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The Greek alphabet

24 letters, each with its name and roughly the sound it makes. The sounds are English approximations — enough to sound a word out, not enough to pass for a local.

🇬🇷 Greek · An alphabet: vowels and consonants are letters of equal standing.

Twenty-four letters, and the oldest alphabet still in use that writes vowels as letters in their own right — every European alphabet after it, including this one, descends from it. Sigma has a second form, ς, used only at the end of a word.

New to it? Our beginner's guide to the Greek alphabet explains how the script works and gives you a plan to learn it.

• Α α alfa a in father
• Β β vita v
• Γ γ gamma soft g, or y before e and i
• Δ δ delta th in this
• Ε ε epsilon e in bet
• Ζ ζ zita z
• Η η ita ee in see
• Θ θ thita th in thin
• Ι ι yota ee in see
• Κ κ kappa k
• Λ λ lamda l
• Μ μ mi m
• Ν ν ni n
• Ξ ξ ksi x in box
• Ο ο omikron o in got
• Π π pi p
• Ρ ρ ro rolled r
• Σ σ ς sigma s
• Τ τ taf t
• Υ υ ipsilon ee in see
• Φ φ fi f
• Χ χ khi ch in loch
• Ψ ψ psi ps in lapse
• Ω ω omega o in got

Now read something in it

The letters are the smaller half. The 10,000 commonest Greek words are where they start meaning something.

Reading it is one thing.

Being understood when you say it is another. That takes a person.

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