How to Form Plurals for Masculine Nouns in Greek

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When you learn vocabulary words in the Greek language, they are only listed in the singular form. This means that you need to take an additional step to express the plural. According to Webster’s Dictionary, “plural” is defined as:

of, relating to, or constituting a class of grammatical forms usually used to denote more than one or in some languages more than two

Creating plurals in Greek can be a little tricky because nouns have multiple endings, and each ending takes a different plural form. Here’s a look:

Creating the Plural Form of Masculine Nouns in the Greek Language

As mentioned in a previous article, Greek nouns are classified as to whether or not they are masculine, feminine, or neuter. The classification impacts the endings of the words, as well as the articles of the words. When creating a plural, both the endings and the articles need to be pluralized.

Here’s a look at the plural masculine articles for nouns in Greek:

• Definite Article – ο – (o) as in ο άντρας – on anthras – the man
• Indefinite Article – ένας (enas)  as in ένας άντρας – enas anthras – a man

The first step to creating the plural of masculine words in the Greek language is to make the article plural.

• Definite Article – ο becomes οι (ee) as in οι άνδρες (ee anthres)

To make the indefinite articles plural, you need to do a bit more work. In this case, ένας (enas), which technically means “one” will either be omitted or a number that is more than one will be in its place:

• δύο άνδρες – theeo anthres – two men
• τρεις άνδρες – trees anthres – three men
• δέκα άνδρες – theka anthres – ten men

If you want to translate a sentence such as I am Man you would omit the indefinite article completely. The sentence would read: είμαι άνδρας (eemai anthres)

Did you notice how the ending of the word “άντρας” changed to “άνδρες”? Each masculine noun gets a new ending when making a plural. Here’s a look at the plural form for masculine words:

• Words ending in ος (os) become οι (ee) – φίλος (filos) becomes φίλοι
• Words ending in ής (ees) or ας (as) become ές or ες – so μαθητής (mathitis) becomes μαθητές (mathites)
• Words ending in ούς (oos) turns into ούδες (oothes) –  so παππούς (pappous) becomes παππούδες (pappouthes)
• Words ending in ές (es) turns into έδες (ethes) – so καφές (kaffes) becomes καφέδες (kafethes)

As with any grammatical concept, it is important to become familiar with it and even practice it a little. However, you don’t need to spend too much time on it. As you begin to experience the Greek language, you will become more familiar.

The Learn Greek section on GreekBoston.com was written by Greeks to help people understand the conversational basics of the Greek language. This article is not a substitute for a professional Greek learning program, but a helpful resource for people wanting to learn simple communication in Greek.

Categorized in: Learn How to Speak Basic Greek

This post was written by Greek Boston