# την, τη and στην



## oceans

I need some clarification on a couple of things - the title says stin, I edited that part out. 

If I say 
Είμαι από την Ελλάδα
or
Είμαι από τη Γερμανία

Why is it τη for Germany and  την for Greece?  I've seen την with brackets around the (v) meaning that you can use τη, though in this case why not  την fro Germany?

Also is τη(ν) the accusative feminine article?


Many thanks


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## Σικελία για πάντα

Yes, την is the accusative feminine article.

It is without ν for Γερμανία because Γερμανία begins with γ.  The article is την when the word that follows begins with a vowel or with the consonants κ, ξ, π, τ, and ψ.

Rember: the consonant that follows the "ν" of the article must be read as the correspondant voiced sound.


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## Αγγελος

τη(ν) is the accusative feminine singular article indeed. In Greek, proper nouns always take the definite article: ο Γιάννης, η Ελλάδα, η Αθήνα...
The ancient form was την. The final ν is conserved before vowels (την Ελλάδα), dropped before continuant consonants (those whose utterance can be prologed at will, such as χ φ θ σ γ β δ ζ λ μ ν ρ -- hence τη Γερμανία, τη Ρωσία, τη Σουηδία), and conserved in writing before π τ κ τσ, where, howewer, it causes the following consonant to be pronounced voiced: thus we write την Κίνα, την Πολωνία, την Τσεχία but pronounce tin Gina, tim Bolonia, tin Dzehia (most people hardly pronounce the n in those cases, effectively saying tiGina, tiBolonia, tiDzehia).
The same rule holds concerning the pronoun την (=her): την αγαπώ but τη θέλω, and την ξέρω pronounced tigzero.
On the other hand, in the pronoun τον (=him) the final ν is always conserved.
The article τον (acc. masc. sing.) used to follow the same rule as την, but if I am not mistaken, the latest revision of official grammar for schools advises keeping the final ν even when it is not pronounced, to avoid confusion with the neuter form το. The gen. pl. form των always keeps its final ν.
The negative particles δεν and μην also follow the same rule (δεν ήρθε, δε θέλει, μην έρθεις, μη φύγεις), but it is advisable to systematically keep the finl ν in δεν to avoid confusion with the unrelated particle δε.


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## Perseas

To sum up:

the final ν is retained by the fem. definite article (τη*ν*/στη*ν *--> acc. sing.), by the personal pronoun (_αυτή*ν*/τη*ν *_--> acc. sing.), and also by the indeclinables _δε*ν*, μη*ν*_ in the written speach,  when the following word starts with a vowel or a consonant from these _κ, π, τ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ_. Ex. τη*ν* κόρη, τη*ν* ξένη, τη*ν* ντροπή, δε*ν* τη*ν* ακολούθησε.
the final ν from the words above is lost when the following word starts with these continuant consonants: _γ, β, δ, χ, φ, θ, λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, ζ_
the final ν is retained in the written speech by the masc. definite & indefinite article (το*ν*/στο*ν*/ένα*ν* --> acc. sing.), and also by the personal pronoun (αυτό*ν*/το*ν* --> acc. sing.), while in the oral speech it is pronounced only when the following word starts with a vowel or one of those consonants _κ, π, τ, μπ, ντ, γκ, τσ, τζ, ξ, ψ_. Ex. ένα*ν* συμμαθητή, στο*ν* ζωολογικό κήπο, αυτό*ν* τον άνθρωπο.

(Source: the latest version of the school grammar)


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## bieq

Hi eveyone,

Following this logic, we should say τη Δευτέρα, correct? Because Δευτέρα begins with Δ/δ. For example:

My attempt:
Τα γενέθλια μου είναι *τη* Δευτέρα. 
Τα γενέθλια μου είναι *την* Δευτέρα. 

Thank you!


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## Tr05

bieq said:


> Τα γενέθλιά μου είναι *τη* Δευτέρα.



The double accent mark is an important feature of the language (So that's probably why most people don't even remember the existence of the rule ).
That second stress is necessary whenever a possessive pronoun follows some nouns.
Which nouns? The ones stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.
What does that mean? It means that there will always be a "gap" between the two accented syllables, namely a syllable without a stress mark between twe other two.

Some other examples:

Το σπίτι μου  (=my house/my home)
Το σπίτί μου 

Ο ελέφαντάς σου είπε... (Your elephant said...)
Ο ελέφαντας σού είπε... (The elephant told you...) 
(I chose to omit the comas on purpose in order to highlight the difference)

I took a look around the forum and may have missed a thread or two that may have been about this topic, so that's why I answered here. 

Saludos


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## bieq

Tr05 said:


> The double accent mark is an important feature of the language (So that's probably why most people don't even remember the existence of the rule ).
> That second stress is necessary whenever a possessive pronoun follows some nouns.
> Which nouns? The ones stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.
> What does that mean? It means that there will always be a "gap" between the two accented syllables, namely a syllable without a stress mark between twe other two.
> 
> Some other examples:
> 
> Το σπίτι μου  (=my house/my home)
> Το σπίτί μου
> 
> Ο ελέφαντάς σου είπε... (Your elephant said...)
> Ο ελέφαντας σού είπε... (The elephant told you...)
> (I chose to omit the comas on purpose in order to highlight the difference)
> 
> I took a look around the forum and may have missed a thread or two that may have been about this topic, so that's why I answered here.
> 
> Saludos


Ευχαριστώ πολύ! I am new to Greek and did not know this rule. I’ll keep it in mind. 👍🏻


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## διαφορετικός

bieq said:


> I am new to Greek and did not know this rule.


Maybe you are not yet aware that this rule applies to pronunciation as well. I knew it only after I had started the following thread:
Προφορά του τόνου σε περιπτώσεις έγκλισης τόνου


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