A Little Modern Greek

Anyone  interested in Modern Greek will find resources rather slim pickings,  The Pimsleur I and II--all they have done--will not get you much beyond:  Hi what's your name, how are you, a beer, please.  Pimsleur's hostility to grammar, which is harmful in French, German, Italian etc, is devastating for a language dominated by subjunctive constructions, tense aspect, and case structure.  Living Language, on the other hand, moves at such a slow pace initially and then loads the tenses in the second half of Level 3, is very difficult, and more difficult than it has to be because early on the decide to speak natural Greek, which means talking as rapidly as Cuban Spanish and frequently swallowing or even cutting off entirely the last syllable, unless it is accented.

One of the best things available is Complete Greek: Beginner to Intermediate, book and audio.  The book and to a lesser extent the audio have many too many exercises in the form of puzzles, but it does gradually present the grammar, the dialogues are very practical--shopping, finding places, ordering food, etc., and the speakers are very articulate actors.  Book and audio cost a bit --$56--but the Kindle version with online audio access is only $3.

A valuable resource is Douglas Q Adams' Dover Essential Greek, which, like other books in the series is an old staid cut-and-dried summary of MG grammar as it was taught--correctly taught--50 years ago.  Yes, most MG speakers are a bit sloppier now and Adams still presents some katharevousa forms, but that too is valuable since they are still used commonly in books and by educated speakers.  The little Berlitz handbook is also useful.  Collins' MG Phrasebook is also cheap on Kindle.

Collins offers 10 top tips, among which:  Don't wear beach clothes except at the beach (One might add, Greeks are modest people.  Don't go grunge and don't wear shorts or halter tops in church); Yes is still indicated by nodding up--as it was in ancient times--but it is not generaly polite to nod instead of speaking; never point the palm of your hand to someone's face;  be prepared to talk about things like marital status, birth date, etc.  Greeks are noset.

Some key words:

σήμερα     today

απόψε       tonight

χτες           yesterday

αύριο          tomorrow

το πρωί     morning   το πρωινό

το μεσιμέρι    noon     ττο μεσιμεριανό

το απόγευμα   afternoon to early evening

το βράδυ      το βραδυνό

τώρα           now

μετά             after

εδώ              here

εκεί              there

από εδώ      from here, this way

μβορώ να πληρώσω;      Can/may I pay

νόστιμος    Delicious   το φάγητο ήταν νοστιμο   The food was delicious

γεια μας    Cheers, also στην  υγεια μας

Χάρηκα (πολύ)

Audio