Τα επίθετα (Adjectives)

In English, an ‘epithet’ is a word used to characterize a person or thing, and that’s exactly what the word επίθετο means in Greek – an adjective, or a word used to describe a person or thing.

You may have heard of ‘The King’ as an epithet for Elvis Presley, ‘The Iron Lady’ as an epithet for Margaret Thatcher, as well as ‘racial epithets’ referring to stereotypical slurs. Epithets range from the very good to the very bad.

The word for ‘good’ or ‘beautiful’ in Greek is καλός/καλή/καλό. You might recognize it from the word calligraphy (καλλιγραφία, good/beautiful writing). You’ll also see the word όμορφος/όμορφη/όμορφο used to mean ‘beautiful’.

It’s a good idea to remember adjectives along with their opposites.

The word for ‘bad’ in Greek κακός/κακή/κακό. You might recognize it from the word cacophony (κακοφωνία, bad sound). You’ll also see the word άσκημος/άσκημη/άσκημο used to mean ‘bad’ or ‘ugly’.

Here are the most important opposites for you to remember:

Notice how these words each have three different versions. You might guess that those ending in -ος are used to describe masculine nouns, those ending in -η are used for feminine nouns, and those ending in -ο are used for neuter nouns.

There are two major types of adjectives in Greek, as Rita Dana explains. For now, we will concentrate on on the first group, those ending in -ος/-η/-ο (covered up to 3:30 in this video):

Just as articles must agree with the gender of the noun (Ο αδερφός but Η αδερφή), adjectives must also: Ο αδερφός είναι καλός (masculine) vs. Η αδερφή είναι καλή (feminine).

You can practice matching adjectives to nouns based on their gender with Sara, who is also learning Greek:

Once you’ve had enough practice, try the exercises on page 41 of Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1, followed by exercise K on page 13 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1 workbook.

If you like, go back and listen to the description of the picture on page 40, available on the Nostos website again, listening out for the adjectives you have just learned.

For an extra challenge, try reading the paragraph on page 8 of Λοιπόν, τι λες; (Well, what do you say?) and answer the questions in section 1α. Then, using the adjectives in the speech bubble on that page, describe a photo of your own family (section 1β).

Orthography

Don’t forget that words ending in -η are typically feminine, while words ending in -ι are typically neuter. Using the clues such as the articles η and το (or στη and στο), fill in the gaps in exercise Λ on page 13 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1 workbook.

Pronouns

Of course, everything we’ve just said about adjectives agreeing with nouns applies to pronouns too. That is, whether we say ‘my brother is tall’ (ο αδερφός μου είναι ψηλός) or ‘he is tall’ (αυτός είναι ψηλός), either way, the word for ‘tall’ (ψηλός) must be masculine to match the noun ‘my brother’, or the pronoun ‘he’.

To practice, read the paragraph on page 15 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1 workbook describing the family picture on page 14, and fill in the gaps with the correct form αυτός/αυτή/αυτό.