Greek to GCSE: Part 1: Revised edition for OCR GCSE Classical Greek

by John Taylor

First written in response to a JACT survey of over 100 schools, and now endorsed by OCR, this textbook has become a standard resource for students in the UK and for readers across the world who are looking for a clear and thorough introduction to the language of the ancient Greeks. Revised throughout and enhanced by coloured artwork and text features, this edition will support the new OCR specification for Classical Greek (first teaching 2016).

Part 1 covers the basics and is self-contained, with its own reference section. It covers the main declensions, a range of active tenses and a vocabulary of 250 Greek words to be learned. Pupil confidence is built up by constant consolidation of the material covered. After the preliminaries, each chapter concentrates on stories with one source or subject: Aesop, Homer's Odyssey and Alexander the Great, providing an excellent introduction to Greek culture alongside the language study. Written by a long-time school teacher and examiner, this two-part course is based on experience of what pupils find difficult, concentrating on the essentials and on the understanding of principles in both accidence and syntax: minor irregularities are postponed and subordinated so that the need for rote learning is reduced. It aims to be user-friendly, but also to give pupils a firm foundation for further study.

Genres: Language, Classics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Frankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

:D

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am relearning Ancient Greek by participating in a GreekStudy email list (http://www.quasillum.com/study/). Our group went through this book. You get practice by both reading and composing Attic Greek (the predecessor to Koine Greek--seems very similar so far). It is unusual in a few ways:

- It only teaches the nominative and attributive cases first, then adds the others later
- It waits longer to teach accenting than I've seen in other methods
- My least favorite thing about it is that in the noun inflection paradigms, they go in the order nom-acc-gen-dat (instead of the otherwise ubiquitous nom-gen-dat-acc). It may seem picky, because the info is all there, but I'm a visual learner and having the words in a different order is a little frustrating.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

A textbook on ancient Greek for high-school students. With only the first half of the class. And it still took me nearly a year to finish.

[Justin Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great coursebook with lots of greek-english and English-Greek practise sentences. A good bit is left out till book 2 so thr pace is rather slow in comparison to other Attic/Classical Greek courses. I do wish some of the chapters had longer explanations and more examples. If you're an autodidact such as myself, it can end up being a tad confusing- especially with no answer key available.

I DID however find a few online college resources that directly work in tandem with this course and even help quiz you on the vocabulary, syntax, and verbs!

[S.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The font and text color is horrible for students trying to learn Greek for the first time. I love the content, but I am not a fan of the book’s design and layout.

[Teena L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy to follow and a great source to learn Ancient Greek

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is the best Greek textbook that I've used so far. And I've used other great ones too. I really liked the way that Taylor would tie everything together so that the student could see the pattern. For example, his explanation of OUDEIS was great and helped me to remember how that works.

Definitely recommended for anyone who is wanting to learn Greek.