The Greek alphabet is unusual among writing systems in that most English speakers have already met a good portion of it. Pi from geometry, delta from calculus, sigma from statistics, alpha and beta from testing, omega from the end of things. That is a real head start.
It also sets a trap, because modern Greek does not pronounce several of those letters the way a physics lecture does.
The full alphabet
| Letter | Name | Modern sound | Letter | Name | Modern sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Α α | alpha | a | Ν ν | nu | n |
| Β β | beta | v | Ξ ξ | xi | ks |
| Γ γ | gamma | gh / y | Ο ο | omicron | o |
| Δ δ | delta | th (this) | Π π | pi | p |
| Ε ε | epsilon | e | Ρ ρ | rho | r |
| Ζ ζ | zeta | z | Σ σ ς | sigma | s |
| Η η | eta | ee | Τ τ | tau | t |
| Θ θ | theta | th (thin) | Υ υ | upsilon | ee |
| Ι ι | iota | ee | Φ φ | phi | f |
| Κ κ | kappa | k | Χ χ | chi | kh (loch) |
| Λ λ | lambda | l | Ψ ψ | psi | ps |
| Μ μ | mu | m | Ω ω | omega | o |
The four that will catch you out
- Β is v, not b. The name of the letter is pronounced vita in Greek. To write a b sound, modern Greek uses the pair μπ.
- Δ is the th of "this", not a hard d. For a d sound Greek writes ντ.
- Η is ee, not the long a you might expect from "eta".
- Υ is ee as well, despite the name upsilon suggesting a u.
Everything is ee. Modern Greek pronounces η, ι and υ, plus the combinations ει and οι, all as the same ee sound. This merger is called iotacism, and it has an awkward consequence: hearing a word does not tell you how to spell it. Greek children spend real classroom time on this, and so will you.
Two omicrons and two etas
Greek has two letters for o (ο omicron, ω omega) and, effectively, several for ee. In ancient Greek these were genuinely different sounds — omicron short, omega long. Modern Greek pronounces them identically. The spelling distinction survives because the words did, so you learn which one belongs to which word rather than deriving it from the sound.
Words you can already read
English borrowed enormously from Greek, so a lot of vocabulary is transparent once the letters resolve:
| Greek | Reads | English |
|---|---|---|
| δημοκρατία | dhimokratía | democracy |
| φιλοσοφία | filosofía | philosophy |
| μουσική | mousikí | music |
| πρόβλημα | próvlima | problem |
| θέατρο | théatro | theatre |
Watch πρόβλημα — the β gives próvlima, not problima. That single letter is the difference between reading Greek and reading Greek letters.
Signs worth knowing before you land
| Greek | Reads | Means |
|---|---|---|
| ΕΙΣΟΔΟΣ | ísodos | entrance |
| ΕΞΟΔΟΣ | éxodos | exit |
| ΑΝΟΙΚΤΟ | aniktó | open |
| ΚΛΕΙΣΤΟ | klistó | closed |
| ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ | trápeza | bank |
| ΦΑΡΜΑΚΕΙΟ | farmakío | pharmacy |
ΕΞΟΔΟΣ is the same word as "exodus", which is a pleasant thing to notice while looking for the way out of a metro station.
The accent is not decoration
Modern Greek marks the stressed syllable of every multi-syllable word with an accent: καλημέρα, ευχαριστώ, Ελλάδα. This is genuinely helpful — unlike Russian, Greek tells you exactly where the stress goes, and getting stress right matters more for being understood than getting individual vowels perfect. Reproduce the accent when you write, and follow it when you speak.
Read Greek words offline
The free English-Greek Dictionary handles Greek script and shows accented forms, so you know where the stress falls. Works with no connection.
Open the dictionary appFrequently asked questions
Is modern Greek pronounced like ancient Greek?
No, and the difference is substantial. The pronunciation taught in classics and used for mathematical symbols reflects a reconstruction of ancient Greek. Modern Greek has changed considerably: beta is now v, several distinct ancient vowels have merged into a single ee sound, and delta is a th sound. If you learned pi and beta in a maths class you have the shapes but not the modern sounds.
What is iotacism in Greek?
It is the historical merger of several once-distinct vowels and diphthongs into the single sound ee. In modern Greek, the letters eta, iota and upsilon and the combinations ei and oi are all pronounced ee. This makes listening easier and spelling harder, since one sound corresponds to five spellings.
Why does sigma have two lowercase forms?
Greek writes sigma as ς at the end of a word and σ everywhere else. It is purely positional, exactly like the difference between an initial and final letter form — the sound is identical. Seeing ς is a reliable signal that you have reached the end of a word.