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