In short

English marks the recipient either by position (“he gives me the book”) or with a preposition (“he gives the book to me”). Modern Greek does neither when the recipient is a pronoun: it puts the pronoun in the genitive, in its short unstressed form, and parks it immediately before the verb — μου δίνει το βιβλίο.

The set is the familiar one: μου, σου, του / της / του, μας, σας, τους. It is the same series you learned as the possessive, but here it does a completely different job: after a noun it means “my, your, his”; before a verb it means “to me, to you, to him”. Position alone tells the two apart, which is why placement is the whole lesson.

Full noun recipients keep the preposition σε: Έδωσα το βιβλίο στη Μαρία — but the moment Μαρία becomes a pronoun, σε disappears and the genitive takes over: Της έδωσα το βιβλίο.

The rule

1. Which verbs. Verbs of giving, saying and sending take two objects: a thing (direct, accusative) and a person (indirect, genitive). The core group: δίνω, λέω, στέλνω, φέρνω, δείχνω, γράφω, αγοράζω, τηλεφωνώ, μιλάω, εξηγώ, υπόσχομαι, απαντώ. The thing given stays accusative; only the person switches to the genitive.

2. Pronoun vs noun. A pronoun recipient goes into the weak genitive placed before the verb. A noun recipient stays after the verb with σε + accusative (στον, στη(ν), στο). Never use a bare noun genitive for a recipient: το βιβλίο της Μαρίας means “Maria’s book”, not “to Maria”.

3. Placement. The weak pronoun leans on the verb and cannot stand alone or start a sentence. With a plain finite verb it comes first; with δεν, μην, θα, να, ας it slots in between the particle and the verb — δεν μου λέει, θα σου τηλεφωνήσω, θέλω να της μιλήσω. The main exception is the positive imperative, where the pronoun follows the verb: Δείξε μου! (lesson 26 owns that; the gerund behaves the same way — λέγοντάς μου).

4. Experiencer verbs. A large family treats the person who feels something as an indirect object: μου αρέσει, μου λείπεις, μου φαίνεται, μου πάει, μου φτάνει, μου συμβαίνει. The verb agrees with its subject — what is liked or missed — never with the genitive person: Μου αρέσουν τα λουλούδια — the flowers are the subject, μου is only “to me”.

5. Adverbials. Several place adverbs and set phrases also take the weak genitive: κοντά μου, δίπλα σου, μπροστά της, πίσω μας, μαζί μου, μπράβο του. Here the pronoun follows, because the host is not a verb.

6. Emphasis. To stress the recipient, add the strong form and keep the clitic: Εμένα μου το είπε, όχι εσένα. With σε: Σ’ εμένα δεν είπε τίποτα.

Forms & patterns

The personal pronoun, all persons, both series. (The personal pronoun has no vocative; you address people with the noun’s vocative — lesson 21.)

Note the two overlaps: 1st/2nd plural μας, σας are genitive and accusative alike, and 3rd plural genitive τους looks like the masculine accusative τους. The verb resolves it — Τους είδα “I saw them” (accusative, direct) against Τους έδωσα τα κλειδιά “I gave them the keys” (genitive, indirect).

The verb runs through all six persons with the clitic frozen in front of it:

Placement against the particles:

The experiencer pattern, all six persons — only the clitic moves, αρέσει stays put because its subject is η θάλασσα:

Adverbials that govern the weak genitive (pronoun follows the host word):

απέναντι is stressed on the third syllable from the end, so the following clitic forces the obligatory second accent: απέναντί του. Same mechanism as ο δάσκαλός μου, το αυτοκίνητό της.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Με είπε ότι θα αργήσει. -> Μου είπε ότι θα αργήσει. — λέω marks the person told with the genitive; the accusative με would make me the thing said.
• Δίνει μου το βιβλίο. -> Μου δίνει το βιβλίο. — the object clitic goes before the verb. Only the possessive follows its noun (το βιβλίο μου).
• Μου δεν λέει τίποτα. -> Δεν μου λέει τίποτα. — δεν, μην, θα, να, ας always come first; the pronoun sits between the particle and the verb.
• Έδωσα το βιβλίο της Μαρίας. -> Έδωσα το βιβλίο στη Μαρία. — a full noun recipient needs σε + accusative; the bare genitive reads as “Maria’s book”.
• Τηλεφώνησα στα παιδιά και της είπα να έρθουν. -> …και τους είπα να έρθουν. — τους is the plural for all three genders; της is only feminine singular.
• Εγώ αρέσω η μουσική. -> Μου αρέσει η μουσική. — the thing liked is the subject, the person is a genitive clitic; the verb agrees with η μουσική.
• Μου λείπει εσύ. -> Μου λείπεις. — λείπω agrees with the person missed, so “you” is the subject and shows up in the ending.
• Κάτσε κοντά με. -> Κάτσε κοντά μου. — κοντά, δίπλα, μπροστά, μαζί take the weak genitive, never the accusative.

Tips

• Two questions settle every case: is the recipient a pronoun or a noun? (pronoun → genitive clitic, noun → σε + accusative), and is there a particle? (δεν / μην / θα / να / ας first, then the clitic, then the verb).
• Learn δίνω, λέω, στέλνω, φέρνω, δείχνω as a block — they all mean “X to somebody”, and in Greek that somebody is always genitive.
• Memorise the experiencer verbs as whole chunks with μου attached: μου αρέσει, μου λείπει, μου φαίνεται, μου πάει. Translating them word for word from English produces nonsense.
• Watch the disambiguating accent when the clitic follows a noun: Η μητέρα μού έστειλε ένα μήνυμα (“Mother sent me a message”) against η μητέρα μου έστειλε ένα μήνυμα (“my mother sent a message”). The accent is what tells the reader it is an object, not a possessive.
• Remember the second accent in the possessive-looking pairs: ο δάσκαλός μου, το όνομά της, απέναντί μας. A word stressed on its antepenult gets an extra accent on its last syllable when a clitic follows.
• There is no dative in Modern Greek — the genitive absorbed its work. If you know another language with a dative, map that dative straight onto this clitic series.
• When you want emphasis, do not move the clitic; add a strong form beside it: Εμένα μου αρέσει, εσένα δεν σου αρέσει.