Starting Out In Greek

The Greek Alphabet

An absolutely fundamental factor in any language is mastering its alphabet, and Greek is no different. Obviously for learners who are used to Western European languages, the Greek alphabet can look a little daunting, but in fact it is really quite simple (and in many ways far more straightforward than the English alphabet!)

The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters - 17 consonants and 7 vowels - and is an ancestor of the Latin alphabet used in most other European languages (including English). Any word of more than one syllable will also contain an accent on the vowel on which the stress falls, so it is easy to spot where the stress falls on any Greek word.

What's more, the Greek writing system is entirely phonetic - given some Greek text, you can be guaranteed the exact pronunciation using the rules below. There are no silent letters, and very few letters change their sound at all (and those that do only do so in a very few, specific, cases). That's something that can't be said of English or French!

The Greeks also have a system called Greeklish for writing Greek words using Latin characters - there is no universal standard for this, but the convention used on this site wherever Greeklish may appear, is given in the Greeklish column of the table below. Also given (in the column marked Latin) is a list of Latin characters used in translated examples, to give as close an approximation as possible to the authentic Greek pronunciation. However, it is impossible to be totally accurate using this method, so readers are always advised to check out the alphabet table below for the definitive guide.

ABC	abc	Sound	Greeklish	Latin	Name
Α	α	Like the a in cat	a	a	Alfa άλφα
Β	β	Like the v in very	b	v	Beta βήτα
Γ	γ	Like the y in yellow[1] Like the g in (Spanish) paga (midway between English y and g)[2]	g	g	Gamma γάμα
Δ	δ	Like the th in mother	d	dh	Delta δέλτα
Ε	ε	Like the e in get	e	e	Epsilon έψιλον
Ζ	ζ	Like the z in lazy	z	z	Zeta ζήτα
Η	η	Like the e in be	h	ee	Eta ήτα
Θ	θ	Like the th in thing	8	th	Theta θήτα
Ι	ι	Like the e in be	i	ee	Iota γιώτα
Κ[3]	κ[3]	Like the k in cake	k	k	Kappa κάπα
Λ	λ	Like the l in like	l	l	Lambda λάμδα
Μ	μ	Like the m in mouse	m	m	Mu μυ/μι
Ν	ν	Like the n in nice	n	n	Nu νυ/νι
Ξ	ξ	Like the x in box	ks / 3	x	Xi ξι
Ο	ο	Like the o in dog	o	o	Omicron όμικρον
Π	π	Like the p in stop	p	p	Pi πι
Ρ	ρ	Like the r in rose	r	r	Rho ρω
Σ	σ/ς[4]	Like the s in bus[5] Like the z in lazy[6]	s	s	Sigma σίγμα
Τ	τ	Like the t in table	t	t	Tau ταυ
Υ	υ	Like the e in be	y	ee	Upsilon ύψιλον
Φ	φ	Like the f in far	f	f	Phi φι
Χ[3]	χ[3]	No equivalent in English; like the ch in Scottish loch (like h in head, but with throat partly closed)	x	kh	Chi χι
Ψ	ψ	Like the ps in cups	ps	ps	Psi ψι
Ω	ω	Like the o in dog	w	o	Omega ωμέγα

There are also a handful of letter pairs which sound different to the individual letters they contain :

L/Case	Sound
αι	Like the e in get
αυ	Like the af in after[1] Like the av in have[2]
γγ	Like the ng in bang
γκ	Like the g in dog
γξ	Like the nks in thanks
γχ	Like ν followed by χ (see above)
ει	Like the e in be
ευ	Like the ef in left[3] Like the ev in never[4]
ηυ	Like the eef in beef[5] Like the eev in sleeve[6]
μπ	At the start of a word, like the b in box Otherwise, like the mb in number[7]
ντ	At the start of a word, like the d in dog Otherwise, like the nd in friend[8]
οι	Like the e in be
ου	Like the oo in too

Footnotes:

1. The 'af' sound is used when αυ is at the end of a word, or precedes an unvoiced consonant
2. The 'av' sound is used when αυ precedes a vowel or a voiced consonant
3. The 'ef' sound is used when ευ is at the end of a word, or precedes an unvoiced consonant
4. The 'ev' sound is used when ευ precedes a vowel or a voiced consonant
5. The 'eef' sound is used when ηυ is at the end of a word, or precedes an unvoiced consonant
6. The 'eev' sound is used when ηυ precedes a vowel or a voiced consonant
7. Often, the 'mb' sound is reduced to 'b' anyway
8. Often, the 'nd' sound is reduced to 'd' anyway