How is GreekDrill different?

GreekDrill is different from any other tool available in several compelling ways.  The most important difference is that GreekDrill generates flashcards that are not only in the lexical form.  Please see the Benefits page for more more details.

What is the purpose of GreekDrill?

GreekDrill is designed to help students practice recognizing ever more rapidly the roots, principal parts, and endings of Greek words as well as common grammatical constructions.  We hope this will go a long way to helping many students approach sight-reading the text. 

However, GreekDrill does not attempt to teach the foundational concepts of the language, and therefore is not a substitute for textbooks and in-class instruction.  Rather, GreekDrill provides a focused and efficient way for students to practice what they have learned.

What Textbooks does GreekDrill work with?

The vocabulary is currently keyed by chapter to Basics of Biblical Greek 2nd Ed. by William D. Mounce.   If your school uses a different textbook, please let us know at textbooks@greekdrill.com.  In most cases, GreekDrill can be keyed to the text you use.

How large is GreekDrill's vocabulary database?

GreekDrill contains all words occurring the New Testament 50 or more times.  In the future, an expanded vocabulary database will be available.

How do I use GreekDrill?

Instructions for using GreekDrill are available at the Instructions page.

Can GreekDrill run on Macintosh?

Currently GreekDrill can run only under Microsoft Windows.   However, any Mac user can run GreekDrill (or any other Windows software) by installing a Windows emulator which provides the ability to emulate a Windows based operating system when desired.  This is viable solution, and depending on the emulation software chosen can be an inexpensive one.

Why is there a trial period?

The trial period allows students to use GreekDrill and decide if it will be a help to them throughout their Greek studies.  

What happens after the trial period expires?

When the trial period expires, GreekDrill will cease to function.  Opening GreekDrill will bring up a form displaying the Product Number and asking for an Unlock Code.  When GreekDrill is purchased, you will receive via email the Unlock Code for your particular Product Number.  Simply enter the Unlock Code into spaces provided.  Thereafter, access to GreekDrill will be unrestricted.

How do I purchase?

You can purchase GreekDrill anytime during or after the trial period.  It is recommended, of course, that you purchase during the trial period so that your use of GreekDrill will not be interrupted.  To purchase during the trial period, click 'Purchase GreekDrill' on the menu bar at the top of the main screen.  Please visit the Purchase page for more details.

Can I get a free Unlock Code?

We would love to provide a free Unlock Code to all professors kind enough to review GreekDrill and consider using it at their schools.  To get an Unlock Code, click here.

How many flashcards can GreekDrill generate?

GreekDrill does not work from a preset list of flashcards that the student can come to the end of.  There is no limit to the number of flashcards GreekDrill can generate because in most cases the root and the ending are combined dynamically to form the Greek word.  Therefore, the number of flashcards GreekDrill can generate will never be exhausted and the order in which they appear will never be repeated. 

How are the words generated?

The stem and ending GreekDrill selects to combine conform to whatever filtering options are chosen.  Within the limits of the filtering options, GreekDrill selects the stem and ending randomly but according to certain biases.  For example, when GreekDrill is building a substantival participle, it is biased towards the nominative case because most substantival participles in the New Testament are nominative.  Similarly, when choosing a Person and Number for a verb, GreekDrill will choose the 3rd person singular slightly more than any other person-number combination.

What about accents and breathing marks?

Accent marks are included in all conjunctions, prepositions, particles, adverbs, pronouns, 'predicate-adjectives' and the article.  Indeed, the accent marks are necessary as in some cases the position, presence or absence of the accent determines the meaning of the word.  

Accent marks are not included in nouns and adjectives.  For verb forms, the circumflex is retained for all contract verbs, liquid futures, and aorist passive subjunctives, but otherwise accents are omitted.  Breathing marks are always present where applicable.  

It would be nice to accent all words (including nouns, adjectives, and verbs) but due to the complexity of properly accounting for all the rules of accentuation it is not possible at the current time.  However, we hope that the lack of accenting on nouns, adjectives and verbs will pale in comparison to the value students will derive from 'drilling' on these inflected forms and training their minds to recognize the meaning of the inflected form immediately.  

The status of accentuation with respect to GreekDrill is this: accents are intentionally omitted for some words, but when the accent does appear, it is correct in all cases.

What about stem changes, stops, aspirations, contractions, liquids, 2nd Aorists, kappa-Aorists, 2nd Perfects, etc.?

GreekDrill is programmed to accurately account for these changes. 

Why are some of the phrases so silly?

There is a downside to random generation of the words: some phrases can be nonsense.  The main point of the phrases feature is not the intelligibility of the phrases themselves but the ability for students to practice recognizing grammatical units and start seeing the grammar “jump off the page.”  It seems that the value of being able to practice recognizing grammar far outweighs the sometimes distracting unintelligibility of the phrases.