LingoflyGreek
Greek — Indo-European family, about 13 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Greek alphabet, 24 letters — the ancestor of Latin and Cyrillic. This site has 4008 words and 24 letters with audio.
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Demo language: Greek
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Γεια σας
ya sas
hello
Without JavaScript: read the card, choose an answer in your head and open the explanation.
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Γεια σας
ya sas
- thank you
- hi
- please
- hello
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Γεια σας
hello
2 / 2 · Choose an answer
___, είμαι η Άννα
Hello, I am Anna
- Παρακαλώ · parakaló
- Ευχαριστώ · efkharistó
- Γεια · ya
- Γεια σας · ya sas
Show the answer
Γεια σας
hello
Two checks complete
Γεια σας
hello
This is a choice based on text. Conversation and remembering over time still need practice and checking.
How answers are counted
Answers stay on this page. Statistics include the demo stage, overall result, interface language and saved counter consent choice, without answer text or a profile.
Where to start
- →Greek alphabetAll letters with sound
- →Greek wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- Γειαyahione stressed beat, on ya: short and light
- Γεια σαςya sashellosas means 'to you': one form for the polite you and for several people at once. To friends you say yia sou instead
- Καλημέραkaliméragood morningkalí (good) + méra (day) fused into one word — ka-lee-MEH-ra. Used until midday, and in casual speech often into the early afternoon
- Καλησπέραkalispéragood eveningthe same kalí + espéra, evening: ka-lee-SPE-ra. After midday kaliméra is out and kalispéra takes over
- Καληνύχταkaliníkhtagood nighta third greeting built the same way: kali + nýhta, good + night. Said only when parting for sleep, never as an evening hello
- Αντίοantíogoodbyeborrowed from Italian addio. Everyday farewells usually reuse the greeting — yia sou serves both directions
- Ευχαριστώefkharistóthank youfour syllables, stress on the last: ef-kha-ri-STOH
- Παρακαλώparakalópleaseone word, three jobs: please with a request, don't mention it after a thank you, and the answer when picking up the phone
How it sounds
Five words spoken aloud: click the speaker and pick the translation. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.
Curiosities in Greek
For a century and a half Greece had two written languages at once: the people's demotic and the “cleansed” Katharevousa, kept close to the ancient norm. The quarrel between them ran to blood — in 1901 a translation of the Gospel into demotic set off a riot with deaths in Athens; demotic was recognised as the state language only in 1976.
Peter Mackridge, «Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766–1976», Oxford, 2009
About the language
| Native name | Ελληνικά (eliniká) · elliniká |
| Official in | Greece and Cyprus |
| Also spoken in | Albania, Germany, the USA, Australia and Russia |
| How many speakers | about 13 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Indo-European family, its own branch with no close relatives |
| Script | the Greek alphabet, 24 letters — the ancestor of Latin and Cyrillic |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive.
Easy: half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing.
What people most often take it up for: moving and working in Greece and Cyprus, property, the sea and the islands.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Greek?
With the script: 24 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Greek?
About 13 million speakers — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Greek hard?
Familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive. At the same time, half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing.
Where is Greek spoken?
An official language in: Greece and Cyprus. Noticeable communities: Albania, Germany, the USA, Australia and Russia.