Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
Post Reply
bluemoonKY
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun May 28, 2023 12:16 am

Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by bluemoonKY »

I have heard and read that the grammar of Ancient Greek is very different from English grammar. I have heard that half the trouble of learning Ancient Greek is to learn Ancient Greek grammar (as opposed to only learning the vocabulary of Ancient Greek). I suspect that a lot of the grammatical categories of English are universal such as the parts of speech and tense and participles. I know that both English and Ancient Greek use noun cases for pronouns.

Has learning Ancient Greek helped you have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax? If so,. is English your first language?

If Ancient Greek has helped you have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax, please explain exactly how learning Ancient Greek helped you have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax.

User avatar
seneca2008
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 2006
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:48 pm
Location: Londinium

Re: Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by seneca2008 »

I suspect that a lot of the grammatical categories of English are universal such as the parts of speech and tense and participles.
Some of them but there are many differences.

When I was a boy I learned most of what I know about English grammar through learning Latin. One of the difficulties I face in teaching Greek and Latin is students’ poor grasp of English grammar, not that they speak or write ungrammatically but they have no way of talking about it. I think that through learning Latin and Greek you can come to a better appreciation about how English grammar works but I think the same could be said about learning any language.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

MattK
Textkit Member
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:27 am

Re: Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by MattK »

I think my situation was similar to Seneca's. I was at school in the 80s and 90s in the UK, when English grammar teaching was minimal - the difference between nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and not much else. I learned a lot more from French lessons and then Latin and Greek at University.

My knowledge of the grammar of these other languages made learning about English grammar very easy when I had to do so (I work in English as a foreign language teaching these days). Obviously there are many differences, but just being used to analysing language in terms of its grammar made a huge difference.

I'd add that one significant advantage of studying a foreign language's grammar first is that it has a practical use - it will help you to understand others and express yourself more clearly - and so you have a real incentive to learn it well. Students of their own language's grammar will, not unreasonably, often complain that it's pointless.

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4790
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by mwh »

Learning ancient Greek has not helped my understanding of English grammar in the slightest, and I don’t see how it could. English like all modern European languages has much in common with ancient Greek (still more with Latin), but it’s the differences that impress me more. The case system, for instance, has faded to vanishing point in English, leaving only a faint residue in personal pronouns, while the tense system is more complex and correlations weaker.

And as to the so-called parts of speech, well, Chinese does recognize nouns and verbs, but not adverbs or participles, and organizes the language on quite different conceptual lines.

bluemoonKY
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun May 28, 2023 12:16 am

Re: Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by bluemoonKY »

mwh wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:10 am Learning ancient Greek has not helped my understanding of English grammar in the slightest, and I don’t see how it could.
.
How could learning Ancient Greek possibly help one's understanding of English grammar? I think that the last sentence of MattK's second paragraph on post #3 on this thread touches on the idea I have.

bluemoonKY
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun May 28, 2023 12:16 am

Re: Does learning Ancient Greek help a person have a better understanding of English grammar and syntax?

Post by bluemoonKY »

seneca2008 wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 8:32 pm
I suspect that a lot of the grammatical categories of English are universal such as the parts of speech and tense and participles.
Some of them but there are many differences.

When I was a boy I learned most of what I know about English grammar through learning Latin. One of the difficulties I face in teaching Greek and Latin is students’ poor grasp of English grammar, not that they speak or write ungrammatically but they have no way of talking about it. I think that through learning Latin and Greek you can come to a better appreciation about how English grammar works but I think the same could be said about learning any language.
I took two years of Spanish in high school, and I don't think learning Spanish helped my understanding of English grammar. But I think that learning Spanish didn't help my English because one does not have to think in terms of cases and parts of speech in Spanish any more than in English.

I think Ancient Greek might be different.

Post Reply