In short

Greek has two sets of object pronouns, and they are not interchangeable. The weak (unstressed) forms — με, σε, τον, την, το, μας, σας, τους, τις, τα — are the everyday ones: they carry no stress of their own, they lean on the verb, and they stand immediately before it: Σε βλέπω. Τον ξέρω. Δεν το θέλω.

The strong (stressed) forms — εμένα, εσένα, αυτόν, αυτήν, αυτό, εμάς, εσάς, αυτούς, αυτές, αυτά — are used only when the pronoun has to be heard: for emphasis and contrast (Εσένα ρωτάω, όχι αυτόν), and after a preposition (για μένα, με αυτόν).

So English “I see him” and “I see HIM, not her” are two different Greek sentences: Τον βλέπω vs Αυτόν βλέπω, όχι αυτήν.

The rule

1. The weak form is the default object. If the object of the verb is just a pronoun and nothing special is happening, use the weak form. It goes directly in front of the finite verb, with nothing in between:

• Με ακούς; — “Do you hear me?”
• Σας περιμένουμε. — “We are waiting for you.”

Nothing may be inserted between the weak pronoun and its verb — no adverb, no subject, nothing. *Σε πάντα βλέπω is impossible; you say Πάντα σε βλέπω.

2. After δεν, the weak form still hugs the verb. The negator comes first, then the pronoun, then the verb: δεν + pronoun + verb.

• Δεν τον ξέρω. — “I don’t know him.”
• Δεν μας ακούνε. — “They don’t hear us.”

The same holds for the question word: Γιατί δεν με ρωτάς; The pronoun never gets separated from the verb.

3. The third person agrees with the gender of the thing referred to, not with any English notion of animacy. Greek has no “it” that covers everything: a book is neuter (το), a bag is feminine (την), a coffee is masculine (τον).

• Το βιβλίο; Το διαβάζω. — “The book? I’m reading it.”
• Την τσάντα; Την παίρνω. — “The bag? I’m taking it.”
• Τον καφέ; Τον πίνω. — “The coffee? I’m drinking it.”

4. The final -ν of τον and την follows the usual rule (see lesson 8): it is kept before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ, and it drops before the other consonants. So τον ξέρω, την παίρνω, τον ακούω keep it, but τη βλέπω, τη θέλω, τη φωνάζω lose it. Masculine τον, however, is normally kept everywhere in practice, because dropping it would make it look like the neuter το: το βλέπω “I see it” vs τον βλέπω “I see him”.

5. The strong form is used in exactly two situations.

(a) Emphasis and contrast. When the pronoun is the point of the sentence — it is being singled out, corrected, or set against something else — the strong form appears, typically at the front:

• Εσένα ρωτάω, όχι αυτόν. — “It’s you I’m asking, not him.”
• Εμένα δεν με πειράζει. — “It doesn’t bother me.” (strong + weak together, see the note below)

(b) After a preposition. A preposition can never be followed by a weak form:

• για μένα, σε εμάς, με αυτόν, από εσένα, χωρίς αυτήν.

After the very frequent prepositions για, με, σε, από, the first- and second-person strong forms often drop their initial ε- in speech and writing: για μένα, με σένα, από μας. Both για εμένα and για μένα are correct.

6. A strong form at the front is usually echoed by a weak one. When you front a strong object for emphasis, Greek very often keeps the weak pronoun on the verb as well: Εμένα με ρωτάς; “Are you asking me?” This doubling is normal and native; it is treated properly in lesson 59.

Note the boundary of this lesson: these are accusative (direct-object) pronouns. The genitive weak forms μου, σου, του — used for possession and for the indirect object — are lesson 13 and lesson 34, and what happens when two weak pronouns meet (μου το, σου τον) is lesson 42.

Forms & patterns

Weak (unstressed) accusative forms — used before the verb

Strong (stressed) accusative forms — after prepositions, and for emphasis

The third person in full — the strong third person is simply the demonstrative αυτός, which declines like an adjective. Here is the whole paradigm, so that you can see where the accusative sits (lesson 11 takes it further):

Only the αιτιατική row is an object pronoun. The ονομαστική row (αυτός, αυτή, αυτό) is the subject — never put it after a preposition.

The two sets in one sentence frame, so you can hear the difference:

Placement in a negative sentence

Examples

Common mistakes

• Βλέπω τον. -> Τον βλέπω. The weak pronoun cannot follow the verb in a statement; it always stands immediately before it. (After a positive imperative it does follow — that is lesson 26.)
• Ξέρω αυτόν. -> Τον ξέρω. A plain, unemphatic object takes the weak form. Αυτόν ξέρω is grammatical but means “it’s him I know”, which is not what you meant.
• Για αυτός. / Με εσύ. -> Για αυτόν. / Με σένα. A preposition governs the accusative, so the nominative αυτός, εσύ, εμείς can never follow it.
• Με με λένε Άννα. / Για με. -> Με λένε Άννα. / Για μένα. The weak form με never follows a preposition; the strong form is (ε)μένα.
• Σε πάντα περιμένω. -> Πάντα σε περιμένω. Nothing may come between the weak pronoun and its verb — move the adverb outside the pair.
• Τον δεν ξέρω. -> Δεν τον ξέρω. Δεν comes first, then the pronoun, then the verb.
• Το τσάντα την παίρνω. / Το εφημερίδα τη διαβάζω. -> Την τσάντα την παίρνω. / Την εφημερίδα τη διαβάζω. The third-person weak pronoun copies the gender of its antecedent, and so does the article; a feminine noun never takes το.
• Σας ευχαριστώ εσάς πολύ (as a neutral thank-you) -> Σας ευχαριστώ πολύ. Add the strong form only if you really are contrasting: Εσάς ευχαριστώ, όχι αυτούς.

Tips

• Learn the weak forms as part of the verb, not as separate words: σεβλέπω, τονξέρω, δεντονξέρω. They have no stress of their own and they lean on the verb like a prefix — that is exactly how they sound in speech.
• The weak third-person forms are exactly the accusative forms of the definite article: τον, την, το, τους, τις, τα. If you know the article (lesson 1), you already know these — not one of the six differs.
• Use a simple test for which set you need: if you could shout the pronoun in English (“I’m asking YOU”), use the strong form; otherwise use the weak one.
• After any preposition, switch to the strong set automatically. It helps to memorise them as fixed chunks: για μένα, με σένα, από αυτόν, χωρίς εσάς.
• Choose the third-person form by the gender of the Greek noun, not by the English translation. English “it” hides three different Greek pronouns: τον (καφές), την (τσάντα), το (βιβλίο).
• Keep the -ν of την before a vowel or κ, π, τ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ, and drop it elsewhere (την ακούω but τη βλέπω). With masculine τον, keep it — it is what tells your listener “him” and not “it”.
• Do not be surprised by Εμένα με ρωτάς; — the doubled pronoun is correct and very common; the strong form supplies the emphasis and the weak one stays with the verb.