Learn Modern Greek by reading.

The best way to learn Modern Greek is to read real Greek with a tap for each word. Learn the most frequent words first. Spaced repetition holds them. This pack is monotonic Greek. The Koine Greek pack stays separate for the New Testament.

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Lector reading a Modern Greek passage with colour-coded word states and click-to-translate

Native speakers: ~13.5 million
Difficulty (FSI): Category III
To proficiency: ~1,100 hours

Why Modern Greek

Reasons to start.

Around 13.5 million native speakers. Greek is official in Greece, Cyprus, and the European Union.

The alphabet is its own, and a learner can read it in a few days. After that, the grammar is the work: articles, cases, and a verb system with aspect.

A large Greek diaspora lives in the United States, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The language has a life far outside the two official states.

Bonus: Modern Greek grew out of Koine. A reader of the New Testament gains a head start on the morphology. The packs stay separate: this one is monotonic, and Koine is polytonic with no audio.

Is it hard? How long?

The honest version.

FSI Category III (~1,100 hours), the same tier as Hungarian, Finnish, and Polish. The alphabet is new. The cases and the verb aspect take longer. A lookup folds the tonos, so τον finds τόν.

Whatever the category, the method is the same: read a lot of Modern Greek, learn the most common words first, and let a spaced-repetition system resurface them right before you forget. See the method.

A line of Modern Greek

Το βράδυ ο ήλιος πέφτει πίσω από τα βουνά, και οι άνθρωποι κάθονται στην πόρτα και βλέπουν τα παιδιά στον δρόμο.

In the evening the sun drops behind the mountains, and people sit in the doorway and watch the children in the street.

How Lector helps

Read it. Practice it. Remember it.

The reader (above) turns any Modern Greek text into a lesson — tap any word to translate it, hear it in a native voice, and track what you know. Then frequency-ordered cloze practice locks the core vocabulary in, and mined words push straight to Anki.

Practice

Drill the words that matter first.

Frequency-ordered cloze sentences build the core of Modern Greek vocabulary, scheduled by spaced repetition so each one returns right when you're about to forget it — in multiple-choice or typing mode. Practise listening to native pronunciation on every word and sentence, powered by Google text-to-speech.

Modern Greek cloze practice in Lector with multiple-choice options

Free resources

Free resources to get you started.

The Modern Greek reference data below is free to use on its own. To turn it into a full reading course, self-host Lector for free or start on the cloud from $5/mo.

Modern Greek reference data

Where the Modern Greek dictionary and cloze bank come from, with counts and full licensing.

Browse the data

New to Anki?

A from-scratch guide to spaced-repetition flashcards and loading your first Modern Greek deck.

Getting started with Anki

Questions

Learning Modern Greek, answered.

More on the method, or jump into the docs.

Is Modern Greek hard to learn?

Modern Greek is a hard language for English speakers, in the same FSI tier as Russian and Polish. The alphabet is a short first step. Articles, cases, and verb aspect are the real work.

How long does it take to learn Modern Greek?

The FSI places Modern Greek in Category III, at roughly 1,100 class hours (about 44 weeks of intensive study) to reach professional working proficiency. Reading simple texts with lookups comes a long way before that point.

What is the best way to learn Modern Greek?

Read real Greek with a dictionary that folds the tonos. Learn the most frequent words first. Use spaced repetition to hold them. Keep this pack and the Koine pack apart. Each one serves a different text.

Is this the same pack as Koine Greek?

No. This pack is monotonic Modern Greek, with audio and a Tatoeba sentence bank. The Koine Greek pack is polytonic, ranked on the New Testament, and silent on purpose. Use Koine for the New Testament. Use this pack for today's Greek.

Get involved

Learning Modern Greek? You're in good company.

Come chat with other learners on our Discord — swap resources, compare progress, ask questions, and stay motivated while you read your way in.

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Start reading Modern Greek today.

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