In short

English packs almost everything after a verb into one little word, “that” — and often drops it: I say (that) it is late, I want you to come, I’m glad you came. Greek sorts the same clauses into three boxes, and the governing verb picks the box:

• ότι / πως after verbs of saying, thinking and perceiving — λέω ότι, ξέρω πως.
• να after verbs of wanting, hoping, trying and asking — ελπίζω να, θέλω να.
• που after verbs of emotion — χαίρομαι που, λυπάμαι που, μου αρέσει που.

Indirect questions are a fourth pattern: αν for yes/no questions (Ρώτησε αν είμαι εδώ) and the ordinary question words for the rest, with their accents kept (Πες μου τι είδες, Μου είπε πού μένει, Δεν ξέρω πώς…). The embedded clause has statement word order, and the punctuation follows the main clause: a full stop after a statement or a command (Πες μου τι είδες.), «;» only when the main clause is itself a question (Ξέρεις πού μένει;).

The rule

1. Factual clauses (ειδικές προτάσεις): ότι or πως. After a verb that reports something as a fact or a belief — λέω, νομίζω, πιστεύω, ξέρω, μαθαίνω, ακούω, βλέπω, καταλαβαίνω — the clause opens with ότι or πως. The two are interchangeable; πως is slightly more colloquial. Unlike English “that”, the complementizer is not optional: you cannot say Νομίζω έχεις δίκιο.

2. Non-factual clauses (βουλητικές προτάσεις): να. After a verb that expresses will, hope, effort or request — θέλω, ελπίζω, προτιμώ, προσπαθώ, ζητάω, φοβάμαι, αποφασίζω — the clause opens with να and the verb goes into the subjunctive. This is the slot where English uses an infinitive (“I want to go”, “I hope to see you”) or an accusative + infinitive (“I want you to go”). Greek has no infinitive at all, so both come out as να + a fully conjugated verb: Θέλω να πάω / Θέλω να πας. Because the να-verb is conjugated, Greek needs no extra pronoun to change the subject.

3. Emotive clauses: που. Verbs and expressions of feeling — χαίρομαι, λυπάμαι, στενοχωριέμαι, μου αρέσει, είναι κρίμα — take που. The event is real (you did come), so ότι would be grammatically thinkable, but idiomatic Greek says Χαίρομαι που ήρθες. This που is unaccented, exactly like the relative που of lesson 37.

4. Negation: two negators, two positions. The main clause and any ότι/που clause take δεν. A να clause takes μην, placed after να and before the verb. So the negation lands in two different places with two different meanings:

• Δεν νομίζω ότι θα έρθει. — the thinking is denied.
• Νομίζω ότι δεν θα έρθει. — the coming is denied.
• Δεν θέλω να πας. — I have no wish for you to go.
• Θέλω να μην πας. — I actively want you to stay away.

5. Indirect questions (πλάγιες ερωτηματικές προτάσεις). A question embedded under ρωτάω, λέω, ξέρω, μαθαίνω, θυμάμαι, καταλαβαίνω keeps the words of the direct question but loses its punctuation:

• A yes/no question becomes αν (“if, whether”): Είσαι εδώ; → Ρώτησε αν είμαι εδώ.
• A wh-question keeps its question word — τι, πού, πώς, πότε, ποιος, πόσο, γιατί — and its accent: πού and πώς stay accented inside the clause, because they are still interrogatives. That accent is the only thing separating them from the conjunctions που “that/which” and πως “that”.

There is no inversion to undo (Greek does not invert in questions anyway) and no auxiliary to remove, so the embedded clause looks like a plain statement. The whole sentence takes a full stop: Πες μου τι είδες.

Forms & patterns

Which complementizer does the verb take?

Three governing verbs, all six persons. The complement type belongs to the verb, so it stays the same through the whole paradigm.

Two contracted deponents that govern complements, all six persons:

Φοβάμαι takes να for a reluctance to act (Φοβάμαι να οδηγήσω τη νύχτα, “I’m afraid to drive at night”) and ότι/πως for a feared fact (Φοβάμαι ότι δεν προλαβαίνουμε).

Μου αρέσει που… — the verb stays in the third person and the experiencer is a weak genitive pronoun:

Negation, side by side:

Direct question → indirect question:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Θέλω ότι φύγεις -> Θέλω να φύγεις — θέλω never takes ότι. Verbs of will open their clause with να.
• Θέλω πηγαίνω -> Θέλω να πάω — Greek has no infinitive, so a second verb is impossible without να.
• Ελπίζω ότι να έρθεις -> Ελπίζω να έρθεις — one opener per clause; never stack ότι and να.
• Χαίρομαι ότι ήρθες -> Χαίρομαι που ήρθες — verbs of emotion take που, not ότι.
• Νομίζω να έχεις δίκιο -> Νομίζω ότι έχεις δίκιο — νομίζω reports a belief, which is a factual clause.
• Νομίζω έχεις δίκιο -> Νομίζω ότι έχεις δίκιο — English may drop “that”, Greek may not.
• Θέλω να δεν πας -> Θέλω να μην πας — inside a να clause the negator is μην, straight after να.
• Μου είπε που μένει -> Μου είπε πού μένει — unaccented που means “that/which”; the embedded “where” keeps its accent.
• Δεν ξέρω πως να το κάνω -> Δεν ξέρω πώς να το κάνω — same trap with πως “that” vs πώς “how”.
• Ρώτησε είμαι εδώ -> Ρώτησε αν είμαι εδώ — an embedded yes/no question needs αν.
• Πες μου τι είδες; -> Πες μου τι είδες. — the sentence as a whole is a command, so it ends with a full stop, not «;».

Tips

• Ask one question before you write the clause: what does the governing verb do? Say or think → ότι/πως. Want, hope, try, ask → να. Feel → που. The English “that” gives you no information at all.
• Two accents do all the disambiguating work here: πού “where?” and πώς “how?” keep their accent inside a clause, while που “that/which” and πως “that” never take one. If the word is asking for information, accent it.
• Do not confuse ότι “that” with ό,τι “whatever” — the comma is part of the spelling. Ό,τι belongs to the free relatives of lesson 46.
• Negation is a meaning switch, not a formality: δεν νομίζω ότι… softens (“I don’t think…”), θέλω να μην… is a real, positive wish for something not to happen.
• After να, choose the aspect as usual: perfective for one completed event (Θέλω να φύγω τώρα), continuous for a habit or a process (Προσπαθώ να μιλάω πιο αργά).
• Watch the enclitic accent when a possessive follows a word stressed three syllables from the end: «Ο δάσκαλός μου είπε πως…» = “my teacher said that…”, but «Ο δάσκαλος μού είπε πως…» = “the teacher told me that…”.
• Verbs of past reporting also shift tenses and words like εδώ/αύριο — that is the topic of lesson 45. The hedging μήπως after φοβάμαι comes in lesson 56.