In short

Coordination (παρατακτική σύνδεση) glues together two elements of equal rank: two words, two phrases or two whole clauses. Greek does it with a very short list of words — και “and” (written κι before a vowel), ή “or”, αλλά / όμως / μα “but”, and ούτε “nor, not even”. Two of them also come in pairs: και… και “both… and” and ούτε… ούτε “neither… nor”.

Three things trip up English speakers. First, και does not itself mark a contrast — it only links, so an explicit “but” needs αλλά, όμως or μα (a bare και is read as a contrast only when the two halves clash by themselves: Εγώ κλαίω και αυτός γελάει). Second, ή “or” must carry its accent, because the same letter without one, η, is the feminine article. Third, ούτε is itself a negative: placed in front of the verb it does the job of δεν and replaces it, but placed after the verb it needs δεν standing there as well.

The rule

και / κι. και joins anything with anything: nouns (ψωμί και τυρί), adjectives (μικρό και ζεστό), verbs (τρώω και πίνω), whole sentences (Ήρθα και έφυγα). Before a word beginning with a vowel it is regularly shortened to κι: κι εγώ, κι ο Νίκος, κι αύριο. Before a consonant only και is possible — κι μετά does not exist.

Additive και = “too, also, even”. When και stands immediately in front of a single word rather than between two elements, it adds that word to something already understood: Ήρθε και ο Νίκος “Nikos came too”. Compare Ήρθε ο Νίκος και ο Πέτρος “Nikos and Peter came”. The position, not the form, tells you which και you are looking at.

ή and είτε… είτε. ή offers an alternative: Καφέ ή τσάι; When the choice is being spelled out symmetrically, Greek repeats the conjunction — either ή… ή (Ή σήμερα ή αύριο) or the pair είτε… είτε “either… or”: Είτε σήμερα είτε αύριο.

αλλά, όμως, μα. All three mark contrast. αλλά is the neutral one and sits at the joint between the two clauses. μα is the same thing in a lighter, more colloquial voice, and also sits at the joint. όμως is different: it means “however” and is much freer — it can open the second clause, come after the first word or two, or land at the end. Ήθελα να έρθω, όμως δεν μπορούσα. / Ήθελα να έρθω, δεν μπορούσα όμως.

ούτε. ούτε is “and not / nor / not even”. Its interaction with δεν is the heart of the lesson:

• ούτε before the verb replaces δεν. Ούτε ήρθε ούτε τηλεφώνησε. Adding δεν here (ούτε δεν ήρθε) is wrong.
• ούτε after the verb co-occurs with δεν. Δεν θέλω ούτε καφέ. Δεν ξέρει ούτε αγγλικά ούτε γαλλικά. Dropping δεν here (θέλω ούτε καφέ) is wrong.
• Alone, ούτε often translates as “not even”: Δεν είπε ούτε μία λέξη.

Agreement across a coordination. Two rules, both automatic in Greek and both easy to forget in English-shaped sentences:

1. Coordinated nouns share one case — whichever case the sentence assigns them. If the verb takes an accusative object, both halves are accusative, article included: Βλέπω τον δάσκαλο και τον μαθητή.
2. Coordinated subjects take a plural verb, even when each one is singular: Ο Γιώργος και η Ελένη δουλεύουν μαζί. If the persons differ, the lower person wins: εγώ και εσύ → 1st plural (πάμε), εσύ και ο Νίκος → 2nd plural (πάτε).

Forms & patterns

The coordinators of this lesson:

Correlative pairs at work:

ούτε against δεν:

Coordinated nouns share one case — the whole paradigm of ο δάσκαλος και ο μαθητής. Note that the stress shifts inside δάσκαλος in the genitive and the accusative plural (ο δάσκαλος → του δασκάλου, τους δασκάλους):

Examples

Common mistakes

• Είναι φτηνό και δεν είναι καλό. -> Είναι φτηνό αλλά δεν είναι καλό. — και only links the two halves; to mark the contrast you need αλλά, όμως or μα.
• Καφέ η τσάι; -> Καφέ ή τσάι; — “or” is ή with its accent; unaccented η is the feminine article (the pronunciation guide covers this pair under punctuation and the disambiguating accent).
• Βλέπω τον δάσκαλο και ο μαθητής. -> Βλέπω τον δάσκαλο και τον μαθητή. — both halves of a coordination take the case the sentence assigns, article included.
• Ο Γιώργος και η Ελένη δουλεύει μαζί. -> Ο Γιώργος και η Ελένη δουλεύουν μαζί. — two singular subjects joined by και take a plural verb.
• Ούτε δεν ήρθε ούτε τηλεφώνησε. -> Ούτε ήρθε ούτε τηλεφώνησε. — ούτε in front of the verb already negates it, so δεν would be a second, redundant marker.
• Θέλω ούτε καφέ ούτε τσάι. -> Δεν θέλω ούτε καφέ ούτε τσάι. — when ούτε follows the verb, δεν must still be there.
• Πάμε κι μετά στο σπίτι. -> Πάμε και μετά στο σπίτι. — κι appears only before a vowel.

Tips

• Say the article twice. Repeating it (τον… και τον…, της… και της…) is the cheapest way to keep the case of the second noun from drifting into the nominative.
• και and κι are the same word: use κι only when the next word starts with a vowel, and remember that και there is never wrong either.
• Test with “both”: if English could say “both X and Y”, Greek says και X και Y. If it could say “neither… nor”, Greek says ούτε… ούτε.
• Read ούτε as “and not”. That one gloss predicts everything: “and not” already carries a negation, so it either supplies the δεν or joins one that is already in the sentence.
• Watch where και sits. Between two elements it is “and”; parked in front of one element it is “too / even”.
• Treat όμως as movable and αλλά / μα as fixed. If you want the contrast word later in the sentence, it has to be όμως.
• The accent on ή is not decoration — it is the whole spelling. Write it every single time.