Customer Reviews

Essential Modern Greek Grammar (Dover Language Guides Essential Grammar)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book is not an extensive study of modern greek grammar; as it says in the title, this book contians the essentials. Look for another grammar book if you're looking for a comprehensive guide. With that said, the book is an excellent tool to use as a quick reference. Well-organized and succint. For the price, it's a good book to add to your library.

It's an excellent book but would not be useful as a beginner's introduction to the language. It's directed at someone who has some knowledge of Greek and wants to understand more about the structure of the language. It's easier to follow for a person who has studied Indo-European languages, such as Latin or German, with noun inflections and verb changes.

This is a good book for the person who has some knewledge of the language and wants to learn more about the general aspects of grammar, it consists just in the necessary rules, it isn't a conversational or a deeper grammatical treatise.
The only objection I have to it is that still uses the old orthography prior to the '80s reform (three accents, two breathings), but if you know how to make the right changes (just one accent, the acute, no accent in the monosylables, except as a diachritic, no breathings) there will be no problem at all.
For that price, a very good adquisition.

The choice of grammars for modern Greek is severely limited. This is the best available grammar if you plan to spend some time in Greece and you want to become conversant quickly. At a price of six dollars, don't fret about whether to buy it. If you are a casual or professional traveler to Greece, it should be part of your kit.

The book is brief and small. It gives you the basics to an adequate depth, without becoming burdensome. It does not provide phonetic spellings in English or much in the way of conversation. The introduction explains that the grammar is intended to be used in combination with a CD course (to learn the sounds of Greek) and a phrasebook (for practical examples and phonetic spellings). In my experience, that's a convenient combination.

The book is a bit dated, mainly in using an older and more complex system of accents. It's a small anachronism that is easy to ignore.

Someone who is unfamiliar with Greek should start several months before departure by listening to one or more of the CD courses and learning practical expressions from one or more of the phrasebooks. Use this grammar in the background to understand the structure of the language. Before arriving in Greece, get a lightweight Greek-English dictionary.

This is the second book I have used in this language series. The other is Italian. These are both outstanding books. Small and concise. You DO get the essentials, just as they promise.

Pre-80' accent spelling, and a lot of focus on that which leaves little room for actual beginner's inferences as goes grammar. Too many generalizing statements, that lead the beginner learner astray and do not leave room for exceptions as one goes further with study.
I do not recommend this book.

This book covers all the fundamentals of Greek grammar: nouns, adjectives, personal pronouns, verbs, etc. It does break down these areas in a logical fashion in just under eighty pages plus a glossary on grammatical terms. Knowing the information in the book will definitely help you decipher the language. The Greek lettering is tiny so read in a good light. Also, there are many sections that exist as a series of rules (rule applies in cases when preceded or followed by these eight or ten letters). That kind of information is difficult to read and even more difficult to remember but perhaps that aspect of Greek can not be simplified or made more palatable. All in all I am very glad I bought this book, and I feel my knowledge of the language was significantly enhanced.

I am Greek, someone who went through K-8 in Greece (but hardly paid attention in Grammar class). I thought this would give me a good memory jog. For my purposes, it was an OK book, but I would certainly not spend 5 bucks to get a new one. The book still uses the polytonic system (something no longer used in modern Greek), and there are some mis-translations in the book. The translations are technically correct, but not semantically correct. If you want a good, solid grammar book for Greek, this isn't it.