In English, ‘go to the Acropolis’ is not a complete sentence. It is impossible to tell who is doing the verb ‘go’, so a personal pronoun is necessary: ‘I go to the Acropolis’ or ‘you go to the Acropolis’ or ‘we go to the Acropolis’ etc.
In Greek, there is a unique ending for every person. So πηγαίνουμε στην Ακρόπολη is a perfectly complete sentence meaning ‘we go to the Acropolis’. Because the –ουμε ending indicates who carried out the action, there is no need to use the pronoun εμείς.
Typically, personal pronouns are only required in Greek if you want to emphasise who is doing some action. :
‘I am going to the museum.’ -> ‘Well, *we* are going to the Acropolis!’
‘I don’t live in Thessaloniki. Do YOU live in Thessaloniki?’
‘Who wants ice cream?’ -> ‘Me! I want ice cream!’
Or, in Greek…
«Πάω στο μουσείο.» -> «Λοιπόν, εμείς πάμε στην Ακρόπολη!»
«Δεν μένω στη Θεσσαλονίκη. Εσύ μένεις στη Θεσσαλονίκη;»
«Ποιος θέλει παγωτό;» -> «Εγώ! Θέλω παγωτό!»
Note how, in English, it is necessary to use a very emphatic tone of voice (denoted above by asterisks and capital letters), or repetition (Me! I want..)
Although it pronouns are often optional, it is a good idea to memorise the different conjugations of verbs along with the pronouns they relate to. For example:
- έγω έχω
- εσύ έχεις
- αυτός/ή/ό έχει
- εμείς έχουμε
- εσείς έχετε
- αυτοί/ές/ά έχουν
Watch Anna’s Learn Greek in Australia video for an example using μένω:
You will also find that pronouns appear in many exercises in the Ελληνικά Τώρα series. This gives you a chance to practice the many different forms of each verb, without having to rely on English translations.
Take the sample sentence at the top of page 49 of Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1 as an example:
Εμείς … στην Ακρόπολη. (πηγαίνω)
Just by looking at the pronoun Εμείς, we can tell that this sentence should describe something ‘we’ do. So, the supplied verb πηγαίνω should be changed to πηγαίνουμε.
Now, complete the questions in exercise B.
A note on possessive pronouns
Personal pronouns are those which stand in place of a noun, e.g. ‘Maria reads a lot’ vs. ‘she reads a lot’.
Possessive pronouns are those which show who something belongs to. e.g. ‘That is her book’.
Whenever you are rewriting a sentence to change who does something, remember to check for both types of pronouns.
e.g. Εγώ διαβάζω τα βιβλία μου (I read my books)
-> Εμείς διαβάζουμε τα βιβλία μας (We read our books)
Keeping this in mind, complete exercise B on page 16 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1 workbook.
Note that διαβάζω means both ‘read’ and ‘study’.
Now, complete the rest of the exercises on page 49 of the textbook, remembering to use both personal and possessive pronouns as clues. As a beginner, you may find it helpful to underline any pronouns you find.
Next, finish the remaining exercises on page 16 of the workbook, as well as those on pages 17-18.
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