Learning Georgian
Is Georgian hard to learn?
The short answer
For English speakers it’s one of the harder languages: the US Foreign Service Institute puts it in its “hard” group, about 44 weeks of full-time study, alongside Russian and Greek. But the alphabet is easy (33 letters, one sound each, readable within a week or two), and the words you need day to day in Georgia come quickly.
What’s easy
The script is phonetic: every letter always makes the same sound, there are no capital letters, and words are spelled the way they sound. There’s no grammatical gender and no articles (no “a” or “the”).
What’s hard
Sounds English doesn’t have: the ejectives (კ, პ, ტ, წ, ჭ, ყ), said with a catch in the throat, and long clusters of consonants, as in გვფრცქვნი. And the verbs, which change for who does what to whom, and for when.
How to make it easier
Learn the alphabet first, so every word after is something you can read rather than a string of Latin letters to memorise. Then learn whole phrases for situations you’re actually in (the café, a taxi, the market) before worrying about grammar. A few minutes every day beats an hour once a week.
Words to hear
Checked October 2026.