In short

Greek verb endings already say who is doing the action, so the subject pronoun is normally left out. Μένω στην Αθήνα is the everyday way to say “I live in Athens” - the -ω ending is the “I”. You add εγώ, εσύ, αυτός only when you want to point at the person: for contrast, for emphasis, in one-word answers, and after και or ούτε. A pronoun in front of every verb, English-style, sounds insistent and unnatural.

The rule

Greek is a pro-drop (null-subject) language. Each of the six person endings is distinct enough that the pronoun adds no information, so the unmarked sentence has no subject pronoun at all:

• Είμαι Ρώσος. - “I am Russian.”
• Έχεις χρόνο; - “Do you have time?”
• Είναι Έλληνας. - “He is Greek.”

Because the pronoun is not needed, using it becomes a signal. Greek reserves the nominative pronoun for these situations:

1. Contrast - two subjects are set against each other: Εγώ μένω εδώ, εσύ πού μένεις;
2. Emphasis / insistence - one subject is singled out: Εγώ το είπα, όχι αυτός.
3. One-word answers, where there is no verb to carry the ending: Ποιος θέλει καφέ; - Εγώ.
4. After και and ούτε, where the pronoun is the whole reply: Κι εγώ. / Ούτε εμείς.
5. Third-person disambiguation - είναι is the same for “he”, “she”, “it” and “they”, so αυτός, αυτή, αυτοί, αυτές step in when the context does not make it clear: Αυτή είναι δασκάλα, αυτός είναι γιατρός.

Two further points matter from the very start. First, only the nominative forms in the table below can be a subject: εμένα, εσένα, αυτόν are accusative and can never stand in for “I”, “you”, “he”. Second, Greek has no dummy subject: English “it” in “it is raining”, “it is cold”, “it is late” has no counterpart at all - Βρέχει. Κάνει κρύο. Είναι αργά. Adding αυτό there is wrong.

Forms & patterns

The nominative (subject) forms of the personal pronoun. The third person distinguishes gender in both numbers.

Compare the full paradigm of a verb: the ending alone identifies the person, which is why the pronoun column is optional in real speech.

Note the two cells where the ending is not unique: είναι covers both 3rd singular and 3rd plural. That is exactly where a pronoun most often earns its place.

Nominative against the other forms - only the first column can be a subject:

The object columns are here only so that you do not confuse them with the subject; they are taught in lesson 10.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Εγώ είμαι από την Ελλάδα και εγώ μένω στη Θεσσαλονίκη. -> Είμαι από την Ελλάδα και μένω στη Θεσσαλονίκη. - one pronoun per clause, English-style, is the commonest giveaway; drop it unless something is being contrasted.
• Εμένα μένω στην Πάτρα. -> Μένω στην Πάτρα. (emphatic: Εγώ μένω στην Πάτρα.) - εμένα is accusative and can never be the subject.
• Εσένα τι κάνεις; -> Εσύ τι κάνεις; - same error in the second person: subject εσύ, object εσένα.
• Αυτό βρέχει. -> Βρέχει. - Greek has no dummy “it”; weather and time verbs stand alone.
• Αυτό είναι αργά. -> Είναι αργά. - likewise for “it is late”, “it is cold”, “it is difficult”.
• Ποιος θέλει τσάι; - Με. -> Ποιος θέλει τσάι; - Εγώ. - a one-word answer is a subject, so it takes the nominative.
• Και εγώ θέλω. (as a bare reply) -> Κι εγώ. - before a vowel και normally becomes κι, and the short reply needs no verb.
• Αυτός γάτα είναι μαύρη. -> Η γάτα είναι μαύρη. - αυτός is not an article; do not use it to translate the English “it/the” of a thing.

Tips

• Ask yourself before writing a pronoun: am I setting this person against someone else? If not, delete it. The default Greek sentence begins with the verb.
• The ending is the pronoun. When you learn a new verb, learn the six endings, not the six pronoun-plus-verb pairs.
• είναι is the one form that is genuinely ambiguous (3rd singular and 3rd plural, all three genders). If your listener could not tell who you mean, add αυτός, αυτή, αυτοί, αυτές.
• Note the accents: εγώ, εσύ, εμείς, εσείς and every form of αυτός - αυτή, αυτό, αυτοί, αυτές, αυτά - are stressed on the last syllable, without exception. What needs care is the final vowel, not the place of the accent: αυτό is “it”, αυτά is “they (neuter)”.
• Contrast pairs are the natural home of these pronouns, so practise them in twos: εγώ … εσύ …, εμείς … εσείς …, αυτός … αυτή ….
• Remember that a Greek question ends in what looks like a semicolon - Εσύ πού μένεις; - and that πού “where” keeps its accent to separate it from the relative που.
• Do not translate the English “it” of “it is raining” or “it is nice here”. There is no word for it in Greek, and inserting αυτό changes the meaning to “this thing”.