A language learners’ forum

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:06 am**

Welcome to the study group for Modern Greek!

This is a place to share resources, difficulties, and questions about Modern Greek. Please abide by the following guidelines:

If you're new, please subscribe to the topic by clicking the Tools icon above this post (it looks like a little wrench) and selecting "subscribe". Then introduce yourself and tell us why you're learning this beautiful language! Share your routine and your preferred resources, if you are so inspired. The resources post will be updated below.

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:07 am**

Greek Resources for Beginners

Online Resources and E-books

Kypros Learn Greek (free, but registration seems to be broken)
Language Transfer Complete Greek (free, highly recommended by most learners)
Modern Greek Grammar Notes for Absolute Beginners (free PDF)
Memrise Top 2500 Words in Greek (SRS flashcards of the most frequent 2500 words in Modern Greek)
Duolingo (Duolingo has a Modern Greek course available)

Books and Physical Courses

Assimil Le Grec (Assimil Greek) (English version not available)

Podcasts and Listening Resources

Learning Greek Podcasts from the American Hellenic Union (free, includes transcripts in Greek)

Other

TypeRacer Ελλινικά (typing practice for using the Greek keyboard)
Easy Greek Readers from Deltos Publishing (apps containing simple short stories available for iOS and Google Play)

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:11 am**

This post is reserved for resources.

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 3:32 am**

Hi, I'm zjones, or you can call me Zelda.

My native language is American English and I live in the United States. In March of 2018, I started learning French as my second language, and in the late summer I started thinking about adding a third language. I considered adding Italian and German, but neither of them inspired me. After throwing in the towel after a tedious week of German, I was reminded by my husband that "there's always Greek!" I immediately knew that Greek was what I wanted to do, because I love the sound of the language, the history of the language, and I've always wanted to visit Greece. So in October 2018, I added Modern Greek to my language studies.

Right now I'm using a few different resources, which I'll update on the resource post tomorrow:

Language Transfer
Modern Greek Grammar Notes for Absolute Beginners
Quizlet (occasionally)
Lingq (occasionally)
Hellenic podcast (occasionally)
Super Easy Greek YouTube videos (occasionally)

All of these resources are 100% free. The last three are very intensive activities because I'm very much a beginner in Modern Greek (not even at A1). Language Transfer and the Grammar Notes are giving me a good basis in grammar, but I'm lacking in vocabulary. I can't really recognize Greek words on sight, even if I know them by sound. It's weird to be better at speaking than I am at reading, because in French it's the other way around. It also feels like I'm a kid again trying to learn to sight read. :lol:

I'd love to hear anyone's experiences with reading Greek.

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 6:36 pm**

Hi, I'm rfnsoares (or Raphael

). My native language is Portuguese and I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
I've been dabbling in Greek for a while. I really do not know for how long... Anyways, last year I started taking it seriously, but it was only this year I finally got things happening. Greek is a beautiful language and I really like the alphabet!

My resourses:
For starters I recommend this course (and it's free): http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/ - It's quite long and slow, but I think it is the best resourse for beginners.
Then, I recommend Colloquial Greek and Assimil. The first one, I use as a grammar guide and the second one it is good for vocabulary. Both are good for false beginners. We can discuss later the pros and cons of both courses, if you are interested.
Besides, for vocab there are a memrise course (Top 2500 Words in Greek), the frequency lists on wiktionary.org and Duolingo.

Greek is not easy: vocabulary and verb conjugation pose many troubles. The declensions are relatively easy, no problem with them.

As for the verbs, there are some rules for the Perfective and Imperfective aspects and also for the middle/passive voice (the terms might not be accurate, because I'm not a linguist). I prefer to study them this way, for example:

(to teach): (active) "διδάσκω; δίδασκα; δίδαξα" (present; imperfect/imperfective mode; simple past/perfective mode)
(passive) "διδάσκομαι; διδασκόμουν(α); διδάχτηκα" (present; imperfect/imperfective mode; simple past/perfective mode)
The endings for the other personal pronouns are prety easy and regular, but to know the changes in the verbs are tricky. That's why I study them this way, I try to memorize these in chunks.

How do you guys learn/study verbs in Greek?

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:42 pm**

Hi, I'm Neurotip; you can call me ... Neurotip. I'm not learning Greek, yet. But soon. Very soon. 8-)

Posted: **Thu Nov 08, 2018 8:59 pm**

rfnsoares wrote:Hi, I'm rfnsoares (or Raphael ). My native language is Portuguese and I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
I've been dabbling in Greek for a while. I really do not know for how long... Anyways, last year I started taking it seriously, but it was only this year I finally got things happening. Greek is a beautiful language and I really like the alphabet!

My resourses:
For starters I recommend this course (and it's free): http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/ - It's quite long and slow, but I think it is the best resourse for beginners.
Then, I recommend Colloquial Greek and Assimil. The first one, I use as a grammar guide and the second one it is good for vocabulary. Both are good for false beginners. We can discuss later the pros and cons of both courses, if you are interested.
Besides, for vocab there are a memrise course (Top 2500 Words in Greek), the frequency lists on wiktionary.org and Duolingo.

Greek is not easy: vocabulary and verb conjugation pose many troubles. The declensions are relatively easy, no problem with them.

As for the verbs, there are some rules for the Perfective and Imperfective aspects and also for the middle/passive voice (the terms might not be accurate, because I'm not a linguist). I prefer to study them this way, for example:

(to teach): (active) "διδάσκω; δίδασκα; δίδαξα" (present; imperfect/imperfective mode; simple past/perfective mode)
(passive) "διδάσκομαι; διδασκόμουν(α); διδάχτηκα" (present; imperfect/imperfective mode; simple past/perfective mode)
The endings for the other personal pronouns are prety easy and regular, but to know the changes in the verbs are tricky. That's why I study them this way, I try to memorize these in chunks.

How do you guys learn/study verbs in Greek?

Welcome you guys! I forgot to mention that you should subscribe to this topic (scroll up to the top and click the little wrench icon, and then click 'subscribe') so you're updated whenever someone posts.

Raphael, thanks for the in-depth description of your Greek method and resources! This will give away how much of a beginner I am, but I haven't even gotten to the modes and tenses yet. I think I'm very close to running into them with my grammar PDF and Language Transfer, though. I'm trying to take everything slowly so I don't get too overwhelmed right at the start.

Unfortunately, I tried to sign up for Kypros a couple weeks ago, but there is an issue with their website. I even tried emailing the owners and heard no response.

I'll add it as a resource with a note warning that the sign-up process is not working.

I'm curious about your experience with Assimil, because I have been planning to buy Assimil Nouveau Grec Sans Peine once December rolls around. When you have a chance, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Posted: **Sun Nov 11, 2018 3:46 pm**

Some resources I've been using lately (copied from my log):

TypeRacer -- Ελλινικά: This website allows for practice typing different languages and their corresponding keyboards. This is the only typing website I could find that had a nice set-up for typing in Greek -- it includes real extracts from around the web. If you have a Mac, under System Preferences you can easily add a Greek keyboard and then set a shortcut to switch keyboards. I click ctrl+space to switch keyboards between American and Greek, and sometimes I attach the Mac's keyboard visualizer so I can see where all the different letters are.

Memrise Top 2500 Words in Greek: I don't really like flashcards, but I need to work on my Greek vocabulary and this one is the best I've found after trying many others. The beginning lessons are a little tedious (που, σε, με, τι), but they are working with the most frequent words so that's to be expected.

Posted: **Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:46 pm**

Hey Zelda, and everyone else! I just realised that I said I would show my face around here and hadn't yet. :oops:

I have a strange relationship with Greek. I know I want to learn it, because I love how exotic Greek writing is, and it sounds to me how I imagine Spanish would sound after it had been through a blender

I also love the history behind the language, and how much Greek influence there is in English.

However, I have come to the conclusion that, in general, I find it hard to commit to actively studying a language; I usually just pick up bits and pieces here and there and think "one day, I will learn this the same way I learned Spanish and to the same level" but I don't do anything to move towards completing that goal and then I become frustrated at myself.

With Greek, I have the added complication that I started learning it with my cousin who is not a language lover like the rest of us and has a short attention span, but wanted to learn Greek because she loves holidaying there. Together we studied for 2 nights intensively and then did nothing else. The thing is, I think I would feel guilty about picking up Greek again without her

I am feeling optimistic about 2019 and I'm hoping that I can get the new year off to a good start by becoming more serious about my language learning, so you may see me around here Greeking it up with the rest of you then.

Posted: **Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:17 am**

Hello everyone. I'm Chris and am about a month into my Greek journey. I decided to start off with the Michel Thomas method, where a native teacher teaches two beginner students, and you, the learner become the third student. No books, no notes, just listen, repeat and then manipulate the structures to make short sentences according to the English cues.
I actually find the method very effective, although I've now gone back over the material learned to transcribe it for review, although this goes against the methodology... My next stage was then to learn the alphabet and transcribe everything again into Greek script and produce handwritten cards of tricky sentences/ grammatical forms.
I then aim to start using some of the materials kindly suggested by other members here and take the plunge with some italki lessons after about three months of grammar consolidation and vocabulary building. The course is worth a look, I think, for those of you who aren't familiar with it. The biggest plus for me is that the teacher is a stickler for good pronunciation and places real emphasis on placing stess on the correct syllable right from the off.

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