How to Learn Ancient Greek

Who This Guide Is For

This guide is for anyone who either wants to learn Ancient Greek but does not know where to start or for those who are already learning but are looking for good study methods or resources.

First, Name Your Goal

So you want to learn Ancient Greek. The first important aspect is to reflect on why you want to learn it in the first place, and what your end goal is. To read Ancient Greek philosophers in their own language maybe, to delve into and understand the epic world of Homer, or to really experience the New Testament the same way as a Christian would two thousand years ago. People come to Ancient Greek for very different reasons, and your reason is the single biggest factor affecting your journey. It decides which authors or texts you are heading toward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ancient Greek hard to learn?

For English speakers, harder than Spanish or French, but not really harder than Hungarian, Estonian, or Chinese. The real difficulty is that there are no native speakers and far fewer learning materials than any modern language enjoys. Speakers of languages with grammatical cases find the start a little gentler, but plenty of excellent Ancient Greek speakers started from Spanish, English, and other morphologically simpler languages.

Can you actually speak Ancient Greek?

Yes, quite well, too. A community of enthusiasts, teachers, and scholars around the world uses the language actively, and speaking it is a regular result of studying it with immersive methods. Whole programs run in it, like the one at the Polis Institute in Jerusalem where I studied, and you can hear it in my videos. I have students arrive from years of traditional study unable to produce a single spoken sentence, and after two classes, they are answering simple questions. Then after meeting just once a week for a year, we already discuss and paraphrase Homer and Plato in Ancient Greek.

Should I learn Attic or Koine Greek first?

You should always choose the dialect that most closely reflects your language learning goals, whether Attic or Koine. That being said, I strongly encourage studying both. From my experience, students who only studied Koine texts have trouble reading classical literature because of grammar and syntax hurdles. Students who, on the other hand, only study classical Attic texts tend to have inadequate vocabulary to really read Ancient Greek broadly (some forget that most extant Ancient Greek literature is written in Koine).

Do I need to learn Modern Greek first?

No. I would never learn one language as a bridge to another. There are many more resources and actual native speakers for Modern Greek, but if you have no interest in modern Greece, then you should skip it. If Byzantine or medieval Greek interests you, it is perhaps worth learning Modern Greek in its own right, but as a prerequisite to Ancient Greek, it is simply a distraction.

Can I learn Ancient Greek as an adult, starting from zero?

Yes. My one honest caveat is that Ancient Greek should probably not be your first foreign language. Reach a decent level in any other language first, so you know from the inside how language learning works as a process. You can then transfer your experience into learning Ancient Greek more effectively.

Do I need a teacher, or can I learn Ancient Greek on my own?

For reading and listening, no: that input you can practice alone, and self-study can take you far if you are very determined. For speaking and writing, yes: it is very hard to foster correct output alone. I know people who talk to themselves in Ancient Greek or write diaries, but without a regular feedback loop with a teacher, methods such as those will never deliver as much as promised compared to someone who can check and correct you. That is why in my teaching I encourage students to read and listen outside of class, while in class we pay special attention to speaking and writing (or giving feedback on writing from home).

Is Ancient Greek harder than Latin?

It depends on where you start from. If you speak a Romance language, Latin will feel nearer, and Latin is more accessible overall: more resources, more speakers, more communities. If you are Korean and don’t speak any Indo-European language, then Latin and Ancient Greek might be just about equally challenging. Motivation, of all aspects that affect your learning path, outweighs accessibility and knowledge of other languages. If Ancient Greek is the language that pulls you, that pull is worth more than a head start.

Is Ancient Greek a dead language?

Not really, and I have never liked the term. It is true there are no native speakers, but can we say that it is dead if so many people speak it? Like some others, I prefer to call it γλῶττα σταθερᾱ́, so a settled or stable language: it does not change. If you come back to it after five years, the words are exactly where you left them, and a good learning resource from a century ago is often still good today. This cannot be taken for granted at all with modern languages, and constitutes a benefit of studying Ancient Greek over modern languages. I know French native speakers who have not lived in France for several years, and they say they have trouble understanding when they hear French youth. You will never have to worry about this with Ancient Greek!

Is there a Duolingo or an app for Ancient Greek?

No, and nothing close: there was a petition to add Ancient Greek to Duolingo, and it went nowhere last time I checked. There are small apps for drilling word forms, but no structured app-based course that adjusts dynamically as of summer 2026. The one app I do recommend is Attikos (opens in new tab), a reader with a large-ish library of ancient texts where you can tap any word and see its meaning. I also recommend Hoplite keyboard (opens in new tab) for typing in Ancient Greek on smartphones. Beyond that, the real resources are books, recordings, and people.

Which pronunciation of Ancient Greek should I use?

Three or four, depending on how you count, are in serious use, and the choice is genuinely yours. The restored classical pronunciation, which reconstructs the Athens of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, is the one I use and teach to students who want it. The Erasmian convention dominates classrooms for a good reason: every letter and diphthong sounds distinct, so there is very little ambiguity when you speak. Modern Greek pronunciation (with some of its earlier Koine Greek permutations) is, according to many, beautiful and simple to adopt, at the cost of several letters and letter combinations sounding the same (iotacism!). Pick what draws you, be consistent, and do not let the choice delay you a single day.

How long does it take to learn Ancient Greek?

If you really want a number: with a good teacher, community, method, and resources, about two years to quite a high proficiency. Honestly, though, it all depends on your hours, your method, and your materials. One important aspect to remember is that “Ancient Greek” is not really one language, but a continuum of the Greek language over around 1,500 years. If you learned French and speak it with very high fluency, no one would automatically assume you can read and understand a French text from 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Ancient Greek, so if you reach a high level of fluency in it, it is assumed you can understand Epic, Attic, and Koine Greek. This makes the journey longer, but as many speakers of Ancient Greek prove, it is doable.

What should I do first, today?

Book a first lesson because an immersive start needs company. Short of that, Alpha with Angela (opens in new tab) is the closest free thing to a real course without a teacher. And if you want to begin entirely alone, a traditional textbook like Ancient Greek Alive (opens in new tab) will get you started.

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