Adjective patterns

[Cifi]

When I reached the "Adjective" skill, it gave two pattern for declinated (I think this is the term?) adjectives:

• stem ending in a consonant or unstressed vowel other than ι: -ος,-η,-ο
• stem ending in ι (unstressed or stressed) or in another stressed vowel: -ος,-α,-ο

As far as I understand unless they are invariant, "normal" adjectives would always fall in one of these two dependent on their stem ending, is that correct or are there exceptions?

But it is different for some color names because

• Γκρίζος, γκρίζα, γκρίζο follows the -ος,-α,-ο pattern despite its stem ending in a consonant
• There is a third pattern for colors: -ής,-ιά,-ί

Is this specific to colors and could someone help me with the complete declination of the last one? I can only remember masculine genetive singular from the skill: Πού είναι τα ρούχα του πορτοκαλή ελέφαντα;

(This one was so surprising, because up to now I associated the ending -η solely with feminine gender. But I guess it is very similar for someone learning German, e.g. with articles being "reused" for several different combinations of gender and case.)

[Phil682961]

• There is a third pattern for colors: -ής,-ιά,-ί

Is this specific to colors and could someone help me with the complete declination of the last one? I can only remember masculine genetive singular from the skill: Πού είναι τα ρούχα του πορτοκαλή ελέφαντα;

Adjectives, unfortunately, come in quite a few flavours... but I guess at least they are probably simpler than verbs

Here's the full declension of πορτοκαλής. This specific pattern is indeed specific to colours (but it's not the only pattern to have -ή in the masculine genitive singular).

For πορτοκαλής and the other colour adjectives that follow that pattern though, it's also common to use the -ί form as an indeclinable version. So in that sentence, πορτοκαλί would be an alternative.

As far as I understand unless they are invariant, "normal" adjectives would always fall in one of these two dependent on their stem ending, is that correct or are there exceptions?

There are quite a few other patterns still to learn

Probably the next most common (after the couple of variants of -ος) is the pattern followed by διεθνής ("international"). If I remember, Duolingo introduces this one using δημοφιλής ("popular").

Those adjectives also have -ή in the masculine genitive singular. (And that same form of the genitive – masculine nominative -ής and masculine genitive -ή – features in nouns like διευθυντής ("director/ manager")).

[O.Zoe]

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As Phil said, there are quite many adjective groups.

• Adjectives that end in -ος, -η, -ο are the most common.
  ο ελεύθερος - η ελεύθερη - το ελεύθερο (free)

• adjectives that end in -ος, -α, -ο
  ο νέος - η νέα - το νέο (new), ο γκρίζος - η γκρίζα - το γκρίζο (grey), ο καινούργιος - η καινούργια - το καινούργιο (new)

• -ος, -ια, -ο
  ο γλυκός - η γλυκιά - το γλυκό (sweet), ο φρέσκος - η φρέσκια - το φρέσκο (fresh)

• -ύς, -ιά, -ύ
  ο βαρύς - η βαριά - το βαρύ (heavy), ο μακρύς - η μακριά - το μακρύ (long)

• -ύς, -εία, -ύ
  ο βραχύς - η βραχεία - το βραχύ (short, brief), ο ταχύς - η ταχεία - το ταχύ (fast)

• -ής, -ιά, -ί
  ο χρυσαφής - η χρυσαφιά - το χρυσαφί (golden), ο πορτοκαλής - η πορτοκαλιά - το πορτοκαλί (orange)

• -ης, -ης, -ες
  ο διεθνής - η διεθνής - το διεθνές (international), ο ειλικρινής - η ειλικρινής - το ειλικρινές (honest), ο συνήθης - η συνήθης - το σύνηθες (usual)

• -ων, -ούσα, -ον
  ο ενδιαφέρων - η ενδιαφέρουσα - το ενδιαφέρον (interesting), ο απών - η απούσα - το απόν (absent)

• -ων/-ονας, -ων, -ον
  ο μετριόφρων/μετριόφρονας - η μετριόφρων - το μετριόφρον (modest)

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• -ης, -α, -ικο
  ο μικρούλης - η μικρούλα - το μικρούλικο (tiny little), ο ζηλιάρης - η ζηλιάρα - το ζηλιάρικο (jealous)

• -άς/-άς, -ού, -άδικο/-ήδικο
  ο υπναράς - η υπναρού - το υπναράδικο (sleepyhead), ο μερακλής - η μερακλού - το μερακλίδικο

• indeclinable adjectives (loanwords)
  ο γκρι - η γκρι - το γκρι (grey), ο ριγέ - η ριγέ - το ριγέ (striped)

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School grammar in Greek
adjectives on greekgrammar.eu

[Cifi]

I see. So it's going to get a lot more complicated. Now I am glad that I set my goals fairly low.