The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters. You might be familiar with some of the Ancient Greek names of letters, like ‘alpha‘ and ‘beta’. In fact, that’s where the English word ‘alphabet‘ comes from! You might also be familiar with the appearance of some letters, like π (pi) from mathematics.
But there are some differences between Ancient and Modern Greek pronunciation. For example, ‘beta’ (β) is now pronounced closer to a ‘v‘ than a ‘b’. And the famous π (pi) is pronounced closer to ‘pea’ in Greek than ‘pie’ as it’s often called in the sciences.
For the most part, Greek letters are typed on a computer keyboard using the closest Latin alphabet equivalent. But there are a few letters which have no obvious equivalent. Look for them in the chart below.
| Letter | Pronunciation | Modern Greek Name | Keyboard |
| Αα | a as in ‘after’ | άλφα (alpha) | A |
| Ββ | v as in ‘vase’ | βήτα (veta) | B |
| Γγ | y as in ‘yes’ before e/i, g as in ‘agony’ elsewhere | γάμα (gama) | G |
| Δδ | th as in ‘that’ | δέλτα (thelta) | D |
| Εε | e as in ‘pen’ | έψιλον (epsilon) | E |
| Ζζ | z as in ‘zoo’ | ζήτα (zita) | Z |
| Ηη | i as in ‘pin’ | ήτα (ita) | H |
| Θθ | TH as in ‘THunder’ | θήτα (thita) | U |
| Ιι | i as in ‘pin’ | γιώτα (yiota) | I |
| Κκ | soft k (ky) before e/i, k as in ‘coat’ elsewhere | κάπα (kappa) | K |
| Λλ | l as in ‘lamp’ | λάμδα (lamtha) | L |
| Μμ | m as in ‘my’ | μι (mi) | M |
| Νν | n as in ‘no’ | νι (ni) | N |
| Ξξ | x as in ‘exciting’ | ξι (xi) | J |
| Οο | o as in ‘pot’ | όμικρον (omikron) | O |
| Ππ | p as in ‘pin’ | πι (pi) | P |
| Ρρ | r as in ‘tree’ | ρω (rho) | R |
| Σσ ς (final) | s as in ‘stop’ | σίγμα (sigma) | S(σ) W(ς) |
| Ττ | t as in ‘tea’ | ταυ (taf) | T |
| Υυ | i as in ‘pin’ | ύψιλον (ipsilon) | Y |
| Φφ | f as in ‘fish’ | φι (fi) | F |
| Χχ | h as in ‘her’ before vowels, ch as in ‘loch‘ elsewhere | χι (hi) | X |
| Ψψ | ps as in ‘maps‘ | ψι (psi) | C |
| Ωω | o as in ‘pot’ | ωμέγα (omega) | V |
You can practice reading the Greek alphabet in Chapter 1 of the Filoglossia website.
You can practice writing the Greek alphabet using pages 5-6 of the Ελληνικά Τώρα/Ellinika Tora (Greek Now) 1 workbook, and by following videos.
This (Japanese!) calligrapher gives a particularly beautiful example:
Did you know that calligraphy is a Greek word, meaning ‘beautiful’ (καλλι/kalli) ‘writing’ (γραφία/grafia)?
Of course, not everyone is a calligrapher. This Easy Greek video shows you both the way children are taught to write at school, and the simple, everyday handwriting of an adult:
The guide used in Greek schools referred to in the Easy Greek video is available for download here.
If you’re interested in the many different ways that people write in Modern Greek, then another calligrapher, Chromozol has a video covering lots of options:
You’ll find extra reading and writing practice on p. 4 of Λοιπόν, τι λες;/Lipon, Ti Les (Well, what do you say?).
Tonos
You’ve probably noticed those little flicks on top of some letters.
In Greek, a small accent mark called a ‘tonos’ (τόνος) is used to indicate where the stress lies in a word. It tells you which syllable to emphasise. e.g. ανατομία (anatomy) is pronounced a-na-to-MI-a.
Greek words typically have only one tonos (though a few words, in certain grammatical contexts, may have two).
Which letter has the tonos?
There are two important guidelines governing stress in Greek words.
1. The emphasis must appear on a vowel.
The tonos always appears on α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, or ω.
For example:
- στάδιο (stadium)
- ενέργεια (energy)
- μουσική (music)
- γωνία (angle)
- κόσμος (cosmos)
- νύχτα (night)
- ζώο (animal)
2. The emphasis applies to one of the last three syllables.
A syllable is a sound unit within a word, typically including a vowel sound (α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω, οι, ει, αι, ου).
For example:
- ανατομία has 5 syllables: α-να-το-μί-α (a-na-to-MI-a)
- ενέργεια has 4 syllables: ε-νέρ-γει-α (e-NER-gi-a)
- μουσική has 3 syllables: μου-σι-κή (mu-si-KI)
- ζώο has 2 syllables: ζώ-ο (ZO-o)
- το has 1 syllable: το (TO)
Note that in every case, the emphasis falls on the last (e.g. μουσική), second-last (e.g. ανατομία) or third-last (e.g. ενέργεια) syllable, with the exception of το.
For words, like το with only one syllable, no tonos is necessary.
Learn more about the tonos and Greek pronunciation with Lina:
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