"Greek is spoken."
Translation:Τα ελληνικά ομιλούνται.
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Languages are plural indeed, unless you actually use the word 'language' (γλώσσα), in which case you need to match its gender and number:
η αγγλική γλώσσα - τα αγγλικά, η γαλλική γλώσσα - τα γαλλικά, η ιταλική γλώσσα - τα ιταλικά, οι ευρωπαϊκές γλώσσες -the european languages.
Yes indeed. Not sure why is that so though. I searched it up and a couple of natives say it's neuter plural because it would be like "English words", "αγγλικά λόγια"?
Or perhaps it's related to the use of the neuter plural form of adjectives being used as adverbs, e.g. μιλάω αγγλικά "I speak Englishly, in an English way" like μιλάω γρήγορα "I speak quickly" from γρήγορος, and that this adverb was then treated as a neuter plural noun since it looks like one.
Why in this sentence is an omnicron added to the front of the verb μιλαω? I know that either an epsilon or an eeta is added but i have never seen on omnicron. Are there any others verbs similar to this one?
It's the other way around; nothing is being added; instead, the difference is that the omicron is usually removed :)
ομιλώ is the old verb and this is usually shortened (and conjugation class changed) to μιλάω in general speech, similarly to how ημέρα can become μέρα and ευρίσκω (pronounced εβρίσκω) is βρίσκω nowadays. Also related is αποθνήσκω (aorist απέθανα) turned into πεθαίνω (πέθανα) with a removal of the alpha and a newly-formed present stem based on the aorist stem.
But in the passive voice, ομιλείται/ομιλούνται is more common, in my experience, than μιλιέται/μιλιούνται.
It is just how the verb is. And yes there are plenty of verbs like this one."Ομιλώ" is also kind of more formal but while talking to someone else you would say "Μιλώ" or more likely "Μιλάω".
This syntax can be used, but it emphasises the verb (as in answering to someone that said that Greek isn't spoken). Syntax is flexible in Greek and unfortunately, we cannot accept every possible syntax form in every sentence.
Maybe it sounds like a question and thus emphasizes the verb more than the object: Ομιλούνται τα Ελληνικά;
No, it's not that it sounds like a question. It is used in the cases where you want to emphasize the verb (Greek is spoken)
In the exercise, Ελληνικά was written with lower case ε, isn't that in Greek the names of languages and nationalities are always written starting with a capital letter like in English?
Indeed, usually the names of languages and nationalities are written starting with a capital letter