Complete Ancient Greek: Teach Yourself (Betts & Henry)

Greek Learning Greek
1

I just received my hot-off-the-press copy of Complete Ancient Greek: Teach Yourself today. I pre-ordered it, and I think I’m satisfied with it. Has anyone else on the forum purchased it?

What I notice is that it moves quickly in terms of both vocabulary (the first vocabulary section has 71 words!) and grammar (the first grammar treatment covers feminine nouns of the first declension, the present active indicative of -ω verbs, as well as the future active indicative of -ω verbs. That’s very aggressive, if you ask me!

I’ve typed up the first exercises and vocabulary as a sample of the text, if anyone’s interested. I’ve posted it on my own forum at
http://www.jhronline.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=127 .
Feel free to drop by and read what’s in section 2.2 of the reading exercises and the accompanying vocab. It’s massive.

I’m not going to do any official online study of this textbook – it’s definitely not something I would recommend for absolute beginners! But, I will use it as a supplement and work through the exercises myself. Looks like a good introduction for those who are highly motivated and able to catch nuance in quick reading. Again, I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners who haven’t had some experience with the language.

Regards,
Jason

2

I now dare to believe in the ultimate triumph of common sense over personal waywardness among Greek coursebook authors. I can now throw away my scarcely-read copy of Betts’ and Henry’s TY Greek - where they insisted on using the lunate sigma (c/C), a real off-putter - and use the new edition, complete with normal sigmas, as a back-up to Crosby and Schaeffer (An Introduction to Greek).

I think the publishers must have had a word with the authors. This change should boost sales.

Cheers,
Int

3

I’m very pleased with my purchase and have a hard time putting the book down. :slight_smile: