Complete Ancient Greek: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Ancient Greek, with Original Texts (Complete Language Courses) Bilingual Edition, Kindle Edition

Καλημερα ειναι ενταξει yeah I know this is modern greek but like whatever dawg.

Very easy to follow and understand!

This review is of "Complete Ancient Greek" by Betts & Henry, paperback, 2018 (2017 in UK). As noted in the book, this has been previously published, starting in 1993 (in the USA) as "Teach Yourself Ancient Greek". Also as "Complete Ancient Greek" (2011 USA, 2010 UK).While the content of the latest 2018 edition is basically the same as the earlier ones, there is one major difference at least as far as I'm concerned: the page size of this book is 7.5" X 9.8" whereas the earlier ones were 5.2" X 7.8", which works out to an 81% increase in page area. Also, the paper is high-quality and very white, unlike the 1993 book (I don't know about the 2011). Why is that so important? If, like me, your vision is not as sharp as it once was, it can make a BIG difference when trying to read all those tiny Greek accents and diacriticals (e.g., is that a rough-breathing mark or a smooth-breathing mark under that circumflex?), which appear more sharply and clearly in this book. The larger page also allows the material to "spread out" a little more. The main vocabulary in the back is now double-spaced.Some other points on the format: This edition, like the 2011, uses the conventional sigma character, rather than the lunar or crescent sigma of the 1993 edition. The appendices have been slightly revised, with one deleted and three added. Section 25, Homeric Greek, has been removed and placed online and revised. Keys (answers) to Exercises have been removed and placed online. The Index, present in 1993 and 2011, has been eliminated in this edition. I find that inexcusable in a book of this nature, and for that the rating drops by a star.I bought this book as a reference to accompany Prof. Hans-Friedrich Mueller's excellent "Greek 101" video course in the "Great Courses" series, and for that purpose it suits me well. For reviews of the book's content, rather than the format, please see the reviews by others of the earlier editions mentioned above.

I've had to give up on this book early on.First, it's extremely inconvenient to flip back and forth between the glossary and the lesson on Kindle, and this text expects absolute dependence on this skill.Second, for whatever reason, many of the Greek characters are presented in an image format rather than as text. The images are difficult to read. Moreover, since you'll have to rely on the glossary, and using the search function makes this a little easier, the image of a character smack in the middle of a word makes using the search function impossible.Third, and this is more about the book itself, this is a less than optimal way to teach yourself a language, and I'm really not sure why I bought it in the first place. (I think the sample I had seen conveyed the impression that the authors were more interested in the students learning than in the teacher teaching). After having taught myself French and German with French for Reading and German for Reading, I'm convinced that the technique used in those books is a better way to get students to hit the ground running. Brief, focused explanations followed by practice of the relevant skill that builds up brick by brick yet also gets you involved intensively in the language from early on. This book rather builds wall upon wall of English text, and these walls are impenetrable to all but the most fanatical grammarians. After reading fifteen pages or so of grammatical lecturing with very few demonstrations, you are finally presented with a list of Greek sentences and told to look all the words up in the glossary and to deconstruct all the sentences grammatically. My exposure to French, German, Latin, and Mandarin helps somewhat in preparing me for the kind of curve balls that languages can throw, such as for simple things like gender, declensions, word order, etc, but if you had no exposure to that prior to studying Greek, the first ten pages would leave you feeling all at sea.Perhaps I am wrong in thinking that the techniques I used to learn to read French, German, and Chinese could be used in learning ancient Greek but I think I am correct in believing there are better ways to do this. In any case, this definitely doesn't work on Kindle.

The Kindle version does not include the appendices, so all the verb paradigms are missing, etc. What a gyp.

This product is likely great for advanced grammar, but it is absolute trash for new learners. I would have loved a book with an intro to the basic letters, how to pronounce them, and easy reading sections to start with. This book has long reading sections with translations hundreds of pages away. Completely useless for beginners.

I won’t teach you Ancient Greek in all it’s complexity but it is a good start, it’s well set out and user friendly.

Incluye no solo gramática, sino textos bilingües, por lo que acerca más a un método que a una gramática. También se observa una progresión, lo cual importante en didáctica.

Esssa versão digital Kindle está tão bem diagramada que me fez dispensar a de papel. Tenho as duas, e essa digital, pela primeira vez, me fez esquecer o livro físico. Lida em um tablet, fica perfeita.O conteúdo é para aprendizes intermediários. Para esses, e só para esses, há pouca coisa tão boa no mercado. Iniciantes devem procurar outro.

Not much has changed from earlier additions, except that the books larger size makes for easier reading. I have nothing against books that include stories written by the author(s), but this book tries to avoid anything but lightly edited and simplified versions of ancient sources. Thus I will use it in conjunction with other texts with made-up stories to provide practice in connected prose. Ancient Greek had several literary dialects and to me modern compositions are just examples of yet another dialect.

Generally speaking, i found the book adequate (hence three stars) and reached the 11th chapter before i decided to ferret the internet for much more comprehensive textbooks.The book is compiled of about 63 percent of grammar and exercises intended to internalize the grammar (about 280 pages) with rest dedicated to paradigms. This is quite dissapointing when compared with its rivals such as "Greek: An Intensive Course" (main grammar and exercise sections 600 pages) and "Learn to Read Greek" (apparently over 2000 pages). Additionally the other books include much more exercieses and the addition of drills, which seek to help the student internalize the the morphology. This present book does not cater towards students internalizing the morphology which is arguably one of the most important aspect of Ancient Greek but here, sadly, negelected.The first nine chapters requires the student to learn about 90 words per chapter. That is 90 individual words which the student must be able to translate into both greek and english and memorize the accents. Personally i found this to encumbersome and quite frankly also ridiculous. In my defense i made it past the 9 chapters having internalized the greek vocabulary, but lets be honest, there are simpler more facilitating solutions.If you are considering pruchasing this book, i would strongly dissuade you from opting for the kindle version; in short, it is terrible. Terrible formating and the resolution for tables is not crisp enough to help distinguish the accents, which is a serious issue in need of ameriolation, as it hampers learn progress.If you wish to learn Greek, then this book can prove a companion, if you are however interested in mastering Greek, the two books mentioned in this review will certainly lead you towards that ambitious goal.