The number of people who speak Greek today is relatively small, but modest statistics do not at all reflect the significance of the language that has shaped Western philosophy, science and literature for many centuries, which has been continuously communicated for more than four millennia.
When choosing a learning resource, it is important not to get confused by the definitions of "Greek" and "Modern Greek". They are equivalent for those whose goal is live communication and acquaintance with contemporary sources information. And for those who want to read historical works in the original language, it is better to focus on sites where a more complex version is offered for study - ancient Greek.
Free Modern Greek tutorial for beginners. A suitable solution for those who do not have the opportunity to learn from a native speaker and are afraid to master an artificial language. The dialogues and texts included in the project were created by Greek speakers, and if you repeat them often, imitating the source as much as possible, then the information will enter the mind as ready-made formulas for communication. The list contains 25 voiced lessons. The course starts with topics about the alphabet, sounds, reading rules, articles. Then there is a transition to classes in grammar and syntax, the audio files of which are relevant for diverse life situations Keywords: family, appearance, work, health, travel, holidays. After each lesson, assignments and exercises are offered.
An initial course in phonetics and reading rules. The author of the technique is M.L. Rytova, according to her textbook they study Greek in Russian-speaking universities. Information is provided in text format. To understand how to pronounce sounds, the nuances of articulation are described, the rhythm of words, the rules for reading letter combinations, stress, and intonation are explained. It tells about punctuation marks and hyphenation features. Rytova's entire textbook can be downloaded in PDF; in addition to phonetics, it includes the main course for two years of study, as well as grammar tables and a dictionary.
A block of video lessons for beginners, aimed at tourists. The working language is Russian. Lessons are 10 minutes long on average. The annotation for each lesson indicates how many new words the user will master after completing it. Having passed, the student will know more than a hundred of them. The peculiarity of the approach is in the emphasis on vocabulary, and not on grammar, and in the absence of homework.
If this method of teaching seems effective to the user, then it is possible to further receive new lessons on email. Devoting classes up to two hours a day, according to the assurances of the authors of the project, you can speak Greek in a month.
The author's project of a teacher living in Greece for over 20 years. In addition to the paid training option, the resource has a complex free lessons By modern language for newbies. At first, it does not offer complex grammar rules - it starts with teaching writing and reading skills, followed by the construction of dialogues. A more serious transition to declensions, conjugations, etc. carried out when the student has already mastered the spoken language a little. Lessons are accompanied by voice acting, there are exercises with solutions.
Free lessons with Larisa Khlebnikova. A teacher who has lived in Greece for many years offers a selection of 23 videos, each dedicated to a different topic. Plots lasting 3-7 minutes are designed to talk about the alphabet, all parts of speech, the structure of sentences. The topics “numbers” and “family” are highlighted in separate videos. The author's monologues are accompanied by the display of tables, symbols and other explanatory information.
Podcasts in audio format with PDF transcript, downloadable. The material is built in the form of lessons, with the successive passage of which the level of the language becomes more difficult. The focus of the first classes - acquaintance, family, shopping. Topics from the philosophical and global category complete the list of 81 lessons: superstitions, poor-quality food, climate change. The material is submitted in English, which should be taken into account by Russian-speaking users.
An English-language resource dedicated to modern Greek phonetics and phonology. Relevant for those who are already familiar with Greek alphabet and the pronunciation of all letters separately. The site looks at how the letters are combined and how they are pronounced in conjunction. The perception of textual information is enhanced by the option of voicing examples. The material contains many tables and links to related articles, sections of word formation.
An offer to learn Greek in 7 lessons. Of course, no language can be learned for such a short time, but the creators of the course are convinced that after seven lessons according to their methodology, it is really possible to begin to navigate in Greek and try to establish minimal communication on it.
On this page I post links to everything you need (in my opinion) for learning modern Greek on your own. There are quite a lot of sites, books, programs, but they all repeat each other in some sense, or the material is presented there only partially, or without examples, or something else. I understand all the greed when you want to download as many courses, tutorials, grammar guides, etc. as possible. But chasing the number of books found is not an option in learning a language, it is better to use less literature, but better. And instead of reading three tutorials in parallel, it is better to go through at least one to the end. Therefore, below I provide links that I consider the most useful for beginners, basic, basic, although they may be useful for those who have been studying the Greek language for a long time and deeply:
Tutorials
Rytova M. L. Modern Greek language. Practical Course. Once it was the only Greek textbook in Russian. And although the topics of the lessons are Soviet, often even boring, but I like the sequence of presentation of grammar most of all in Rytova, because the rules are given comprehensively, without breaks.
Borisova A.B. Greek without a tutor. (Try to download pdf I hope the link is still valid. Also the most frequently used tutorial, compared to Rytova I like topics there more, simpler and more modern words, expressions, easier to remember. The book is often found in stores, on the Internet you can also find an archive consisting of djvu and mp3 files, I can’t give a permanent link, because the files are constantly deleted for copyright infringement. But finding it and downloading it for free is not so difficult. And VKontakte you can find audio files "Greek for beginners".
G. Feller, M. Vorobyova. Self-instruction manual of the Greek language. Modern Method learning Greek in 25 lessons. I didn’t really understand why this method is modern, for me, no other method of studying has yet been invented foreign language than to work: listen-read-memorize-write. But also a good tutorial, with modern light expressions.
Reference books
Greek Verbs is an excellent site dedicated to verbs in Modern Greek. It is very convenient to check and find out how verbs are conjugated, how they change in numbers, persons, there are all tenses, pledges, moods and participles. For convenience, conjugations are shown in colors, verbs are conveniently divided into types (similar endings / similar conjugation). And although there are about 800 verbs, there are enough of them to the ears to catch the rules of conjugation. Well, that's pretty useful stuff.
Handbook of Greek Grammar. Second part. One of my favorite reference books, I especially like the fact that there are many (dozens, not two or three, as usual) examples of the declension of nouns and adjectives in Greek.
Tresorukova I.V. Greek language. Grammar Handbook. This is the second guide that I really like, there is a lot of information there, everything is of high quality and convenient, sooo useful. You can buy a paper version in stores, but I have never seen it in my city. Therefore, links to this guide on the Internet constantly appear and are deleted, but with sufficient perseverance it can be found and downloaded for free relatively easily. I highly recommend!
Pronunciation
Internet Polyglot: Pronunciation of Greek Words. Reading and pronunciation of Greek words in initial stage causes certain problems and self-study sometimes there is no one to ask. In this case, you can refer to the Internet Polyglot website, the Russian pronunciation of some words is often strange there, but the Greek pronunciation is completely fine, the words are divided into topics, you can play a memory game with pictures. But the best way to control the correct reading of words is songs. Here on site Songs of Hellas there are enough of them - you can listen and read =)
A separate section with Greek grammar on the site "Songs of Hellas", with tables of declensions of nouns and examples of their use in songs. Perhaps I'm getting closer to the realization of my original idea - to make a website that helps to learn the Greek language through music. In the section, nouns are divided by gender and into groups depending on the type of declension, the rules by which nouns are declined are described. And the examples are taken from the songs, you can always listen and remember. It's very convenient - to memorize a phrase from a song, then it comes by itself (even when it's not necessary :)). So far, the section has been made only for masculine and feminine gender but this is just the beginning!
Additionally
Greek with Song: Texts. When learning a language, it is important to read a lot, but it is difficult to find your level when you know little. They say that for comfortable reading it is necessary that the text contains no more than 40% of new words. On this site you can find many small and large texts, simple and not very, as well as parallel translations which is also very convenient. And in general, there are a lot of things there - proverbs, aphorisms, poems, comics, etc.
Barn-Hellas - a large barn of Greek sundries by Alexei Potrosov, many references to useful resources, one way or another connected with Greece and the study of the Greek language - this is music, and radio, and television, and newspapers, and programs, and translations of Greek songs, etc. and so on.
Tests
Greek Proficiency Tests. Simple tests to test your knowledge in the field of modern Greek, there are many tests, although they are the same.
Tests on the site "Songs of Hellas" for practicing the declension of nouns on the machine.
Modern Greek language - the language spoken in modern Greece. On the whole, Greek language belongs to Indo-European family languages, with the longest history and 34 centuries of writing, undeniably a huge legacy modern civilization. Today (new) Greek - official language Hellenic Republic and Cyprus. It is also spoken by the Greek diaspora around the world.
Therefore, acquaintance and study of foreign languages cannot be imagined without learning Greek. The self-instruction manual presented on the site online is intended for everyone who wants to learn how to speak correctly in spoken (new) Greek as much as possible. The course is designed for beginners and is presented free of charge. The compiler of the lessons Anna Borisova () combined two Greek textbooks into lessons (more). The structure of the lessons is as follows: at the beginning of each lesson, grammar explanations, then dialogues and texts are offered for study, which are supplied with small dictionaries, then various expressions on the topic are presented, and at the end of the lesson it is possible, after doing exercises, to check how you learned the lesson. Under the exercises you will find the keys to them: . Each lesson is voiced.
Go to → list of lessons ← (Click)
Learning to speak the language takes practice. In addition, when you study Greek on your own, there will be no one to check you, so you will not have one hundred percent confidence in the correctness of your constructions. Therefore, if it is not possible to communicate with native speakers, it can be advised to try to repeat the dialogues and texts proposed in this tutorial as close to the text as possible, almost by heart. All of them are created by native speakers and contain many commonly used expressions. Therefore, do not be afraid that you will learn to speak an artificial language. If all these expressions enter your consciousness as ready-made formulas, then, once in language environment you can put them into practice. All this, however, does not eliminate the boring need to learn words. Unfortunately, without this, it is impossible to learn a foreign language.
Many Greek words were actively borrowed by other languages, as well as in scientific fields knowledge, such as mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, etc. Elements of Greek word formation, together with words of Latin origin, are the basis of modern scientific and technical vocabulary. Note that modern Greek and ancient Greek are not interchangeable. However, if you know Greek, ancient Greek it will be much easier to learn.
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Learning Greek
Learning Greek requires patience and perseverance. Looking at the Greek “hieroglyphs” for the first time, it is difficult to imagine how rhythmic and melodic this language can be. I remember my first impression when I opened the textbook: neither Cyrillic nor Latin - it's not clear what. And when I started to learn and broke my language on unusual accents... It was these thoughts that prompted the idea to write a post about the first difficulties people face when learning Greek.
I will not sin and I will say frankly, this post was not written alone. Everyone has their own difficulties, and I asked Anya - - to talk about the most systemic errors. So basically, I'm retelling.
So, the difficulties of beginners in learning the Greek language can be “put on several whales”: writing and reading rules, personal pronouns and the linking verb “to be”, as well as cases. And now about all this a little more.
In Greek writing and reading rules, the main difficulty lies in their difference from the Cyrillic alphabet close to us or the commonly studied English. Due to the fact that the brain at the first contact with the new tries to refer to previously studied material, students often confuse the Greek ν (nu) and ρ (rho) with the visually identical English v and p.
Spelling also causes certain difficulties: for example, in Greek there are 6 !!! various letters and letter combinations to denote the sound "and", a similar situation is also with the sounds "e" and "o".
But, as a rule, difficulties in reading are quickly overcome, and already in the third lesson, the average student reads freely. With spelling, for the above reasons, things are a little more complicated, since the spelling of many words just needs to be memorized.
The second common difficulty is personal pronouns and the linking verb "to be". Although students often get stuck at this stage, with practice it is also successfully overcome. I emphasize that the corresponding rules are simple - they just differ from Russian and English due to the fact that Greek belongs to a different language group. And the point here is not in complexity, but in elementary practice.
The third main "stupor" - cases. By studying Greek cases, you begin to understand how difficult it is for an English speaker to learn Russian. But still, Greek cases are simpler than Russian ones - not counting the vocative, there are only three of them.
The main point in cases is the change of endings and stress. And if students cope with the first one quite easily and quickly, then the second comes a little later with systematic practice. The largest number complaints related to genitive case, since both the change of the ending and the overrun of the stress occur in it. However, as practice shows, a few days of perseverance, and this "Gordian knot" can also be eliminated.
The verb itself is not difficult, but when studying it, it is important to feel the rhythm. This is especially important when changing the tense of verbs, when, as in the previous case, the stress is overrun.
If we add here the nuances of the passive voice, it becomes clear that it will not be easy to master this topic without perseverance. But there is a good way out: the verb can be taught in all forms at once (by time and by person). Not only does this help you be more future-oriented and have a sense of rhythm, but it also helps you replenish faster. vocabulary.
Thus, the study of Greek has its own nuances. However, they do not stem from the complexity of the language or the presence of some special constructions, but from its difference from the usual Russian and English.
The advice of the teacher is not to despair at the first difficulties and not to retreat. In many ways, Greek is much simpler than it seems at first glance. You just need to be patient, develop your own approach and everything will work out.
When you move to another country as a child, learning a foreign language is easy, and, until recently, someone else's speech quickly becomes native. But, if you are already 18 years old and you do not have special abilities for languages (which was exactly the case in my case), then learning a foreign language can be a difficult task, especially if you need to learn Greek ...
Today I want to tell you how I learned Greek, perhaps my experience will be useful to someone and will help in difficult times (yes, I even threw notebooks, in full confidence that Greek is practically Chinese, and I will never master it).
How it all began.
Moving to Greece was not a spontaneous decision: I knew in advance that, one way or another, I would transfer to this wonderful country. Therefore, I decided to start preparing for the move by learning the Greek language. And then a problem arose: I don’t know how it is now, but 7 years ago there were simply no tutors or Greek language courses in Belarus. I had to start learning the language on my own. Among the resources available to me were a few online language lessons and a few Greek textbooks. ABOUT best books I wrote to study Greek. Is it any wonder that by the time of the move, I had mastered only the alphabet and a few elementary grammatical structures.
"Yasu malaka".
My integration into the language environment began with the building of the Athens airport, where I heard and learned my first two words in Greek. "Native speakers" said these words so often that it was a sin not to remember. Can you guess what popular Greek words we are talking about? Of course, “yasu” is a Greek greeting/farewell and “malaka” is a (uh, how to translate it that way, so as not to be expressed) curse. The word "malaka" in Greece has a certain magical, almost sacred meaning.) The Greeks managed to give the word, originally meaning a curse, a completely ordinary meaning and use it together with friends or at work, to describe emotions or characterize things and events. And no one is offended by anyone. But I would not advise immigrants to use it, at least in the first couple.
From the ship to the ball.
Naturally, with knowledge of the alphabet and as many as 2 whole words in Greek, my path could only lie in group A (for beginners) of the Philosophical School of the University of Athens.
How exactly to learn the language: on their own or in courses, everyone chooses based on their preferences and capabilities, but I just needed a () diploma in knowledge of the Greek language, so my choice was predetermined.
In the courses, we were often repeated a phrase, the meaning and correctness of which I understood only some time later: "If you know the grammar of the Greek language, everything else will follow." At the time, I strongly disagreed with this statement. Years of studying English have affected: they taught, taught grammar at school, but what's the point? I started speaking and communicating fluently in English only when I got into the language environment, and there was no one around who could understand Russian. Here you want, do not want - you will speak. At school, I, like other guys from the class, could not clearly connect even a few phrases in English, despite the long hours spent “memorizing” the rules of grammar. Therefore, I did not believe teachers in Greece, and I studied grammar solely because of the grammar test included in the upcoming exam.
As time has shown, the teachers were right. When you are in a language environment (and not outside it, as is the case with school English), knowing the grammatical subtleties helps a lot. Within a year, I spoke Greek better than some foreigners who have lived in Greece for decades. And all because, even having a small vocabulary, but a good grammatical base, I clearly understood the “formula”: how, what and why to say.
Thorny path.
If we talk about the process of learning Greek, it was very difficult. Exam time was rapidly approaching, and knowledge and skills were accumulating very slowly.
Five days a week I attended courses, spent hours in the evenings doing huge homework, learning words. The clock was ticking, deadlines were running out, and at some point bad thoughts crept into my head: I will never learn “IT”, I don’t understand anything, and in general, I’m probably a fool, not a very capable student. If you are not “pressed” by time and there is no specific fixed date, day “X”, by which you need to know everything, then learning Greek language will pass much easier and more enjoyable. If there is no time, then you will have to gather all your strength into a fist and “cram” further.
At some point, when my vocabulary expanded significantly, and in grammar I was already oriented like a fish in water, all the pieces of the puzzle came together. Everything somehow unexpectedly quickly went easily, very easily. I began to understand colloquial speech, speak Greek myself, read - all this began to be given without much effort, as something taken for granted. From this I made an important conclusion: the main thing, when you are just starting to learn Greek, is to overcome yourself and, despite the fact that much is still not working out, that you do not understand something, just continue. And at some point, when the "skeleton of the language" is formed in your head, all subsequent knowledge will come by itself, without much effort on your part.
What helped me.
Undoubtedly, being in a language environment, learning a language is much easier. But, even in Greece, many foreigners manage to stretch this process for decades. I want to give some recommendations that helped me and my friends learn Greek faster.
No Russian channels! Especially at the beginning of the study of the Greek language, Russian television should be under the strictest ban. I have one friend who has lived in Greece for 15 years and can hardly connect 2-3 words in Greek. And if not for her love for programs and films in Russian, everything could have turned out differently.
Watch Greek series and foreign films with Greek subtitles. For me, this item was one of the most difficult, since I don’t like TV shows at all, and even more so Greek ones. But, Greek TV shows are the key to understanding colloquial speech, so I had to watch. If TV shows help develop listening comprehension skills, then films with Greek captions will enrich your vocabulary and help you make fewer spelling mistakes when writing.
Greek songs. To be honest, I do not agree that by listening to songs, you will quickly begin to understand oral speech. I will explain why: in order to hit the notes (and indeed the melody requires it), the singer is forced to draw words somewhere, and somewhere to “eat” their parts. For a song, this is acceptable, for life - no. So it turns out that serials or radio are much more effective. This is just my point of view, many claim that they learned the Greek language thanks to the songs.
Read. Read as much as possible, try to find the kind of literature that you like: it can be Greek myths, children's fairy tales, fiction, fashion magazines and even just road signs. The more you read, the faster your vocabulary will grow.
Ask. Feel free to ask what the word you don't know means. Ask friends to point out your mistakes in speech. The fact is that when a foreigner, at the very least, has learned the Greek language and begins to speak with errors, they correct him, but exactly for the first half hour. Then the Greeks begin to understand your speech even with mistakes, get used to understanding you in this way, and stop pointing out mistakes. What happens next: making the same mistake 3-4 times, a foreigner begins to think that since they don’t correct him, it means that he speaks correctly, and the word with a mistake “crashes” into memory as the correct option. It is very difficult to relearn later.
Try to stop talking to English language. I know on own example which is sometimes very difficult to do. Especially when you want to quickly convey your idea to the interlocutor, and the vocabulary in Greek is still not enough. It turns out that it is much easier and faster to say a phrase in English than to “strain” the brain and fish out a word in Greek from the bins of memory. As a result: the study of Greek will be delayed for an indefinite period.
