowel rather than merged into a digraph; they affect pronunciation and spelling accuracy.

A pair of vowel letters pronounced as a single sound, such as αι, ει, οι, or ου; recognising them is essential for correct reading and spelling.

A unit of pronunciation containing one vowel sound, with or without consonants; Greek words are divided into syllables that guide stress placement and hyphenation.

The set of words a learner knows and can use; building it through topic groups such as family, food, and transport supports both reading comprehension and written production.

A written passage such as a note, advertisement, article, or message; exam tasks ask candidates to locate details, infer meaning, and identify the writer's purpose.

The reason a writer or speaker produces a text, for example to inform, persuade, invite, or complain; identifying it is a standard comprehension question.