In short

The genitive is the case of belonging. Where English says of the house or the house’s, Greek puts the article and the noun into the genitive: του σπιτιού. The article is short and easy — του (masculine), της (feminine), του (neuter), and one single form των for all three genders in the plural. The nouns themselves are also easy, except for one thing that trips up every beginner: in many words the stress moves one syllable to the right. Ο άνθρωπος becomes του ανθρώπου, and in the genitive plural the accent very often lands on the ending itself: των γυναικών, των πολιτών, των παιδιών. Learning the genitive means learning where the accent goes, not just which letters to add.

The rule

1. Word order is fixed: possessed first, possessor second. Greek has no ‘s. The thing owned comes first in the nominative or accusative, and the owner follows in the genitive:

• το σπίτι του Γιώργου — George’s house (literally “the house of-the George”)
• η πόρτα του σπιτιού — the door of the house
• το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας — Maria’s car

The English order George’s house can never be copied into Greek.

2. Personal names take an article too. Greek uses the definite article with first names, so the genitive of a name is always του Γιώργου, της Άννας, του Νίκου — never a bare name. This is the single most common mistake English speakers make.

3. The article of the genitive. Learn it as a block; it does most of the work:

4. Everything inside the phrase agrees. An adjective in front of the noun goes into the genitive as well, and it carries its own accent shift where it has one: του καλού φίλου, της μεγάλης πόλης, των μικρών παιδιών.

5. The accent moves. Modern Greek allows an accent only on one of the last three syllables (the three-syllable rule). Two things push the accent right in the genitive: an ending that adds a syllable (το μάθημα → του μαθήματος), and the endings -ου / -ων, which in learned words refuse to leave the accent three syllables back. So a word of that kind, stressed on the third-from-last syllable in the nominative, is pushed forward:

• ο άνθρωπος → του ανθρώπου
• το μάθημα → του μαθήματος
• ο δάσκαλος → των δασκάλων

That push belongs to the learned, book-formed half of the vocabulary. Homely words of exactly the same shape keep the accent where the nominative has it: ο αντίλαλος → του αντίλαλου, των αντίλαλων; το σίδερο → του σίδερου, των σίδερων. So the shape of the word does not decide it — the individual word does.

6. The genitive plural very often ends up stressed on the ending. Nouns in -ης / -ες and many feminines in -α / -η pull the accent right onto -ών: οι πολίτες → των πολιτών, οι γυναίκες → των γυναικών, οι θάλασσες → των θαλασσών. This is the form learners under-produce most, because it sounds like a different word. It is not automatic, though: plenty of nouns keep the stress where the nominative has it — η μητέρα → των μητέρων, η εικόνα → των εικόνων, η πόλη → των πόλεων — so learn the genitive plural noun by noun.

7. When a genitive is awkward to form, Greek replaces it with από. An από + accusative phrase can stand in for the genitive: η τιμή των εισιτηρίων → η τιμή από τα εισιτήρια (“the price of the tickets”), τα κλειδιά από τις πόρτες, η μυρωδιά από τα πορτοκάλια. This is not slang and carries no style label — it is a plain use of από, reached for above all with nouns that build their genitive with difficulty. Some nouns barely use the genitive plural at all, and indeclinable loans (το ταξί, το μετρό) show it only on the article.

8. Asking about the owner. The question word is ποιος, and its genitive is ποιου / ποιας / ποιων. Beside it stands a second genitive τίνος; (“whose?”), and — usually when the question word stands on its own, with no noun after it — ποιανού / ποιανής / ποιανών;. None of the three is the “careful” one and none is the “everyday” one; only the plural τίνων is rare: Τίνος είναι αυτό; / Ποιανού είναι αυτά τα κλειδιά; / Ποιου γιατρού είναι το αυτοκίνητο;

9. Other jobs of the genitive. Beyond ownership it expresses the general of-relation (η αρχή του μήνα), a quality (ένας δάσκαλος μεγάλης υπομονής), age (ένα αγόρι έντεκα χρόνων / έντεκα χρονών, ένα μωρό ενός χρόνου), and dates (του Ιουνίου, στις 3 Μαΐου).

Forms & patterns

The definite article, all four cases

The indefinite article

Masculine: ο φίλος (stable accent) and ο άνθρωπος (shifting accent)

Masculine: ο δάσκαλος and ο πολίτης

Feminine: η γυναίκα and η πόλη

Neuter: το παιδί, το μάθημα, το δάσος

Adjective + noun in the genitive

Where the accent lands: a summary

Interrogatives

Examples

Common mistakes

• του ανθρωπος -> του ανθρώπου — the ending changes and the stress moves with it; the nominative form cannot stand after του.
• των ανθρωπων -> των ανθρώπων — an unaccented polysyllable is a spelling error; in the genitive the accent must be written where it is actually heard.
• των γυναίκων -> των γυναικών — feminines in -α pull the accent onto the ending -ών in the genitive plural, they do not keep the nominative stress.
• των πολίτων -> των πολιτών — same rule for masculines in -ης; οι πολίτες → των πολιτών.
• του μάθηματος -> του μαθήματος — the syllable -τος pushes the accent one place right; only the last three syllables may carry it.
• Γιώργου το σπίτι -> το σπίτι του Γιώργου — Greek has no ‘s construction; the possessed noun comes first and the genitive follows.
• το σπίτι Γιώργου -> το σπίτι του Γιώργου — personal names keep their article, so the genitive of a name is always article + name.
• η πόρτα του σπίτι -> η πόρτα του σπιτιού — the noun must be in the genitive too, not just the article.
• του μεγάλη πόλης -> της μεγάλης πόλης — article, adjective and noun all agree in gender, number and case.
• Τίνος είναι αυτό? -> Τίνος είναι αυτό; — a Greek question ends with the ερωτηματικό «;», never with «?».

Tips

• Learn the article as a four-word chant — του, της, του, των — and half the genitive is done before you touch the noun.
• Say the genitive plural out loud with the accent on the ending: των γυναικών, των πολιτών, των παιδιών. If it feels like a new word, you have it right.
• When you meet a new noun, write down three forms, not one: ο δάσκαλος, του δασκάλου, των δασκάλων. A bare headword will not tell you where the accent ends up — a proper Greek dictionary gives every noun an inflection-class code that does.
• Build phrases back-to-front from English: the door of the house → the possessed thing first (η πόρτα), then του + genitive (του σπιτιού).
• Never drop the article in front of a name. If you can say «ο Γιώργος», you can say «του Γιώργου».
• If a genitive plural sounds clumsy or you are unsure of its accent, reach for the από + accusative paraphrase — it is plain Greek with no stylistic label attached, not a cheat.
• Ages and dates are ready-made genitive phrases; memorise ενός χρόνου, δύο χρόνων / δύο χρονών and the months του Ιανουαρίου, του Μαΐου as fixed blocks.