To determine the appropriate language class for incoming students who have studied Greek, the Program offers placement tests during the last weeks of August and throughout the academic year by appointment. Contact Professor Artemis Leontis.
Here are some guidelines for placement into Modern Greek classes, which is made on the basis of knowledge of the forms and structure of the language, correct comprehension of reading passages and correct composition of essays at the appropriate level. Ease in speaking is a plus but not what is tested in the placement exam. We are training students to achieve advanced competence in reading and writing as well as speaking, without gaps or errors in their knowledge of Greek, so that they will be able to build to level of proficiency in all kinds of communicative situations.
For placement in 102 (second semester) we are looking for:
- Ease in reading and writing the Greek alphabet
- Correct use of the present tense
- Correct use of nouns as subjects, direct objects, and with prepositions (nominative and accusative cases)
- Comfort with basic vocabulary for talking about family, friends, and placement of objects in a room
- Knowledge of numbers from 1-1000
- Familiarity with colors, directions, buying and selling things, making change, time, weather, and days of the week
- Knowledge of personal pronouns as subjects
- Basic understanding of future and past tenses
For placement in 201 (second year, first semester), you need to be able to handle all 101 material and in addition the following:
- Comprehend a basic passage and write a basic essay, for example a recipe or a biographical statement in Greek without errors
- Know how to form and use the present, simple past tense (aorist), continuous past (imperfect), simple and continuous future, and simple and continuous subjunctive in the active voice
- Form and use simple and continuous command forms in the active voice
- Form and use nouns and adjectives in all cases and as subjects, direct and indirect objects in sentences
- Form and use comparatives and superlatives
- Form and use personal pronouns in all cases as subjects, direct and indirect objects, objects of prepositions
- Form and use possessive pronouns (emphatic and non-emphatic forms)
- Use demonstrative pronouns and many other pronouns
- Know all numbers
For placement in 202 (second year, second semester) you need to know all of the above and in addition be able to comprehend an intermediate-level passage and write a more complex essay in Greek without errors. You need to show that you know all basic Greek grammar, including:
- Form and using the active and passive voice of verbs in all tenses and persons
- Form and using all kinds of nouns and adjectives, including difficult ones
- Pass a brief oral interview that will determine your comfort level in understanding most everyday conversations and ability to express yourself at an intermediate level
To pass the language requirement (4 semesters) you need to know all of the above and be able to use them and comprehend them comfortably and correctly. You need to be comfortable with complex sentences using different forms of subordination (participial phrases, relative clauses, dependent clauses with conjunctions using the subjunctive and indicative). You need to be able to write an essay without errors of grammar, syntax, or spelling.
