Learn Greek from French at PBC Languages: Free Practice

The first wall for French speakers is the alphabet: Greek doesn't share a single letter shape with French in any useful way, so you're reading from zero. Then come the sounds that don't exist in French at all: θ (as in θάλασσα, sea) is a soft 'th', δ (as in δάσκαλος, teacher) is a voiced 'th', and γ (as in γάτα, cat) sits somewhere between a French 'r' and a soft 'g' with no real equivalent. On top of that, Greek stress moves around and changes meaning (πότε 'when' vs ποτέ 'never'), while French stress always falls on the last syllable, so French ears tend to miss it completely at first.

Where French speakers get a real head start is vocabulary. French borrowed huge chunks of its abstract and scientific words from Greek through Latin, so roots like φιλο- (φίλος, friend) or βιβλιο- (βιβλιοθήκη, library) are instantly recognisable. The trap is that everyday words don't always keep their old meaning: χαρτί looks like it should mean 'card' (French carte) but it just means 'paper', and τράπεζα (bank) has nothing to do with a trapèze despite the obvious visual match.

Grammar is the slow part. French dropped noun cases centuries ago; Greek kept four of them (nominative, genitive, accusative, vocative), so every noun, article and adjective changes shape depending on its job in the sentence — there's no shortcut, you just drill it. Verb aspect (perfective vs imperfective) is another new axis French verbs don't ask you to think about. Once the alphabet and the case endings click, though, reading speeds up fast, because Greek spelling is far more regular than French spelling ever was.