The Greek Alphabet -- Το ελληνικό αλφάβητο

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters:

Capital letter	Lowercase letter	Greek name	Pronun- ciation	Traditional English name	English example
Α	α	άλφα	AL-fa	alpha	a as in fat
Β	β	βήτα	VEE-ta	beta	v as in van
Γ	γ	γάμμα	GHA-ma	gamma	(1)
Δ	δ	δέλτα	DHEL-ta	delta	th as in this
Ε	ε	έψιλον	EH-psee-lon	epsilon	e as in met
Ζ	ζ	ζήτα	ZEE-ta	zeta	z as in zone
Η	η	ήτα	EE-ta	eta	ee as in meet
Θ	θ	θήτα	THEE-ta	theta	th as in thick
Ι	ι	ιώτα	YOH-ta	iota	ee as in meet
Κ	κ	κάππα	KAH-pah	kappa	k as in keep
Λ	λ	λάμδα	LAM-dha	lambda	l as in lame
Μ	μ	μι	MEE	mu	m as in missionary :-)
Ν	ν	νι	NEE	nu	n as in no
Ξ	ξ	ξι	KSEE	xi	x as in box
Ο	ο	όμικρον	OH-mee-kron	omicron	o as in hot
Π	π	πι	PEE	pi	p as in pot
Ρ	ρ	ρω	ROH	rho	(2)
Σ	σ, ς (*)	σίγμα	SIG-ma	sigma	s as in sign
Τ	τ	ταυ	TAHF	tau	t as in top
Υ	υ	ύψιλον	EE-psee-lon	upsilon	ee as in meet
Φ	φ	φι	FEE	phi	f as in fat
Χ	χ	χι	HEE	chi	(3)
Ψ	ψ	ψι	PSEE	psi	ps as in biopsy
Ω	ω	ωμέγα	oh-MEH-gha	omega	o as in hot

Notes:

(*) Lower-case sigma has two forms. The form ς is used only at the end of words, and the form σ is used everywhere else.

(1) The letter gamma has two pronunciations, depending on what comes after it: before EE and EH sounds (ι, η, υ, ει, οι, ε, αι), the sound is like y as in yet; before AH, OH and OO sounds (α, ο, ω, ου), the sound is roughly like a voiced version of the letter chi (See Note 3); it sounds a little like gargling. I'll represent this letter by "gh" or "g", but remember that it's not like an English g. (For those who know Arabic, I believe the letter ghain [] sounds like Greek gamma.)

(2) I'm told the Greek letter rho sounds like the Spanish or Russian r, not like the English, German, or French r. However, I never learnt how to say this letter correctly, so I can't tell you for sure. (Comments are welcome!)

(3) The Greek letter chi has two pronunciations, depending on what comes after it: before EE and EH sounds (ι, η, υ, ει, οι, ε, αι), the sound is like the German ch in ich, or like the hy sound in huge. Before AH, OH and OO sounds (α, ο, ω, ου), the sound is like the German ch in ach, the Scots ch in loch, the Russian (Χ) or Arabic () kha, or the Spanish j.

Note the difference between delta and theta: the first letter is voiced (like th in there or this, and the second letter is unvoiced (like th in thick or thought. In these pages, I'll represent the pronunciation of delta by "dh" and that of theta by "th".

Greek has the friendly practice of indicating the stressed syllable by an acute accent (see also the page on the monotonic and polytonic systems), which goes on the stressed vowel of the syllable.

Some of these letters, in combination, are pronounced differently than when they are alone. Here are some vowel combinations:

Combination	Pronunciation
αι	eh as in met
αϊ	ie as in pie
ει	ee as in see
οι	ee as in see
οϊ	oy as in boy
ου	oo as in too

And here are some consonant combinations:

Combination	Pronunciation at the beginning of a word	Pronunciation in the middle of a word
ντ	d as in dark	nd as in landing, hand
μπ	b as in bat	mb as in amber
γγ	(not used)	ng as in finger
γκ	g as in grin	ng as in finger

Once you have mastered the pronunciations of the letters and the combinations, Greek is fairly simple to read as the the pronunciation is very regular.

Back to the top

Back to the menu

This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page