Language/Modern-greek-1453/Grammar/Word-stress

Τhe accent

The accent is a sign that we put on words that have more than one syllable.The following words we put for example an accent:

τώρα, Ελένη, Έλλη

But we do not put accents on the words:

για, και, να

The syllable with the accent is more emphasized than the other syllables. Some words only differ from each other because of the position of the accent:

Πότε θα πάμε σινεμά; - When shall we go to the cinema

Δεν θα σου ξαναμιλήσω ποτέ. - I'll never speak to you again

The words «πως» en «που», get even though they have only one syllable an accent, when they are at the beginning of a question:

Πού πας; - Where are you going?

Πώς είσαι; - Where are you?

The accent is only placed on words written in lowercase. We put the accent on the word «τώρα» for instance, but not on the word «ΤΩΡΑ»

The accent is always placed on one of the last three syllables of a word. We don't place the accent before the third syllable from word-ending.

αυ-το-κί-νη-το - (car - 3rd syllable from behind)

κα-ρα-μέ-λα - (candy - 2nd syllable from behind)

υ-πο-λο-γι-στής - (computer - 1st yllable from behind)

When the letter combinations «αι», «ει», «οι», «υι», «ου», «αυ» and «ευ» get an accent it will be placed on the second letter.

Είναι (be), αυτοί (they), αύριο (tomorrow), εύκολος (easy)

If the accent is placed on the first letter, we read the two letters separately:

Μάιος (mei) - γάιδαρος (donkey)

We also read them separately as the second letter contains the diaeresis «¨».

γαϊδουράκι (little donkey)