The Greek Alphabet

By the end of this lesson, you can recognise all 24 Greek letters in upper and lowercase, identify which ones behave differently to their Latin lookalikes, and write your own name in Greek script.

The first thing you need when learning Modern Greek is the ability to read the script. This lesson covers the 24-letter Greek alphabet, their names, their shapes, and the handful of letters that will trip you up if you’re not paying attention.

This course uses romanisation (writing Greek words in Latin letters) lightly in the first couple of units, and then phases them out. The reason is that some Greek sounds don’t map cleanly onto Latin letters, and learners who start with romanisation tend to build pronunciation habits that are hard to shift later.

A bit of history

The Greek alphabet dates to around the 9th century BC. It was adapted from the Phoenician script and later became the direct ancestor of the Latin alphabet (and the Cyrillic alphabet used in Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian.)

This means you’ve already been exposed to Greek letter shapes your whole life. Several letters look identical to their Latin equivalents. A handful look similar but behave completely differently. A few have no Latin analogue at all.

The 24 letters of the Greek Alphabet

Modern Greek uses 24 letters. Here they are, with their names and approximate sounds:

Letter	Name	Sound (approx.)
Α α	Alpha	like a in “father”
Β β	Beta	like v in “van”
Γ γ	Gamma	like a soft g or y sound
Δ δ	Delta	like th in “this”
Ε ε	Epsilon	like e in “bed”
Ζ ζ	Zeta	like z in “zoo”
Η η	Eta	like ee in “feet”
Θ θ	Theta	like th in “think”
Ι ι	Iota	like ee in “feet”
Κ κ	Kappa	like k in “kite”
Λ λ	Lambda	like l in “lamp”
Μ μ	Mu	like m in “map”
Ν ν	Nu	like n in “net”
Ξ ξ	Xi	like x in “fox”
Ο ο	Omicron	like o in “hot”
Π π	Pi	like p in “pan”
Ρ ρ	Rho	like a rolled r
Σ σ/ς	Sigma	like s in “sun”
Τ τ	Tau	like t in “top”
Υ υ	Upsilon	like ee in “feet”
Φ φ	Phi	like f in “fan”
Χ χ	Chi	like ch in Scottish “loch”
Ψ ψ	Psi	like ps in “chips”
Ω ω	Omega	like o in “hot”

Test your memory about the greek letters with the quiz below.

Five ways to write “EE”

Η, Ι, Υ, and the combinations ΕΙ and ΟΙ all produce an “ee” sound in Modern Greek. This is a historical accident as each letter had a distinct sound in Ancient Greek and converged over time. You’ll need to learn which spelling each word uses, in the same way English learners have to distinguish “meet” from “meat.”

Sigma has two lowercase forms

You’ll have noticed that Sigma (Σ) is an oddity, as there are two lowercase variants. One is used when written σ in the middle of a word while the other, ς, is used at the end.

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Hear the letters

Press play on each clip and decide which letter you are hearing. Try repeating the letter out loud when you hear it.

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Word spotting

Now that you’ve heard the individual letters, try listening to whole words. Each clip plays a real Greek word — select the written form that matches what you heard.

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Some handy tips

The familiar group: Α, Ε, Ι, Κ, Μ, Ν, Ο, Τ, Ζ look and sound close enough to their Latin equivalents that you can treat them as familiar.

The false friends: These are the ones that cause problems. They look like Latin letters but sound different in Modern Greek. You’ll have an opportunity to drill them in the exercises.

Looks like	Actually sounds like	Example word
Β/β (like B)	V (like “van”)	βιβλίο = vivlio (book)
Η/η (like H/n)	EE (like “feet”)	ήλιος = ilios (sun)
Ρ/ρ (like P)	R (rolled)	ρήμα = rima (verb)
Ν/ν (like v)	N	νερό = nero (water)

Write them out by hand: There’s genuine value in physically writing the letters, not only recognising them. A few minutes with pen and paper every day for a few days will help massively.

Sound them out in the wild: Even before you understand any vocabulary, practise reading Greek words aloud, like street signs, menus, product labels. The goal is to build a reflex between seeing a letter and producing its sound.

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Additional exercises

Upper and lowercase

Match each uppercase letter to its lowercase form.

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Copy the alphabet

Listen to each letter name and type the Greek character. Work from alpha to omega — this builds the name-to-shape connection that the recognition exercises above started. You can type either uppercase or lowercase.

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Your name in Greek

Use the letter table above to try how to write your own name in Greek script. Spell it out letter by letter, and don’t worry about stress marks yet. Type your first name and surname into the box below. Some English letters don’t have a Greek equivalent, so have a think about how they might be written.

For example, there is no J letter in Greek, so it’s created using the double consonant Τζ. We’ll learn about double consonants in the near future.