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🏺 Training: Languages

2 learning modules. This page updates itself when items move between sections.

In this section
  1. Intro to Classical Greek Learning Module
  2. Intro to Classical Hebrew Learning Module

🏺 Intro to Classical Greek Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

A beginner course in classical (Attic) Greek, read, written and spoken: the alphabet and handwriting, restored Attic pronunciation with Erasmian notes, the article, nouns, verbs, participles and moods, with practice and answers, writing and speaking drills in every lesson, and short readings from Aesop, Xenophon, Plato and Homer. 22 lessons.

What is included: 22 lessons and pages
  1. The Alphabet and Handwriting 35 min
    Learn the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet in small letters and capitals, how to write each one by hand, which letters only look like English ones, and how to spell your own name in Greek.
  2. Pronunciation: Restored Attic, Erasmian and Modern 38 min
    Learn the three ways people pronounce ancient Greek today, why this course uses restored Attic, how every letter and diphthong sounds in each system, and why vowel length matters.
  3. Breathings, Accents and Punctuation 36 min
    Learn the small marks on Greek words: rough and smooth breathings, the acute, grave and circumflex accents as marks of pitch, the basic rules for where accents can fall, and Greek punctuation, including the question mark that looks like a semicolon.
  4. Greetings and Classroom Phrases 32 min
    Start speaking: say hello and goodbye, ask and give names, answer yes and no, praise a good answer, count from one to ten, and use the short commands of a Greek classroom.
  5. Nouns: Gender, Number, and the First and Second Declensions 38 min
    Meet Greek nouns: the three genders, singular and plural, stems and endings, and the five model nouns χώρα, τιμή, θάλαττα, λόγος and δῶρον, first in the nominative and then in every form.
  6. The Cases and What They Do 40 min
    Learn what each of the five Greek cases does in a sentence, with plain English comparisons, why Greek word order can be so free, and the complete first and second declension tables with the patterns that make them easy to remember.
  7. The Article and Agreement 35 min
    Learn every form of the Greek definite article ὁ ἡ τό, see how it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, and use it as a pronoun in the ὁ μέν ... ὁ δέ pattern.
  8. The Present Active Indicative and εἰμί 38 min
    Conjugate λύω and other regular verbs in the present active indicative, learn the present of εἰμί (to be) with its enclitic accents, and build simple Greek sentences in any word order.
  9. The Present Middle and Passive 38 min
    Learn the middle voice, where the subject acts for or on itself, and the passive, where the subject is acted on; conjugate λύομαι, express the agent with ὑπό, and learn deponent verbs such as βούλομαι and ἔρχομαι.
  10. Adjectives and Pronouns 40 min
    Decline 2-1-2 adjectives such as ἀγαθός and δίκαιος, tell attributive from predicate position, and learn the personal pronouns ἐγώ and σύ, the three uses of αὐτός, and the demonstratives οὗτος and ἐκεῖνος.
  11. Prepositions 40 min
    Learn the common Greek prepositions and the cases each one takes, the place-to-place logic of where, where to and where from, how prepositions shorten before vowels (ἐξ, ἀφʼ, καθʼ), and read Xenophon's description of the river at Celaenae.
  12. The Imperfect and the Future 35 min
    Put verbs into the past with the augment, build the imperfect of λύω and εἰμί, and form the future with -σ- and the sound changes it causes.
  13. The Aorist 38 min
    Learn the first (sigmatic) aorist ἔλυσα, the second aorist ἔλαβον, εἶπον, ἦλθον, and the difference in aspect between the aorist snapshot and the ongoing imperfect.
  14. The Third Declension 40 min
    Meet the third family of Greek nouns: consonant stems (φύλαξ, σῶμα, ῥήτωρ), sigma stems (γένος), i-stems (πόλις), and why the genitive singular is the form you must memorize.
  15. The Perfect and Pluperfect 36 min
    Form the perfect with reduplication (λέλυκα, λέλυμαι), learn what the perfect means (a finished act with a result that still stands), and meet the pluperfect.
  16. Participles 40 min
    Decline the present active participle λύων, λύουσα, λῦον, then use participles three ways (attributive, circumstantial, supplementary) and read your first genitive absolutes.
  17. Infinitives and Indirect Statement 40 min
    Form the present, future, aorist and perfect infinitives of λύω, use the infinitive with verbs like βούλομαι and with the article, then report what people said with φημί plus an infinitive and with λέγω ὅτι.
  18. Subjunctive, Optative and Imperative 40 min
    Learn the three moods beyond the indicative in λύω and εἰμί, then use them: let us and what should we do, purpose clauses with ἵνα, wishes with εἴθε and the optative, commands, and prohibitions with μή and the aorist subjunctive.
  19. Conversation and Composition 40 min
    Put the grammar to work: ask questions with τίς, τί, ποῦ, πότε, πῶς and διὰ τί, describe people and places, tell a short story with the aorist and imperfect, and write a guided composition of your own.
  20. Using a Lexicon and Reading Aids 35 min
    Find any Greek word you meet: how LSJ, the Middle Liddell and other lexicons are built, how to read an entry, how to turn an inflected form back into its dictionary form, the six principal parts, and the free online tools (Logeion, Perseus, the Scaife Viewer, Morpheus) that speed the work up.
  21. Readings: Aesop, Xenophon, Plato, Homer 40 min
    Read four real openings in the original Greek, with vocabulary, notes and your own translation: Aesop's fox and the grapes, the first sentence of Xenophon's Anabasis, the first lines of Plato's Apology, and the first two lines of Homer's Iliad with Ionic forms and dactylic hexameter explained.
  22. Review and Next Steps 40 min
    The whole course on a few pages: summary tables for the article, nouns, pronouns and λύω in every mood, a pronunciation chart, principal parts of ten common verbs, a map of what to read next, and charts of the alphabet, the cases, the history of Greek and its dialects.
modulelanguagesgreekclassical greekatticancient greekgrammarreadingpronunciation

Quote Verification Last Ran (October 27, 2026)

Open Intro to Classical Greek ↗

📜 Intro to Classical Hebrew Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

A beginner course in classical Hebrew, read, written and spoken: the alphabet in print and cursive, vowel points, modern Israeli pronunciation with notes on the classical (Tiberian) sounds, nouns, the article and prepositions, pronouns and suffixes, the verb in all seven stems, weak verbs, numbers and word order, with practice and answers, writing and speaking drills in every lesson, and readings from Genesis, Ruth, Jonah, Deuteronomy and the Psalms in the Westminster Leningrad Codex. 22 lessons.

What is included: 22 lessons and pages
  1. The Alphabet and Handwriting 45 min
    Learn the 22 Hebrew letters in the square print script, their names and sounds, the five final forms, the letters that look alike, how to write each letter by hand in print and in modern cursive, where the script came from, how letters work as numbers, and how to write your own name in Hebrew.
  2. Vowel Points, Shewa and Dagesh 50 min
    Learn the dots and dashes the Masoretes added to the Hebrew letters: every vowel sign with its name and sound, the vowel letters ו and י and final ה, vocal and silent shewa, the hateph vowels, dagesh lene and dagesh forte, mappiq, the shin and sin dots, and how the divine name is read aloud.
  3. Pronunciation 45 min
    How Hebrew sounds in the modern Israeli pronunciation this course speaks, how it sounded in the classical Tiberian reading of about 900 AD, what we can tell about older sounds, and how the Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions differ, with the reasons this course made its choice.
  4. Syllables, Stress and Reading Aloud 45 min
    How Hebrew words break into open and closed syllables, how shewa and dagesh affect the division, where the stress falls (usually on the last syllable, sometimes on the one before), what furtive patah, maqaf, pause and sof pasuq do, and how to read the first verses of Genesis aloud syllable by syllable.
  5. Greetings and Everyday Phrases 45 min
    Start speaking with phrases real speakers use in Genesis, Ruth, Samuel and Jonah: shalom and its many jobs, the reapers' greeting in Ruth 2:4, 'here I am,' asking names and home towns, yes and no, please, the question words, blessing and thanks, and a set of classroom phrases. Each phrase is marked as classical (with a verse) or as a modern Israeli convention.
  6. Nouns: Gender, Number and the Construct State 50 min
    How a Hebrew noun works: masculine and feminine, the plural endings ים- and וֹת-, the dual ַיִם- for pairs, the common irregular nouns, the segolate nouns like מֶלֶךְ, and the construct state (smikhut) that Hebrew uses for 'of.' Every form in the tables is attested in the Westminster Leningrad Codex, with a verse to find it.
  7. The Article, the Conjunction and the Prepositions 50 min
    The little words that stick to the front of Hebrew words: the article הַ and its changes before gutturals and resh, the conjunction וְ in all its forms, the prepositions בְּ, כְּ, לְ and מִן and how they merge with the article, the common independent prepositions, and the object marker אֵת. All taught from Genesis 1.
  8. Adjectives and Demonstratives 45 min
    How Hebrew describes things: the four forms of an adjective, attributive adjectives that follow their noun and copy its article, predicate adjectives that make a statement with no verb, adjectives used as nouns, comparison with מִן, and the demonstratives זֶה, זֹאת, אֵלֶּה with הוּא, הִיא, הֵם for 'that' and 'those.' Taught from Genesis 1, Genesis 29, Ruth and Deuteronomy.
  9. Pronouns, Verbless Clauses and Pronominal Suffixes 48 min
    Learn the independent personal pronouns (אֲנִי, אַתָּה, הוּא ...), build sentences with no verb at all, attach pronoun endings to singular and plural nouns and to prepositions (סוּסִי, סוּסָיו, לִי, עִמּוֹ, אֹתִי), and use the relative אֲשֶׁר and the question words מִי, מָה and הֲ.
  10. Roots, the Seven Stems (Binyanim) and the Qal 45 min
    See how Hebrew builds words from three-letter roots and fixed patterns (מ־ל־ך gives מֶלֶךְ, מָלַךְ, יִמְלֹךְ, הִמְלִיךְ, מַמְלָכָה), meet the seven verb stems from Qal to Hophal, tell strong roots from weak ones, and learn the words you need to parse any verb form.
  11. The Qal Perfect 46 min
    Conjugate the Qal perfect of קָטַל and of the real verb שָׁמַר with forms found in the text, learn what the perfect means (completed action, states, knowing and remembering, promises spoken as done), conjugate stative verbs like כָּבֵד and קָטֹן, negate with לֹא, and read word order in verbal clauses.
  12. The Qal Imperfect and the Waw-Consecutive 50 min
    Conjugate the Qal imperfect with its prefixes and endings (יִקְטֹל, תִּקְטֹל, אֶקְטֹל ...), learn its meanings (future, habit, may, must, shall not), and master the waw-consecutive imperfect (וַיִּקְטֹל, וַיֹּאמֶר) that carries Hebrew narrative, and the waw-consecutive perfect (וְקָטַלְתָּ) that carries instructions and predictions. Read the chains in Genesis 1:3 to 5, Jonah 1:1 to 3 and Ruth 1:1 to 2.
  13. Imperative, Jussive and Cohortative 45 min
    Hebrew's three forms of will: the imperative for orders to you, the cohortative for let me and let us, the jussive for let him and may it be. Learn the Qal imperative of קָטַל and שָׁמַע, the lengthened imperative in ָה, the particle נָא, prohibitions with לֹא and אַל, and the volitive sequence that turns do this and live into do this so that you live.
  14. Participles and Infinitives 45 min
    Hebrew's four non-finite verb forms: the active participle קֹטֵל (the one killing, killer), the passive participle קָטוּל (killed), the infinitive construct קְטֹל (to kill, killing, when he killed) and the infinitive absolute קָטוֹל, which can stand before a verb to say surely, as in מוֹת תָּמוּת, you shall surely die.
  15. The Derived Stems 50 min
    Beyond the Qal, a Hebrew root can be built into six more stems: Niphal, Piel, Pual, Hiphil, Hophal and Hithpael. Learn the marker of each (prefix נ, doubled middle letter, prefix ה, prefix הִתְ), what each stem usually does to the meaning and where that rule breaks, the Gesenius paradigm of קָטַל in all seven stems, attested examples from Genesis to Isaiah, and the Hithpael's trick of swapping its ת with a hissing l…
  16. Weak Verbs 50 min
    Most common Hebrew verbs are weak: one of their root letters is a guttural, a נ, a י or ו, a final ה, a final א, or a repeated letter, and it changes the regular pattern. Learn each class, the signs that give it away, real forms from Genesis to Isaiah, the doubly weak verbs נָתַן, הָלַךְ and לָקַח, and a step-by-step method for finding the root of any form.
  17. Numbers, Dates and Time 50 min
    Count from one to a thousand in classical Hebrew, learn why three to ten seem to take the 'wrong' gender, read ordinals and dates the way Genesis and Exodus write them, write numbers with letters (and see why 15 is ט״ו), give ages with בֶּן and בַּת, and tell the time in modern Israeli Hebrew.
  18. Conversation and Composition 45 min
    Put the grammar to work: describe people and places with verbless clauses and adjectives, ask questions with הֲ, מִי, מָה, אַיֵּה, אֵיפֹה and לָמָּה, tell a story in the narrative past with וַיְהִי and the waw-consecutive, hold short dialogues built from real classical phrases (with modern ones labeled), and write a guided story of your own.
  19. Clauses and Word Order 50 min
    How Hebrew builds sentences: verb first in narrative, verbless clauses, fronting for emphasis and contrast, the background clause that starts with וְ and a noun (Genesis 1:2), subordinate clauses with כִּי, אֲשֶׁר, אִם, לְמַעַן and פֶּן, conditional sentences, וַיְהִי and וְהָיָה as signposts, and a recap of questions and negatives, read in Genesis 3, Ruth 1 and Jonah 1.
  20. Using a Lexicon and Reading Aids 45 min
    Find any Hebrew word you meet: how Brown, Driver and Briggs (BDB) is arranged by root, a step-by-step method for getting from a weak verb form back to its root, what Strong's numbers can and cannot do, what HALOT is, the free tools (Open Scriptures, Sefaria, STEP Bible, tanach.us), how to read morphology codes like HVqp3ms, how to use reader's editions and interlinears without leaning on them, and the Masoretic keti…
  21. Readings: Genesis, Ruth, Jonah, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Micah, Ecclesiastes 50 min
    Seven real passages in the Westminster Leningrad Codex text, from narrative to poetry: Genesis 1:1 to 5, Ruth 1:1 to 5, Jonah 1:1 to 3, Deuteronomy 6:4 to 5, Psalm 23, Micah 6:8 and Ecclesiastes 1:2 to 4, each with a pronunciation guide, word help, grammar notes and a full translation, plus an unpointed version of Genesis 1:1 to 5 and an introduction to parallelism in Hebrew poetry.
  22. Review and Next Steps 50 min
    The whole course on a few pages: the alphabet with its sounds and numbers, the vowel chart, the rules for the article, prepositions and conjunction, pronouns and suffixes, the Qal of קָטַל in every form, the seven stems at a glance, the signs of the weak verbs, a modern and Tiberian pronunciation chart, a 25-item cumulative review with answers, what to read and use next, and a 30-day practice plan.
modulelanguageshebrewclassical hebrewniqqudvowel pointswestminster leningrad codexgrammarreadingpronunciation

Open Intro to Classical Hebrew ↗

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