The Greek Alphabet
Here’s a brief overview of the letters of the Greek alphabet, as found on the Transcribe keyboard, plus some information about letter combinations. The list below gives the form of the capital letter, the lowercase letter, the name of the letter, and the pronunciation. There are 24 of these letters, 7 of which are vowels: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω.
Α α Alpha /a/ as in father (when long) or /a/ as in feta (when short)
Β β Beta /b/ as in bed
Γ γ Gamma /g/ as in gate
Δ δ Delta /d/ as in dog
Ε ε Epsilon /e/ as in red
Ζ ζ Zeta /ds/ as in cords
Η η Eta /ey/ as in they
Θ θ Theta /th/ as in thin
Ι ι Iota /i/ as in ski (when long) or /i/ as in lit (when short)
Κ κ Kappa /k/ as in kiss
Λ λ Lambda /l/ as in lamb
Μ μ Mu /m/ as in mat
Ν ν Nu /n/ as in nest
Ξ ξ Xi /x/ as in ax
Ο ο Omicron /o/ as in often
Π π Pi /p/ as in picture
Ρ ρ Rho /r/ as in red
Σ σ/ς Sigma /s/ as in sit (Note: The ς is only used at the end of a word.)
Τ τ Tau /t/ as in tea
Υ υ Upsilon /u/ as in food (when long) or /u/ as in put (when short)
Φ φ Phi /ph/ as in phone
Χ χ Chi /ch/ as in Bach
Ψ ψ Psi /ps/ as in lips
Ω ω Omega /ō/ as in sole
The letter γ (gamma) is pronounced like an “n” sound when combined with certain letters.
γγ /ng/ as in linger
γκ /nk/ as in sink
γχ /nk/ as in sink
Below are all the possible Greek diphthongs.
αι /ai/ as in aisle
ει /ei/ as in weight
οι /oi/ as in oil
αυ /ow/ as in cow
ευ /eu/ “eh-oo”
ηυ /eyu/ “ay-oo”
ου /ou/ as in soup
υι /uee/ as in queen
