Is old greek similar to modern greek?

Question

I was discussing with a friend's family about the viability of classical education today and one of my cons was that Latin is almost a dead language and classical Greek is completely dead to which they replied that classical Greek is similar to modern Greek to the point that they are mutually understandable. Is this true? To be clear: this isn't my major argument against it, it's just that at this point I'm curious, they say they went to Greece with a friend who knows classical Greek and she translated all kinds of sentences for them so I guess there is some truth in this. And I'm not completely against classical education, I was just playing the devil's advocate there.

Answer 1

Hey ! I am Greek , i speak modern Greek and if i hear or read ancient greek i don't understand anything or sometimes i understand some depends on what i read .But as i am a greek tutor I know that many (and i mean many ) greek words come from ancient greek . Ancient greek is the rute of modern greek , of latin and then of italian , german , spanish , german , english , french and some others . But yes probably it is a dead language as noone speak ancient greek anymore.

Answer 2

Ancient Greek and Modern Greek are not mutually intelligible at all. There are a good amount of words that are the same (most with much different pronunciation), but the overall grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation have changed so much that learning one does not mean you can understand the other.