[B-Greek] interlinears for beginners

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at verizon.net
Tue Apr 19 07:46:12 EDT 2005


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <TuNeCedeMalis67 at aol.com>
To: <jwest at highland.net>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 7:32 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] interlinears for beginners


> <<<<<In a message dated 4/19/2005 6:18:09 AM Central  Daylight Time,
> jwest at highland.net writes:
>
> Interlinears are the
> plague- avoid  them.>>>>
>
> I have found an interlinear useful at this stage of my language learning,
> especially as I try to master prepositions and pronouns. To be able to read
> along and basically just read the verbs in English, I can read the rest of the
> verses in Greek and notice when the preposition is followed by the genitive or
> accusative, for example.

The point is that you should not need an interlinear to do this.  Take the time 
to memorize the paradigms, and as you learn the prepositions, memorize the cases 
they take along with the usual "meanings" associated with those cases.  I 
understand the desire to begin using what you are learning immediately, and an 
interlinear appears to be a shortcut to get there a little quicker, but like 
many so-called shortcuts, it ends up causing more problems in the long run.

If you have a choice between an interlinear and being infected with plague, 
choose the plague -- well maybe not, because if you choose the interlinear, you 
might learn long enough to learn from your mistake.

Barry

A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
  --Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism"

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1yfx7/ 




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