THE Article

In Greek we do not have articles. We only have "the" article. That is, only the definite article exists in Greek. While this may seem like a simplification at first glance, the definite article in Greek needs to agree with the noun it proceeds in case (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative), gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and number (singular or plural). So, while Modern English has one word for the definite article "the" Greek has 17 distinct ways of writing and pronouncing the definite article relative to case, gender, and number (topics we will cover later).

Surprisingly, English did not always have an article without declinations. Compare the charts below to see how similar Old English (the English of Beowulf) and Greek are in regards to the definite article.

The Greek Article