Menu
English
РусскийEnglishEspañol

Greek grammar

Greek grammar explained in plain words. Half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing. What is harder: familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

Notes

What works differently from what you know

  • Modern Greek has no infinitive at all: the form “to read” does not exist; instead one says “I want that I read” — thelo na diavazo. Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian and Romanian lost the same feature: languages of four different families picked it up from each other as neighbours.

    Brian D. Joseph, «The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive», Cambridge, 1983

What is hard about Greek and what comes for free

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.

This is not a verdict on the language but a hint on where to spend effort. The hard parts are best taken a little at a time and often; the easy parts — left alone while they work by themselves.

Frequently asked

Is the grammar of Greek complicated?

Familiar letters with unfamiliar sounds, four cases and no infinitive is the main difficulty. In return, half the letters are recognizable at once, and stress is always marked in writing.

Should grammar be learned separately?

Not as a separate course. A rule learned before you need it is forgotten before you meet it. It is more useful to work it out at the moment you stumble over it.

Next

Try one lessonOpen Lingofly