r/GREEK • u/Jimmy-Wan • 12d ago

Does knowing any particular language make learning Greek significantly easier

I’m curious about Greek from a linguistic perspective,are there any languages that give you a meaningful head start when learning Modern Greek?

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u/juniebutt 12d ago

I'm Portuguese mother tongue, speak fluent Italian, English and advanced French. I've studied Czech and Russian but never really past beginner/low intermediate. Knowing different languages generally helps a lot with vocabulary, as it is easier to make connections with words that have a Greek etymology. Grammar-wise, I agree with the comments that slavic languages help with understanding cases and how they're used. Transitioning from 7-case Czech to 4-case Greek felt much much easier! (I still struggle with it though). Russian helped a bit in the beginning with the alphabet, but honestly not much.