A lot of people look at the Greek alphabet and immediately think, “Wow, Greek must be impossible to learn!”

It even gave us the famous English phrase, “It’s all Greek to me!”

But here’s a secret: Greek is not as hard as it looks.

While it does have some tricky grammar rules, it also has a lot of things that make it surprisingly easy for English speakers. In fact, you probably already know hundreds of Greek words without even realizing it.

So, is Greek hard to learn?

The short answer is that it’s a medium-difficulty language. It’s harder than Spanish or French, but it’s much easier than Arabic, Mandarin, or Russian.

Let’s break down exactly what makes Greek easy, what makes it difficult, and how you can master it.

The Greek alphabet

The number one hurdle for beginners learning Greek is the alphabet.

But it really shouldn’t be!

The Greek alphabet only has 24 letters. More importantly, many of these letters are exactly the same as the English alphabet. Letters like A, B, E, K, M, N, O, T, and Z look and sound very similar to what you already know.

You can genuinely learn to read the Greek alphabet in just one weekend.

Once you learn the letters, reading becomes a breeze. Unlike English, where words are pronounced weirdly (think about the words “tough”, “though”, and “through”), Greek is totally phonetic.

This means that once you know the alphabet, you pronounce every word exactly how it’s spelled. You read what you see!

English and Greek vocabulary

One of the biggest advantages you have as an English speaker learning Greek is the vocabulary.

English borrowed thousands of words directly from Greek. Words related to science, politics, medicine, and technology are almost identical in both languages. Because of this, you have a massive head start.

Here’s a quick look at some words that are basically the same in both languages:

The hard parts: Greek grammar

Now, let’s talk about the parts of Greek that are actually difficult. If you’re going to struggle with Greek, it’ll probably be with the grammar.

There are three main grammar concepts that English speakers find challenging:

1. Noun genders In English, a table is just an “it”. But in Greek, every noun has a gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. You have to memorize the gender of a word when you learn it because the words “the” and “a” change depending on the gender.

2. Verb conjugations Just like Spanish or Italian, Greek verbs change their endings depending on who’s doing the action. You have to learn different verb endings for “I”, “you”, “he/she”, “we”, and “they”.

3. Noun cases This is usually the hardest part for beginners. In Greek, nouns change their spelling depending on their job in the sentence.

For example, if a man named Nikos is the subject of the sentence, his name is spelled with an “s” at the end. But if you’re talking to Nikos, or if Nikos is the object of the sentence, the “s” gets dropped.

Look at this simple example:

See how the name changed from Níkos to Níko? That’s the case system in action! It takes a little practice to get used to, but it’ll eventually become second nature.

Greek pronunciation

Greek pronunciation is quite easy for English speakers.

There are only a couple of sounds that don’t exist in English. For example, the letter Gamma (Γ) is pronounced a bit like a soft, gargled “Y” or “G” sound deep in your throat.

But for the most part, you already know how to make Greek sounds.

You also don’t have to guess which part of a word to stress. Greek words have an accent mark (like this: ά) over the vowel that needs to be stressed. You just put your emphasis right where the mark tells you to!

How long does it take?

The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI) ranks languages by how long it takes an English speaker to learn them.

They place Greek in Category IV, estimating that it takes about 44 weeks (or 1,100 hours) of study to reach professional working proficiency.

This means it’ll take you a bit longer to learn Greek than it would to learn Spanish or Dutch, but it’ll take you half the time it would take to learn Japanese or Korean.

Tips to succeed

If you’ve decided you want to take the plunge and learn Greek, here are my top tips for beginners:

• Learn the alphabet immediately. Don’t rely on “Greeklish” (writing Greek words using the English alphabet). It’s a lazy habit that’ll hurt your reading and pronunciation skills later on.
• Learn the articles with the nouns. Whenever you write down a new vocabulary word, always include “the” in front of it (ο for masculine, η for feminine, το for neuter). This is the only way to remember genders easily!
• Don’t stress over perfect grammar. The case system is confusing at first. If you say ton Níkos instead of ton Níko, people will still completely understand you. Speak as much as you can, and let your mistakes work themselves out over time.
• Listen to native audio. Surround yourself with Greek music, YouTube videos, and podcasts. Getting the rhythm of the language in your ears will help you learn the pronunciation much faster.

Learning Greek is an incredibly rewarding journey. It opens up thousands of years of history and gives you a much deeper understanding of the English language too.