Hi, if anyone is out there that could point me in the right direction to start learning Greek I would really appreciate it. I’ve been trying to find help for a few weeks now and no one can seem to help me. I need to start right at the beginning. Thank you.
You can use Athenaze (Oxford). This is a very good course. You can buy it on Amazon.com There are 2 text books and 2 exercises books (with answers). Hope this helps.
thank you for the info i’ll c if i can find the text.
Hi, I’m thrilled to hear that you want to learn Greek. There are several textbooks available at this site for free, under the “Learn Ancient Greek” tab near the top of the page. I would recommend Clyde Pharr’s book “Homeric Greek”, but it really depends on what you want to read. There are answers available for Pharr’s book online at the GreekGeek website. And no matter what book you use, you’ll find lots of help here. Welcome and good luck with everything, N.
I also highly recommend Athenaze.
Without knowing anything about your budget, interests in Greek, or linguistics background, I second Nick’s recommendation to start with Pharr’s Homeric Greek, which is downloadable from Textkit for free.
However, if you want a better recommendation, please answer a) how much you are willing to spend b) what you most want to read in Greek, and c) what experience you have in studying other languages.
I also think it is worthwhile to think carefully about which textbook you want to start with and do a little research rather than just jump with the first suggestion you get only to find out weeks later that it was not the best choice (unless, of course, you’re getting said textbook for free with minimum hassle, in which case, what do you have to lose?)
If you are interested, there is a group forming right now that will study Pharr’s Homeric Greek text. We will have a group leader who has already worked through the text with a previous group. If you are interested, then please go to the Pharr room of the forum and read the posts on the Pharr group thread that should be on the top. That should have all the necessary information. Good Luck!
Gosh. I’ve been learning from various texts for 3 years and I just started on some Pharr. I think I would hesitate to recommend that as a beginning text. There is a lot of advanced info that could throw beginners for a loop. Most of it can be disregarded as I am still doing. But when you are a beginner, I think it can be difficult to sort out what’s essential to know at the moment. On the other hand, the translation exercises are excellent and lessons are not overlong.
Here are some texts I used early on: Crosby and Schaeffer, Teach Yourself New Testament Greek, Athenaze. The one from which I learned most beginning stuff and satisfied my need to read chunks of text was Ancient Greek Alive. It is not suitable for the very beginning since it begins with classroom dialogs; you need a half dozen or so lessons in something else. The texts are modern creations. However, they are amusing and repeat vocab sufficiently.
I liked JACT Reading Greek, but I didn’t have access to the accompanying grammar text. Both parts would get a person reading Greek rather quickly.
I used interlibrary loan a lot and tried out different texts. If that’s available to you, it’s a good way to go before spending lots of money on texts that frustrate rather than help. Also try out what’s available online.
Jean
I liked JACT Reading Greek
Yeah, “Bleeding” Greek is also fine… 