Biblical Greek flashcards with spaced repetition
Build durable Greek New Testament vocabulary the efficient way. HackGreek flashcards use the FSRS spaced-repetition algorithm to schedule each word for review at the moment you are about to forget it, with frequency-ordered decks so you learn the words you meet most first — and one-click cards straight from the reader so practice grows out of real reading.
Flashcards that schedule themselves
Vocabulary is the bottleneck for most readers of the Greek New Testament, and rote drilling wastes time on words you already know while letting fragile ones slip away. HackGreek flashcards fix that by timing every review for you, so each minute of practice does the most work toward fluent reading.
FSRS scheduling
Reviews are timed by the FSRS algorithm, which models how your memory of each card fades and shows it again right before you would forget.
Frequency-ordered decks
Order decks by how often a word appears in the Greek NT, so you learn the highest-frequency vocabulary first and read sooner.
Add cards from the reader
Tap any word while reading and add it to your deck with one click, complete with lemma, parsing, and gloss.
Fits a daily goal
Review the cards that are due each day and stop when you hit your goal. Short, consistent sessions beat occasional cramming.
Why spaced repetition works for Greek
Spaced repetition is the practice of reviewing material at gradually increasing intervals. The first time you see a new word you review it again soon; once it sticks, the gap before the next review stretches to days, then weeks, then months. This rhythm exploits the way memory consolidates, letting you retain far more vocabulary than massed cramming for a fraction of the total reviews. For a language you study to read rather than speak, that efficiency matters enormously — there are thousands of distinct words to manage, and you want your effort concentrated on the ones in danger of fading.
HackGreek schedules with FSRS, a modern algorithm that goes beyond fixed interval ladders. Instead of applying the same multiplier to every card, FSRS estimates the memory strength and difficulty of each individual word from your own review history and predicts when its recall probability will drop to a target level. The result is reviews timed to that specific word: stubborn forms come back often, easy ones get out of your way. You spend less time confirming what you already know and more time shoring up exactly the vocabulary that is at risk, which is precisely what an efficient Greek learner needs.
How the deck and review workflow works
You can start from a prebuilt deck of New Testament vocabulary or grow your own as you read. Order a deck by frequency and your earliest cards are the words that carry most of the text, so the very first sessions move the needle on comprehension. When you sit down to study, HackGreek presents the cards that are due that day; you rate how well you recalled each one, and FSRS uses that rating to set the next review date. Review until you reach your daily goal, then stop — the algorithm keeps track of what is waiting so nothing is lost.
The most powerful loop is the one that connects practice to reading. Open the Greek NT reader, read a chapter, and when you hit a word you do not know, tap it and add it to your deck with a single click. Because the card captures the lemma, parsing, and gloss, the words that tripped you up in real text become tomorrow's review. Over time your deck stops being a generic list and becomes a precise record of your own gaps, reviewed on the schedule that keeps them filled.
How much vocabulary do you need?
The Greek New Testament rewards vocabulary work more than almost any other reading goal because its word usage is steeply concentrated: a relatively small core of words accounts for the great majority of the running text, while a long tail of rare words appears only a handful of times. That distribution is why frequency-ordered learning is so effective. Master the high-frequency core and most sentences become readable, even before you have touched the rarer vocabulary. Frequency decks in HackGreek line up your study with that reality, putting the most common words first so your reading comprehension climbs quickly, then filling in less common words as you go. Paired with cards you add from the reader, you build toward reading the whole New Testament in Greek without wasting effort on words you will rarely meet.
Frequently asked questions
What is spaced repetition and how does FSRS help?
Spaced repetition shows you each word just before you would forget it, stretching the gap between reviews as a word becomes familiar. HackGreek uses FSRS, a modern scheduling algorithm that models how your memory of each card decays and picks review times to keep recall high while minimizing the number of reviews you do.
Why are the decks ordered by frequency?
A small set of words accounts for most of the running text in the Greek New Testament, so learning the highest-frequency vocabulary first gives you the fastest gains in reading comprehension. HackGreek decks can be ordered by frequency so your earliest reviews are also the words you will meet most often.
Can I add words to flashcards while I read?
Yes. In the reader you can tap any Greek word and add it to your flashcard deck with one click. The card carries the lemma, parsing, and gloss, so the words you struggle with in real text are exactly the ones that come back for review.
How much does it cost to use the flashcards?
New accounts include a 7-day free trial with full access to the flashcards, the reader, and audio. After the trial, HackGreek is $7/month.