The Greek alphabet

The 24 letters

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, each with an upper- and lower-case form. Seven are vowels (α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω) and seventeen are consonants. The IPA column gives the exact sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet — it is language-neutral, whereas a “sounds like” approximation differs from one language to the next.

Six letters, three “i” sounds

Modern Greek writes the sound [i] in six ways: η, ι, υ, ει, οι, υι. Likewise ο and ω both give [o]. That is good news for reading — you always read it correctly — but spelling takes memory: it preserves the word’s history, not its present pronunciation.

• η μητέραthe mother — η and ι, same sound
• το παιδίthe child — αι reads [e]

Vowel digraphs

Some vowel pairs make a single sound. αυ and ευ are the exception: they are [af]/[ef] before a voiceless consonant (θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, ψ) and [av]/[ev] everywhere else.

Consonant clusters

Greek has no single letter for [b], [d] and [g]: it writes them with two letters. At the start of a word the sound is plain ([b], [d], [g]); inside a word it is often preceded by a light nasal ([mb], [nd], [ŋg]).

The four hard sounds: γ, δ, θ, χ

These four letters account for most beginner mistakes, because English either lacks them or spells them differently. Note too that β is never “b” and δ is never “d”: they are continuous consonants, not stops.

• γάλα [ˈɣala]milk — γ: a softened “g” made at the back of the throat
• δέκα [ˈðeka]ten — δ: the “th” of this
• θέατρο [ˈθeatro]theatre — θ: the “th” of think
• χέρι [ˈçeri]hand — χ: like the German “ch” in ich

Final sigma (ς)

Exactly one Greek letter changes shape by position: sigma is written σ everywhere, except at the end of a word where it becomes ς. The sound does not change — it is purely typographic, but getting it wrong is the most visible writing mistake.

• ο κόσμοςthe world — σ in the middle, ς at the end
• ΣωκράτηςSocrates — capital Σ, final ς

The accent and the diaeresis

Every word of two syllables or more carries a written accent (τόνος) on the stressed vowel: it tells you where to stress, and it is compulsory. The diaeresis (διαλυτικά) does the opposite of a digraph: it splits two vowels that would otherwise be read together.

• πότε / ποτέwhen? / never — only the accent tells them apart
• παϊδάκιαlamb chops — the diaeresis splits α and ι

Greek punctuation

Two marks catch people out. The semicolon “;” is the Greek question mark — a sentence ending in ; is a question. And the raised dot “·” (άνω τελεία) does the job of our semicolon.

• Τι κάνεις;How are you? — the ; is a question mark

Your first words

Once the table sinks in you can already decode hundreds of words: Greek supplied much of English’s scientific and technical vocabulary, and those words read almost identically. Try them aloud.

• μουσικήmusic
• θέατροtheatre
• ταξίtaxi
• φωτογραφίαphotograph
• πρόβλημαproblem