It is impossible to learn ancient Greek on your own. Ninety-five percent of people who begin studying ancient Greek on their own quit. (I am not making this up. ) The other five percent quit too, but lie about it.

There are many books whose authors claim they can teach you ancient Greek. In my opinion, these authors are liars. Most Learn Greek books are terrible. None work.

Classroom Greek is also terrible.

Greek is hard.
Little words. A lot of little words we rely on, Greek doesn't use. I jump. You jump. You have jumped. We will be being jumped. Greek puts nuance into -fixes stuck on the front (prefix), back (suffix) and middle (whatthehellweretheythinkingrightthereinthemiddlefix) of regular words. Ijump, you jump, you have been jumped, let's hope that he be jumped, each have a stem and add-on pattern --a word -- of their own. Work out the combinations, and Greek ends up with more than 500 different words for "jump. " Lots to learn.

Obviously no one learns five hundred different versions of every verb. You learn the endings, and learn to see endings. Ijump. Hewillbejumped. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that when Greek letters touch, they melt and change. I jump -> Ayjump. You jump -> eoujump. He jumps -> hoijumps. And different verb roots change the -fixes in different ways. I eat -> eieat. You eat -> oueat. He eats -> haieats. Roots become unrecognizable. You don't just learn the roots and the endings, you've got to learn letter-melting patterns. Lots to learn.

Word order. Nouns work differently too. English codes the function of a noun in word order. Our sentences run subject, then verb, then object. You know what the noun stands for by where it sits in the sentence. The man sees the house.

Greek codes function in, you guessed it, endings. Lots of endings. Every word (and I mean every . . . fucking. . . word—there are 12 ways to say "one," for Christ's sake) has an ending for when it's a subject, another for when it's an object, another for indirect object, another for something else I won't go into, and one for when you're talking to it. You wish to address that pimple on your butt? Greek has a special form of "butt-pimple" waiting.

As with verbs, noun letters touch and melt. And there's a whole other set of endings for plurals. And for different genders you get to do it all over again. And they liked this system so much, they did it again. They worked out a whole second system of endings. And a third. In fact about sixty different patterns of endings. Mathematicians call this sort of growth "exponential. " Hey, but at least they could say "The man sees the house" with pretty much any word order they liked.

Lots to learn.

Word order 2. The sneaky part Learn Greek books don't point out enough is, Greek does use word order to code stuff. Not word function, like English. Other stuff. So you can spend months memorizing tables of word endings, then pick up a simple Greek book, effortlessly (ha! Greg make joke) decode every word into third person plural strong aorist optative etc. and still have no idea what the sentence means. No clue! Sheesh.

The only way to get around this is to read lots of Greek sentences.

High hurdle up front. Spend a month with a Learn Spanish book, and you've accomplished something practical. Now you go to Buenos Aires and you can say Hello and Thank you. You can tell the taxi guy downtown, or hotel, or airport. You can sip cafe con leche and wave at the waiter, "The ticket please, Sir". Sure, all you'll get out of a trip to the li-bary is how nice the decor is. But you can do some useful stuff. Some is good.

As much as you'd like to say "Thank you" to Leonidas, or Lucian, or Paul, you're never going to. Them being dead and all. Them and all their pals. The ancient Greek hotels, cafes, taxi drivers, waiters, and nice people to point which way to the Acropolis are all gone. All that's left is the li-bary.

And see, the ancient fellows who wrote ancient Greek li-bary books all knew all the endings and rules we've been talking about, and used them. All of them. You can do useful Spanish with a weenie vocabulary and a half-assed hold on the present tense. You can't stumble through any available ancient Greek till you've mastered all the tenses, all the cases, all the moods, all the word order.

Memorizing all this stuff takes a long time. Months. First year Greek courses are largely about you getting the rules tables memorized. So it takes months just to get to the point where you're ready to start learning anything useful.

One reason learning Greek is hard is, Greek is hard.

The Gap: tables skills do not equal literacy
The other reason learning Greek is hard is, Greek teachers and Learn Greek book authors. Greek teachers and authors make Greek way harder than it has to be.

What Learn Greek books have, basically, is tables of word endings. What Greek teachers teach from are Learn Greek books. Books of tables. Tables of word endings. Tables of grammatical rules.

[BTW, Learn Greek authors and teachers don't do this because they're stupid or cruel. There's just so much stuff to learn, and so few book pages or semester weeks to put it in, they do what they have to do to get everything covered. So they don't intend you harm. But they still do do you harm. Did you notice how I just said dodo, only in a nice way?]

But here's the thing: there's a six mile gap between what the tables you memorized tell you, and what your brain has to do to understand a Greek sentence. Here, I'll pretend I'm a grammar table and let you know that "akousthwsi" is the third person plural aorist passive subjunctive of "hear. " Now quick, you use "akousthwsi" in a sentence. See what I mean?

Learning Greek tables is like memorizing the names of tennis strokes. It's a whole different skill set from actually using the stuff.

The thing Greek teachers, and most Greek textbook authors, ignore is that your noggin is hardwired to learn language automatically. Just hear akousthwsi a few times, in context, and the goo under your left ear will somehow connect those sounds to meaning and context. And more than that, your brain is never going to let you read Greek with comprehension until you've given it enough repetition in context. Repetition in context is the one thing your brain must have to learn language.

But simple repetition in context is not part of most Learn Greek curriculums. Instead, once you've memorized the tables, traditional Greek instruction throws you into the deep end: Xenophon, or Plato, or the New Testament, etc. You're not ready. It can't be done. What students end up doing is not reading Greek but decoding it, dictionary on the table, word by word. Verb: tense, mood, person, number. Noun: case, person, number, gender.

Greek professors call decoding "translating," and they think it's a great. One classics prof I corresponded with is quite proud that his second year students can make it through Plato -- though, he admits, students of modern languages get through their readings about ten times faster. The reason, he says, is that students of, say, German, don't go on to Goethe until they've spent a long time practicing simple-sentence German.

When I suggested maybe Greek students would progress faster if their Classics prof took a few days to work up some simple brain-training Greek sentences for them, the professor snorted the snort sophisticated people save for naive foolishness. And the fact that, as he admits, his own students can not actually read Greek with comprehension until their fifth year of study? Well, he imagines, that's just the way it is.

The Task

You must not sit down and mindlessly memorize tables of word endings. That way lies madness. Instead you should:

The Plan

Plan on two or three passes through the material. Drill drill drill sentences.

Ready? Here's Greg's program, step by step.

Step 1

Learn by doing introduction. This should take many weeks.

Learn New Testament Greek by John Dobson

Hundreds of short Greek sentences make this a natural, fun, fast paced, and rewarding way to get started. Unfortunately there's not nearly enough detail here for this to be the only Learn Greek book you use. Formal grammar always sits at the back of the bus, and after about Chapter 20 everything gets murky.

Do chapters 1 - 19 first, then move on to Mounce.

Suck it up and memorize the forms. This should take several months.

Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar by William Mounce
Mounce is famous and popular because it clearly explains all the basic grammatical essentials and none of the other stuff.

Like tables? We got tables! Get ready to memorize. The good news: this doesn't take brains, it just takes persistence.

Be aware of Mounce's two great flaws
1. It's full of minute detail, empty of big picture overview.
I myself am not smart enough to memorize 230 verb forms, 144 participle forms, etc, without seeing where each bit fits in the bigger picture. Even if you are smart enough to do that, you'll still benefit from having a big-picture overview of the structure of Greek grammar. But you won't find the big picture in Mounce. The workaround is, figure out and diagram the big picture yourself. It's not that hard to do, so long as you know you need to do it. Here are some tips:

1a. Make at least two passes through the book. Why? Because Mounce mushes together the basics, and the exceptions to the basics, and many alternative nuances of the exceptions to the basics. For me, that's too much to take in all at once. If you're the same, be sure to take at least two passes through Mounce: once for the main stuff, the second time for the exceptions and nuances.

1b Reorganize the verbs in standard order. Standard practice is to organize—and think about— verbs by "principal parts. " Present, Future, Past (aorist), Perfect 1, Perfect 2, Aorist passive. Mounce fails to stick to this order, instead he often orders verb tenses by ending pattern(!) rather than by meaning. This is highly confusing to not-very-smart people like me. Solution: realize that the principal parts ordering is standard because it is also logical; reorganize your verb study around the standard order.

1c. Here's a key table Mounce leaves out. It's the master verb ending chart on page 184. Mounce's table gives the verb-stem endings, but fails to show you which moods/tenses go with each box. Big, confusing, time-wasting omission. The table here lists the type of verb that goes in each box. The patterns are pretty obvious, once you save and print this table (which is squashed down to fit on this page, but will print big and readable. ) The pink numbers are the principal part numbers, the red letters are the tense formative letters, and the columns on the right are the section and page numbers in my edition of Mounce.

Once you see them in this table, the patterns are incredibly obvious, and understanding them will let you recognize each of those 230 verb forms quickly and easily.

2. The Gap. Mounce has no brain-training Greek sentences at all. Do not be surprised if after several months memorizing Mounce tables you pick up a simple Greek text and can't understand one sentence.

Mounce does sell a couple workbooks. They're jump-in-the-deep-end "translation" stuff that I found frustrating and unuseful. You're going to have to look elsewhere to fill in the gap.

Fill in the Gap. This should take many months.

Your goal now is to find Greek sentences that are so simple you don't have to decode/"translate" them, you can just read them with comprehension. The more you practice, the better your comprehension will get. You're looking not just for simple Greek sentences, but for simple Greek sentences with accompanying English translations. These are surprisingly hard to find.

You should buy and carefully read the simple Greek sentences in each of these books. Now that you've memorized your Mounce tables, that will be much easier than you expect.

Learn New Testament Greek by John Dobson
You already own Dobson. Now that you've memorized your Mounce tables, Dobson's otherwise confusing later chapters will make more sense.
You'll find dozens of helpful practice sentences here.

JACT, Joint Association of Classical Teachers series of college texts intended to teach Attic (=Athenian) Greek
#1 Reading Greek Text and Vocabulary
#2 Reading Greek Grammar and Exercises
#3 An Independent Study Guide to Reading Greek

Until 2008 the JACT Reading Greek series was OK, but not great. In '08 they came out with the second edition, and Wow! is it wonderful. There are lots and lots and lots of simple Greek stories to read, with tons of repetition. "Yes captain, I will go. You will go. The rhapsode will also go. " Different endings for each person. Over and over. Very very useful.

Meticulously charted journey through the larger structure of ancient Greek grammar. Very nice.
Too advanced to be a first and only Learn Greek book. Excellent second book.
Very useful as your second pass through the material. I'd suggest this rather than a second pass through Mounce.
To use any one book you must buy all three books in the set—about $100. Worth the money at twice the price.

Athenaze is a college textbook of Attic (=Athenian) Greek. Each chapter begins with a one or two page reading in ancient Greek. These are simple, repetitious and highly instructive.

Unlike Mounce, but like JACT, Athenaze teaches Greek a little bit at a time. A little verb, a little participle, a little noun in each chapter. Because I myself need to fit each new idea into the big picture, I find this confusing. If you don't, you might try Athenaze all by itself. At any rate, once you've memorized the Mounce tables, you can breeze through Athenaze, or even just through it's simple readings. Very very useful.

Translations are in the separate answer book. But the readings are so easy, you probably won't need translations.
Answers to exercises are in the Teacher's Handbook -- which unfortunately never got printed in the second edition. That makes Athenaze much less useful than JACT.

I suggest JACT as your second pass, Athenaze as your third pass.

BTW, even if you're learning Greek just to read the NT, you'll still find Athenaze and JACT useful for filling in the Gap. Yes you will have to learn some non-NT vocabulary. So what? Also, people blather about Attic and Koine Greek being different. They are. But not so much as you've been lead to believe.

Interlinear New Testaments have the Greek of the NT on one line, and the English translation of each Greek word on the line right below it.

Just cover up the English, and read away. Even if your main interest is Attic Greek, the practice you'll get will be highly instructive.

Greek Prose Composition & Keys , by
North & Hilliard'
John White
Arthur Sidgwick

A hundred years ago ancient Greek was a standard part of English schoolboy education. Not only did the wee lads read Greek, they also had to write Greek. That's where you come in. The 100+ year old Greek Composition textbooks are out of copyright and available free on the internet. They're a handy source of free simple Greek sentences (the keys) with English translations (the exercises in the composition books).

Step 4

Fly little birdie, fly!

Loeb Classical Library

The Loeb Classical Library publishes more than five hundred titles in ancient Greek. At Thermopylae, when the certainly soon to die Dieneces the Spartan was told the Persian army was so vast that, shooting together, their arrows blotted out the sun, he laughed, "Good, then we will advance to battle in the shade. " With the Loeb books you will reach back two or two and a half thousand years and hear and understand and feel the words and thoughts of brave, cowardly, truthful, duplicitous, greedy, loving, hating, living breathing mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, just as they spoke them to themselves. Absolutely fucking amazing.

The books have the Greek text on the left page and the accompanying English translation on the right page. Read the Greek all on your own; if you run into trouble, there's quick, easy help on the facing page.

There are enough fun, delightful, fascinating, moving books here to keep you busy for the rest of your life. The standard beginners book is Xenophon's swashbuckling Anabasis.
If you're interested in Greek in NT times, try Plutarch and Lucian, the Apostolic Fathers,or the Selected Papyri-useses.

Unless you know for sure it is what you want, you should avoid the temptation to start with the very old Greek of Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar, etc. That way lies madness.

Gentle, easy introduction to Greek letters, pronunciation, and rudimentary New Testament vocabulary.

Beyond the basics, the material is too thin.

Three book set. To make sense of the JACT course, you absolutely must buy all of these books together.

Stories in ancient Greek, written by JACT authors to illustrate and complement formal grammar explanations. Stories are simple at first, quite challenging later. Translation in the Study Guide.

Excellent grammar book keeps the big picture in mind.

You may learn Greek from this excellent set—but I suggest you don't use it as your first Learn Greek book. It's a bit complicated for that.

By the sixth chapter I was breezing through interlinear Gospel chapters and stumbling through Loeb's Xenophon.

Swashbuckling first person true adventure story of the Greek mercenary army's long march out Persia, under enemy attack, after picking the wrong side in an attempted coup.

The traditional first book for new classical Greek students. Clear, direct sentences. Mostly present, imperfect and aorist tenses. Not easy, but not as hard as lots of other stuff.

The Loeb addition has Greek on the left page, the English translation on the right page.

The Steve Allen of Learn Greek books.

Steve Allen was a 1950's era comedian (he started the Tonight Show) who was, by the 1960s, painfully uncool and unfunny. But he didn't know it. He told pathetic jokes. And giggled at them himself. He excelled at mediocrity.

Jones' book tries hard to be clever. It isn't. It isn't bad. It's just not good.

The goal isn't all Greek. The goal is The Greek in This Book. You'll like that very much, if you like that sort of thing.