Zum Inhalt springen
DuoText
Loslegen

Ελληνικά · English

Learn Greek with short stories

Read Greek books with English alongside, or English books with Greek alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

Free Greek–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Greek, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each one is also a free Greek–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Greek–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

By level:

Free graded readers in Greek

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of free Greek graded readers: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Greek–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Greek with English alongside

Greek looks harder than it is. Its alphabet has 24 letters, many of them familiar from maths and science, and spelling is a reliable guide to sound: once you know the letters and a handful of letter pairs such as ου and μπ, you can read any word aloud. English is full of Greek too, from telephone to democracy, so many words turn out to be old friends.

What slows readers down is the grammar: nouns, articles and adjectives change their endings for case and gender, and verbs carry person and tense in their endings. With the English beside each paragraph, you can follow the story while those endings become familiar.

Reading English books with Greek alongside

For Greek speakers, a parallel text is a way into books in English without stopping at every idiom or phrasal verb. Read the English and look across to the Greek when a sentence doesn’t land.

It works for families abroad too: one book, two languages on the same page, so children growing up with English can keep reading Greek with their parents and grandparents.

208 English stories in the library have Greek alongside: Μάθετε αγγλικά με μικρές ιστορίες.

Where a parallel text helps most in Greek

The stress mark

Every Greek word of more than one syllable carries an accent (τόνος) on the stressed vowel, and it can change the meaning: πότε is “when”, ποτέ is “never”. Reading with the English beside it shows which word you are looking at.

Cases and endings

The article and the noun change together for case: ο φίλος, του φίλου, τον φίλο (the friend, of the friend, the friend as an object). The translation shows what each ending is doing without stopping to look it up.

A question mark that looks like a semicolon

Greek ends a question with ; and uses a raised dot (·) where English would use a semicolon. Τι κάνεις; is “How are you?”, not an unfinished sentence.

Greek classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Greek–English parallel text:

  • Οδύσσεια, Homer
  • Η φόνισσα, Alexandros Papadiamantis
  • Ποιήματα, Constantine P. Cavafy
  • Το αμάρτημα της μητρός μου, Georgios Vizyinos

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Greek–English stories

Where can I read Greek stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 208 Greek–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a Greek–English parallel text?

A Greek text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Greek story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Greek–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment.