The Greek Alphabet
Alphabet Lesson: 2 Minutes, 52 Sec.
24 Letters to Learn: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Learn them in 5 rows: two rows of 4 letters, one row of 6 letters, and two rows of 5 letters:
| Letters | Pronunciation | Standard English Spelling | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| α β γ δ | al·pha, vee·tah, gam·ma, del·ta, | alpha, beta, gamma, delta, | ||
| ε ζ η θ | ep·see·lon, zee·tah, ee·tah, thee·tah, | epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, | ||
| ι κ λ μ ν ξ | ee·oh·tah, kap·pa, lamb·da, mee, nee, ksee, | iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, | ||
| ο π ρ σ τ | oh·mee·cron, pee, rho, see·gma, tau, | omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, | ||
| υ φ χ ψ ω | eep·see·lon, phee, kee, psee, oh·me·ga. | upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega. |
There are 24 letters in the old Koiné Greek, and also the modern Greek alphabet. In very ancient Greek, there were a few other letters, like Sampi – ϡ but you won't need to know those to learn Koiné Greek.
Just like the Latin and English alphabet, the Greek alphabet has a small collection of vowels, and a larger collection of consonants. The Greek vowels are: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω. It should be noted that although some of these vowels are close matches with the vowels of English, they do not correspond directly. The vowels ε and ο are always short vowels, and can only be “made long” by either replacing them with the long vowels η and ω, or else combining them into vowel-pair diphthongs such as ει and ου. Even in this latter case, it is not the individual ε or ο that is long, but the given pair as a unit.
These letters are used to spell all of the words of the Greek language. Generally Greek is much more phonetic in its spelling and pronunication, when compared to English; but there are some rules that will need to be learned about special letter combinations. Simple words of the Greek language include εν which means 'in', γαρ which means 'for' (as in 'this is why',) and εγω which means 'I'.