Greek: An Intensive Course [Paperback]

Hardy Hansen (Author), Gerald M. Quinn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0823216632 | ISBN-13: 978-0823216635 | Publication Date: January 1, 1992 | Edition: 2

The first edition of this extremely popular two volume Greek text has been successfully adopted in many high schools and colleges; the organization and approach used by the authors, make it an equally effective tool for those who would enjoy learning the language on their own. The set is designed for a two semester course at the introductory level. This second edition incorporates the authors' improvements and corrections gathered from users' commentary. Those who are currently using the first edition will find this update valuable, those who are seeking a Greek language text will find Greek: An Intensive Course one of the most complete and accessible books on the market.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Unlike other traditional books, it does not presume a previous knowledge of another inflected language; all the explanations necessary to understand Greek are contained within the book itself.-Languages and Literature

...all the new material is very fully and clearly explained . . . so much so that I had hopes that a motivated student would be able to continue on his own . . . there are a very large number of drills and practice sentences...-Peter L.D. Reid

This is a text of such wonderful clarity that it is a delight for both student and instructor.-Lydia Lenaghan

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 2 edition (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823216632
• ISBN-13: 978-0823216635
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Greek
  • #25 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Greek

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

181 of 183 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding text for new students of Greek, February 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Greek: An Intensive Course (Paperback)

As a 37 year old physician, I decided to learn Ancient Greek on my own without any prior experience in classical languages or grammar. Having reviewed a few other texts, this is absolutely the most useful and easily accessible. That's not to say that it's easy, but everything is explained in a well-organized and complete manner. The drills and exercises are very well done and it was thrilling to be able to tackle such a difficult subject on my own. My only minor issue with this book is that there is no answer key for the exercises, so one has to puzzle them out for oneself--a good experience in itself--but there are periodic self-scoring tests with answers that do keep you on track. Overall a wonderful introduction to Greek for the novice.

132 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and currently without rival, October 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Greek: An Intensive Course (Hardcover)

I have taught ancient Greek to students from middle school age to graduate students for more than ten years. This book is the best available, hands down. It is not condescending. It contains no serious errors; such infelicities as there are in its Greek sentences are to be excused on the grounds of pedagogical expediency. Its grammatical and morphological sections are the very definition of clarity and succinctness.

It may be guilty of an occasional oversimplification or a venial sin of omission. It leaves certain declensional systems and conditional constructions to the appendix, for example, and it certainly should include the an account of the dual, at least for nouns, somewhere in the body of the text. But those shortcomings are easily outweighed by the advantages of this textbook. It's the only one I have found where a student can actually a) get through the morphology and grammar of the Attic dialect in a realistic amount of time (Athenaze, in contrast, takes FOREVER) and b) leave students actually ready to tackle, say, a Platonic dialogue or a Euripidean tragedy when they're done. (Athenaze takes a distant second on this count, too.)

Other shortcomings: not enough vocabulary to give students a real "working minimum". Relegation of some fairly important morphology and grammar to the appendix. Or, conversely, Other strengths: Doesn't overwhelm students trying to give them a "working minimum vocabulary", I take it because the contents of such a hypothetical working minimum vocabulary vary widely depending on the genre or author the student is going to tackle.

134 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can learn Ancient Greek, January 27, 2001

By 

Douglas E. Raineault (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greek: An Intensive Course (Paperback)

As an avid reader of the classics I wanted to learn Ancient Greek so that I could appreciate the works in the original language. I started out at my local library where I found very few books on the subject. The few that I did find were too advanced or were poorly written.

Hansen's text book is different. It starts out slowly with pronunciation and alphabet lessons. These are very valuble and were the elements that were most lacking in the other texts. The book builds to syntax and vocabulary. The great thing about the book is that they put easy reading and speaking drills early on. This makes you feel like you are learning and builds your confidence. The book also stresses thinking in Greek, since it makes the language easier to learn and since Greek is one of the most expressive languages.

This truly is an intensive course in the language and some devotion to study is required. However, it is fairly simple and fun to learn from the book. At the completion of the lessons, you will have a basic understanding of the Greek language and will be able to express ideas in the language. I am not very good at learning languages. If I can learn ancient greek so can you.

Other good features of this book are its Greek/English English/Greek translation dictionary for many usefuls words and phrases.