The Best Way To Learn Greek
(Article updated in March 2025. Reading time: 8 minutes)
This lengthy guide (over 30 links!) is for Greek language enthusiasts who have just started or have been learning Greek for a while.
The guide will help you to:
Set small, reachable goals and sustain your motivation in the long run
Choose quality materials wisely to avoid confusion, overwhelm and quitting
Practice Greek in a smart and efficient way
Find the final “ingredient” to keep learning Greek
Let’s dive in!
“What’s the best way to learn Greek?”
This is one of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting in my 20+ years of teaching Greek as a second language.
Let’s be real; Learning a language takes time. Even if you live in the country or spend a good amount of your time there, this doesn't necessarily mean you'll automatically learn the language.
When it comes to the “best way to learn Greek”, you need 3 important ingredients:
A clear goal: Why do you learn Greek? To communicate with family? To study? For tourism? Your specific goal makes all the difference to the learning approach you’ll choose.
Good materials: Good for you, your needs and your learning style, and created by experienced professionals. (You’ll be surprised at the amount of language mistakes one can find in activity/phrase books, podcasts, YouTube videos and many online resources!)
A method that works for you: This means a method that values your needs as a learner.
Once you’ve decided on your goal (make it tangible and as specific as possible), let’s look at the materials’ categories:
How do you learn best?
Are you a visual learner? ➡️ Choose more videos, flashcards, course books with rich images.
Are you an auditory learner? ➡️ Choose more podcasts, music and audios from your course books. (Also, take a look at my Practice Listening with Podcasts course for intermediate students & up).
Are you a kineshetic learner? ➡️ Aim to learn in a class, and why not in language & culture trips, where you are immersed in the language 24/7. (Here you can check out the language & culture trips to Athens, Corfu and Ioannina-Meteora I’ve been organizing this year!).
Let’s see more:
Materials’ list
These are my favourite and most used materials. I’ve been using several of them for years in my classes.
1. Grammar Book
Are you looking for a good, tried & true Greek grammar book?
I recommend the following:
Greek: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Essential Grammars) (on Amazon) was written with English speakers in mind. You can find it in both languages, English & Greek; it’s thorough and to the point.
Concise Modern Greek Grammar (on Institute of Modern Greek Studies website) is the most popular Greek Grammar book, written by linguist Manolis Triandaphyllidis, which also comes in 14 translations.
Αυτό ακριβώς! This is an amazing grammar book with tons of exercises, some fundamental grammar explanations and grammar tables. This book is for upper beginner to advanced learners. In 2021 the author published her Αυτό ακριβώς! Α’ επίπεδο (level A) grammar book for the beginner level.
2. Dictionary (online & analogue)
Of course your choice depends on what your first language is.
For the sake of simplicity, however, I'll recommend this Greek to English dictionary which I've been using for years.
However, I do recommend adding a Greek to Greek dictionary as well.
For this, Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας is a great option.
An online, free option is the Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek and a paid option (for 5 euros/year) is the Great Patakis Dictionary.
Another online dictionary is the well known wordreference.com website, which you can also download as an app on your phone. It is excellent and includes many great examples, although sometimes they can be limited.
Same or similar quality is the Greek Wiktionary (Βικιλεξικό) - careful as it might contain mistakes, but the overall quality is very good.
Want to take deep dives into words, everyday phrases & grammar with me?
Improve your speaking with 100+ video lessons & quizzes in the Chats/Κουβέντες monthly membership for Greek students, for $9/month.
3. Course Books
Here is a list of my favourite course and activity books:
(A note: all of these books are written entirely in Greek)
Option #1 Ελληνικά στο π+φ 1 (all the beginner level) and Ελληνικά στο π+φ 2 (all the intermediate level) course books with audio files online.
WHY: I love the texts variety, the presentation of new vocabulary & grammar, and the large variety of activities. They are also very convenient as they combine levels A1 & A2 together, and B1 & B2 together as well, making it easier for students to access them. They are also the texbooks I’m using in my Beginner & Intermediate group classes and the language & culture trips in Greece.
Option #2 Ελληνικά Α’ (Beginners) and Ελληνικά Β' (Intermediate B1) and Ελληνικά Γ’ (Intermediate B2) course books with online audio files.
WHY: They are up to date, nicely presented. Lots of vocabulary and everyday expressions about living and working in Greece. Also with great illustration, perfect for visual learners. Because they combine textbook with activities, they are also convenient to access - but pay attention to the titles for the intermediate level, as they can be confusing!
Option #3 Ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα 1 (Beginners), Ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα 2 (Intermediate) and Ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα 3 (Advanced) are texbook+activities books with online audio files.
WHY: I love their texts’ collection, grammar tables and wonderful grammar explanations. The exercises are quite traditional, and illustration is basic, but the content is of great quality.
Option #4 Ελληνικά τώρα 1+1 (Beginners) and Ελληνικά Τώρα 2+2 (Intermediate) course books with CDs.
WHY: These are the classic books so many Greek learners have used since the 80s when they were first published. Quite outdated vocabulary, cultural references, & images - but very good grammar practice and step by step grammar approach. These books are tailored to the needs of learners who visit Greece every summer and learn Greek in a traditional manner.
4. Podcasts, Apps & social media
Apps: I’ve written a whole post which you can check here: 3 Best Apps I recommend to learn Greek for free.
Social media: Instagram and TikTok are very common these days, but admittedly they’re not my cup of tea for actual learning. Why? Too much distraction and more entertainment than learning. An Instagram account I really like though, is @learngreekwithstefanos. Stefanos is a fellow Greek teacher who does his research - unlike, sadly, the majority of social media Greek learning accounts. Check him out if you’re on Instagram.
(Wondering if I ever post on Instagram? I do, but mostly for my current students! You can find me here).
Music: This is a good website with lyrics from thousand of songs. They can be even sometimes translated by members of the page.
(By the way, here’s a list with jazzy / swing Greek bands and singers I really like. Feel free to add it to your Spotify playlist.)
Podcasts:
For the beginner level Language Transfer is a solid, step by step method that will help you familiarize yourself with the Greek structure. Also, here you’ll find my pronunciation audio & blog post for beginners on Greek pronunciation.
For the intermediate level & lower advanced level: Greek at Heart Podcast is the podcast I’ve been sharing with my students since 2020, and made public recently.
For the upper intermediate level and up: Easy Greek Podcast is a great resource with hundreds of discussions on practically everything you can imagine!
Also: Any Greek series, Ertflix, Greek radio, audio books, the news, the weather, and more, are all great resources of course - but mostly for advanced learners.
If you’re a beginner, don’t feel discouraged: have a goal to understand a number X of words.
By focusing on something such as a number of words or expressions or even words starting with a specific letter, you practice without getting overwhelmed.
You also avoid passive listening, which, to be honest, doesn't seem to be making any difference in language learning!
Lastly, if you need more listening practice, check out my Practice Listening with Podcasts course for the intermediate level and up, which uses real podcast discussions to help intermediate students train their ear in Greek.
Lastly, you might find this interesting: Check this info by the Omniglot website here and a beautiful language map here).
5. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This is a new field, but since I have been testing it the last few months, I thought to add here some of my observations.
Very important to note: AI is still learning Greek, so don’t expect it to be 100% accurate. There will be mistakes, omissions and misunderstandings. I recommend you use AI to create simple grammar tables and simple grammar explanations or to create simple, straightforward dialogues in writing and speaking (see below). The examples might be frequently off, but the explanations and short sentences are generally correct.
Also, here’s another resource a student recommended lately (thank you, Nina!): LanguaTalk (I’m not affiliated with them), seems like an interesting tool to practice speaking. You can choose to speak with AI and have the option to slow it down, and even choose to hide the captions. I’ll be using this and more AI activity options for my own language learning, and in some activities with my students, and will report further in a future article update!
Commit and track your progress:
How to commit? Most “habit learning” gurus out there agree on one thing: Make something a habit and add it in your calendar. That’s the only way to stick to it, really.
And because it’s easy to feel discouraged with the amount of vocabulary and grammar points there is in any language, track, track and track again your progress.
Some ideas: Check your notebook from 3 months ago, keep a list of recordings on your phone to track your speaking progress (see how to do that, here), and revisit your vocabulary lists. You’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come.
Thank you for learning with me, today!
~ Danae Florou
