The Good News to; eujaggevlion

We live in a time in which we have the most modern tools for learning Greek in all of human history. People have studied and carefully considered how best to teach the language. The computer has given us memory tools such as flash card and parsing programs as well as audio recordings of pronunciations and lectures. There are also many visuals available for classroom use. So, learning Greek is as "easy" as it has ever been, if a student will apply some discipline to the endeavor. Thousands of students learn Greek each year, so it is do-able!

The Mounce book comes with a CD in the back cover. It contains software and the abbreviated lectures with visual displays. Every year some student(s) struggle through the book and never take a look at the CD. This is really a shame because it is such a helpful tool. Be sure not to overlook this. You can get the lecture three ways: once in class, once from the CD, or at the college the extended lectures on reserve in the library. You can also review my lectures on this site. And, of course, read the book!

Step One

Pronunciation & Writing
You will need to install the free Teknia Greek font in order for these letters to display properly. If you already have the Mounce book and CD, when you install the CD programs the font will be automatically installed.

Aa Bb Gg Dd Ee Zz Hh Qq Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Xx Oo Pp Rr SsV Tt Uu Ff Cc Yy Ww

Learn to pronounce the Greek alphabet with this MP3 file. (also available on the S:\Darris Brock\Greek\ at JU).

The seven red letters, Alpha, Epsilon, Eta, Iota, Omicron, Upsilon, and Omega are the seven vowels. Notice that Sigma has three forms. (1) Learn to pronounce them in alphabetical order, to (2) write them, and (3) identify the seven vowels. You may click on any of the letters below to see a video of me writing the letters. (also available on the S:\Darris Brock\Greek Writing Video\ at JU).

Aa Bb Gg Dd Ee Zz Hh Qq Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Xx Oo Pp Rr SsV Tt Uu Ff Cc Yy Ww

Here's an example of the written alphabet test, and here's a blank page you can print and practice with.

Step Two

Vocabulary
The Flashworks 4.0 vocabulary software is  available for free at the Teknia web site.  It is the same that comes with the book.  It, however, does not have pronunciation with it.  A version of the JBC word list for the Flashworks program is available below.

Resources

I recommend that all students use my modified version of the Mounce list.  The vocabulary list is here. The Chapter numbers are equivalent to the Vocab # on the printed list. Simply download it and save it.  It is probably best to right-click the link then chose "Save as" or "Save Link as".  Once you run the JBC.exe file, it will install to C:\Program Files\Teknia since that is the default for the Flashworks program.  It will ALSO make the JBC database the default database so there should be nothing else to do.  The advantage of my list is twofold.  One, it introduces the words at least one chapter before they are introduced in the book.  Two, it covers all words down to 30 occurrences so at the end of the year, the student can use the UBS Greek New Testament Reader's Edition.  More on this in the Tweener section. For first year, the chapter numbers are 1-23. There is no 24-29 in the database since these are verb reviews. Updated 2/8/08

Here are MP3 files of my pronunciation of the suggested vocabulary for first semester.  

Vocab 1	Vocab 2	Vocab 3	Vocab 4	Vocab 5
Vocab 6	Vocab 7	Vocab 8	Vocab 9	Vocab 10
Vocab 11	Vocab 12	Vocab 13	Vocab 14	Vocab 15

Greek on a Sheet
Here is a copy of a tool we will use a lot over the year.  This is my compilation of important notes and charts.

Vocabulary List 2007-2008
List in PDF.  Printable Flash Cards. Updated 2/8/08

First-Year Vocabulary
List in PDF.  Printable Flash Cards. The Vocab List is intended to be printed on both sides. If you do not print them this way and then punch holes for a binder, the holes will go through many of the words. Updated 2/8/08

Lexicon
Printable Lexicon. This is a list of all words down to ten occurrences. It is not comprehensive, but it should serve well. This is intended to be printed on both sides. If you do not print them this way and then punch holes for a binder, the holes will go through many of the words. Updated 2/8/08

Lexicon with Principal Parts
This is my own arrangement of two critical tools: the above Lexicon and the Principal Parts, which are indexed in the book. This layout will serve you well when we get to verbs because it will save looking at two resources to get your answers. The Mounce principal parts list in the book has many, many wonderful notes and you may want to refer to it in order to explain anomalies. This is intended to be printed on both sides. If you do not print them this way and then punch holes for a binder, the holes will go through many of the words. Updated 2/8/08

Student Surveys
Read what others who've taken the Greek class had to say.

Grammar
The best Greek grammar I've seen to date is by by Dr. William Mounce, an experienced Greek teacher and now a preaching minister.  The textbook, Basics of Biblical Greek 2nd edition, the workbook, and the quick reference card are a complete package.  Students begin translating from the Biblical texts in the first translation session.  He provides both New and Old Testament translations as well as a few from church fathers or other significant material.  The textbook has the most thorough notations of morphology of any grammar that I know of and it is presented in a sensible fashion, with extraneous material set aside in the Advanced Information section.  Each chapter also begins with a practical application by a noted scholar which explains the significance of the material to be covered.  My class loved this book and I'm teaching it to a group at church who is equally impressed.  The book is often used as a second-year grammar as well, which will be the case at JU. The textbook comes with a CD that has Flashworks and Parseworks software for learning the vocabulary and the parsing.  It also includes 7 to 12 minute lectures on each chapter of the book, taken from Dr. Mounce's class lectures.  

The school bookstore will have the material but it is also available from online booksellers such as Amazon and Christianbook.com, and Mounce's website.  Some of these sites have pretty good deals on used material, and I'm always for saving a buck, so shop around.

The ISBN numbers are here to ensure that you get the correct material: Text: ISBN: 0-310-25087-0 Workbook: ISBN: 0-310-25086-2 Quick reference sheet: ISBN: 0-310-26294-1.

If you struggle with English grammar, then you may want this little book, English Grammar to Ace New Testament Greek by Samuel Lamerson.

There is also an optional CD of the full year-long lectures from Dr. Mounce  himself, available at his website for $89.00.  This is available for free on reserve in the JU library.

Step Three: Lectures

Classroom Introduction	Chapter 3 Alphabet & Pronunciation	Chapter 4 Puntuation & Syllabification	A & O Class Nouns The 1st & 2nd  Declensions
Chapters 5-6  Nominative & Accusative	Chapter 7 Genitive & Dative	Chapter 8 Prepositions & eijmiv	Chapter 9 Adjectives
Consonantal Ending Nouns The 3rd Declension including i & u	Chapter 10 3rd Declension Nouns	Pronouns	Chapter 11 1st & 2nd Personal Pronouns
Chapter 12 3rd Person Personal Pronouns	Chapter 13 Demonstrative Pronouns & Adjectives	Chapter 14 Relative Pronouns	Indicative Verbs
Chapters 15-16 Present Active	Chapter 17 Contract Verbs	Chapter 18 Present M/P Indicatives	Chapter 19 Future Active/Middle Indicatives
Chapter 20 Verbal Roots & other forms of the Future	Chapter 21 Imperfect Verbs	Chapter 22 2nd Aorist Active/Middle	Chapter 23 1st Aorist Active/Middle
Chapter 24 Aorist & Future Passives	Chapter 25 Perfects	Non-Indicatives	Chapters 26-27 Present Adverbial Participles
Chapter 28 Aorist Adverbial Participles	Chapter 29 Adjectival Participles	Chapter 30 Perfect Participles	Chapter 31 Subjunctives
Chapter 32 Infinitives	Chapter 33 Imperatives	Chapter 34 mi Verbs	Chapter 35 Additional mi verbs

Drills andHelpful Things

Forming the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Declension Nouns and the Definite Articles
Indicative Verbs	Participles	Non-Indicative Verbs	Forms of eijmiv

Learning Little Things

You'll have to learn these sometime during the first semester.   

Students often have trouble learning how to talk about grammar.  These four terms are very important and must be learned.  It is explained further in the textbook.  

It is important to know the following terms:
Nominative - is the subject case of the sentence.
Genitive - is the possessive case form
Dative - is the Indirect Object case
Accusative - is the Direct Object case

Billy threw Mike's plane in the park.  

You can choose to memorize the definite articles across or down.  I memorized them across because of a pattern of sounds that was helpful.  They are very important in many ways.  Learn the singulars first then the plurals.  Also learn how to write them.

The Definite Articles (24 ways to say "the")

Singulars					Plurals
	M	F	N		M	F	N
Nom.	oJ	hJ	tov		oiJ	aiJ	tav
Gen.	tou:	th:V	tou:		tw:n	tw:n	tw:n
Dat.	tw:/	th:/	tw:/		toi:V	tai:V	toi:V
Acc.	tovn	thvn	tov		touvV	tavV	tav

Click here to hear the pronunciations.

Over time I have found that reciting this paradigm is the best way to remember it.  I suggest you listen to the pronunciations below and learn to repeat them.
1st & 2nd Person Personal Pronouns

Singulars						Plurals
	1st		2nd			1st		2nd
Nom.	ejgwv	I	suv	you		hJmei:V	we	uJmei:V	you
Gen.	ejmou:	my	sou	your		hJmw:n	our	uJmw:n	your
Dat.	ejmoiv	to me	soi	to you		hJmi:n	to us	uJmi:n	to you
Acc.	ejmev	me	se	you		hJma:V	us	uJma:V	you

Click here to hear the pronunciations.
Learning these "little" pronouns early will help you later.

Square of Stops Plus

Learn to write the letters in purple in this order.  I'll explain why it's important later.

	Unvoiced	Voiced	Aspirate	+s	+q
Labial	p	b	f	y	f
Velar	k	g	c	x	c
Dental	t	d	q	s	s

Other Thoughts

Hard Truth
"What can I do to get ahead in Greek for next year?"  This is the question of the wise student!  Greek is a wonderful language, but like any language it requires work.  My personal "guesstimate" is that a student needs to spend about six hours per week reading, studying, memorizing, and translating Greek to achieve the best possible outcome.  Naturally, this will vary somewhat from person to person, but any way you slice it, Greek requires a lot of work.  

Typical Problems
Language studies will reveal flaws in a student's understanding of the English language.  Native-English speakers don't have to analyze the language, it just comes naturally!  The only time analysis is typically done is during English composition courses.  Even then, students can get by if they rely upon their native abilities.  Greek quickly challenges the student because it does not follow the direct word order that English does.  It is also an inflected language, which means that the endings of the words change according to their function in the sentence.  In English we have only one way to say the word "the", but in Greek there are 24 ways to say it, depending upon whether the word is Masculine, Feminine, or Neuter and upon the word's function in the sentence.  See the problem?

Words like Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative are completely new to most students, yet they are standard terms for the discussion of Greek.  The function of these cases must be learned, otherwise the student can not translate Greek.  Students have to learn how to Decline nouns and adjectives and how to Parse verbs.  Again, these are terms not commonly used in English language studies.  The beginning student is typically overwhelmed by the following things:

• Learning a new Alphabet
• Learning new Pronunciations
• Memorizing Vocabulary
• Memorizing Rules and Endings
• Learning how to "talk about" and analyze the words