The Greek verb κάνω.

How to conjugate and how to use it. Phrases and idioms.

Today we will learn how to conjugate and how to use the Greek verb κάνω/ I make/I do, one of the most common verbs in Modern Greek. I suppose that the majority of you knows this verb, because it is one of the first verbs a beginner learns, but do you also know all the expressions and the idioms we use in daily life with the verb κάνω; Today I am going to explain to you many of them.

The verb κάνω is a first conjugation verb, so it is a verb ending in first singular person in Present tense in omega without accent. So we can conjugate it the same way we conjugate the verbs παίζω, νομίζω, καταλαβαίνω, μαγειρεύω.

The verb κάνω in Present tense.

Εγώ κάνω/I am making/I make. We use the Greek Ενεστώτας tense both as Present Continuous and  Present Simple.

Ενεστώτας

εγώ κάνω

εσύ κάνεις

αυτός/ αυτή/ αυτό κάνει

εμείς κάνουμε

εσείς κάνετε

αυτοί/ αυτές/ αυτά κάνουν/κάνουνε

 

The good news about this verb is that we don’t have two different forms for the Past Continuous and the Simple Past. In both Past Continuous and Past Simple we say εγώ έκανα/i was doing/i did

Αόριστος/ Παρατατικός

εγώ έκανα

εσύ έκανες

αυτός/ αυτή/ αυτό έκανε

εμείς κάναμε

εσείς κάνατε

αυτοί/ αυτές/ αυτά έκαναν / κάνανε

 

Also you are lucky because we have one form for the future tenses as well.

Εγώ θα κάνω/I will do/I will be doing

Μέλλοντας Στιγμιαίος/ Μέλλοντας Εξακολουθητικός

εγώ θα κάνω

εσύ θα κάνεις

αυτός/ αυτή/ αυτό θα κάνει

εμείς θα κάνουμε

εσείς θα κάνετε

αυτοί/ αυτές/ αυτά θα κάνουν/ κάνουνε

 

After the easy and boring part of this lesson, let’s see how to use this verb and which phrases you should use to sound more natural when you speak Greek.

We use this verb to ask “How are you?”

Τι κάνεις; when we talk to one person and τι κάνετε; when we want to be polite or we talk to many people. We use the same question, very often accompanied by an adverb of place, to ask “what are you doing?”. For example:

Τι κάνεις εδώ;/what are you doing here?

Tι κάνεις εκεί;/what are you doing there?

 

Another way to use this verb is in the phrase “Πόσο κάνει;” instead of πόσο κοστίζει; How much does it cost?

We use this phrase when we want to learn the price of one thing. If we want to mention what is this, we will use before or usually after the phrase a noun in Nominative.

For example πόσο κάνει η σοκολάτα; and in Plural πόσο κάνουν οι σοκολάτες;

 

We use the verb κάνω in third singular person to talk about the weather.

Τι καιρό κάνει σήμερα στη Θεσσαλονίκη;/what is the weather like today in Thessaloniki?

Kάνει κρύο./it is cold.

Τι καιρό θα κάνει αύριο;/what will the weather be like tomorrow?

Θα κάνει ζέστη./it will be hot.

 

We use the verb κάνω instead of the verbs προσποιούμαι, παριστάνω/I pretend.

Μην κάνεις τον χαζό. Καταλαβαίνεις τι εννοώ./ Don’t play the fool. You understand what I mean.

Έκανε τον κοιμισμένο για να με αποφύγει./He pretended that he was sleeping to avoid me.

 

Another way to use the third singular person of the verb κάνω is to say what we should or we shouldn’t do. For example:

Δεν κάνει να μιλάς σε αγνώστους./it is not good to/it is not right to/you shouldn’t talk to strangers/to people you don’t know.

Μαμά, κάνει να πιω καφέ;/Mom, should i/can i drink coffee?

 

We use the verb κάνω instead of the verb μαγειρεύω/I cook.

Αύριο θα κάνω μουσακά. / Tomorrow I will make/I will cook moussaka. As you can see we don’t use articles before the name of the food. Although in Greek we almost always use articles, even with proper names, in many phrases with verb κάνω, we will talk about them later, we don’t use articles.

 

We use the verb κάνω to say “I learn, I attend classes”.

Ο γιος μου κάθε σαββατοκύριακο κάνει κιθάρα, γαλλικά και μπάσκετ./ My son every weekend learns guitar, French and basketball.

Κάνω μεταπτυχιακό/I am doing a master’s degree/I am studying for a master’s degree.

Κάνω διδακτορικό/I am doing a PhD/I am working towards a PhD.

 

We can use the verb κάνω in third singular or third plural persons when we talk about clothes or shoes.

Αυτό το φόρεμα δε σου κάνει. Είναι μικρό./ This dress does not suit you/does not fit you. We don’t want to say that the dress is not beautiful on you but that it is small or big.

Αυτά τα παπούτσια δε μου κάνουν./ These shoes do not fit me.

 

Let’s see now some phrases we often use and then we will go to the idioms.

Κάνω δίαιτα/I am on a diet

Κάνω ποδήλατο/I ride a bike

Κάνω παρέα/I hang out with/I keep company

Κάνω πλάκα/I am kidding

Κάνω πάρτι/I am having a party

Κάνω ησυχία/I keep quiet, I hush

Κάνω φασαρία/I make noise, I make a fuss, I cause trouble

Κάνω υπομονή/I keep a stiff, I hold on

Κάνω γρήγορα/I make fast, we usually use this phrase in imperative κάνε γρήγορα!/hurry up

Κάνω λάθος/I am wrong

 

And let’s see some idioms now.

Τα κάνω σαλάτα/τα κάνω θάλασσα/I make them salad/I make them sea.

Both of them mean “to mess things up”, “to go pear-shaped”.

Μαζί δεν κάνουμε και χώρια δεν μπορούμε/together we don’t make and apart/separately we cannot. It means “we cannot stand each other, but we cannot live without one another”, “we can’t live with or without each other.

Κάνω μια τρύπα στο νερό/I make a hole in the water.

It means “to draw a blank”, “to beat the air”

Κάνω πέτρα την καρδιά μου/I make my heart stone.

It means “I grin and bear it”, “I suffer without complaint”

Κάνω του κεφαλιού μου/I make my head’s

A phrase we use when we don’t follow someone advice and we do whatever we wish.