Α α — alfa
«alfa» is a vowel of Greek, the “Greek alphabet” script, read as “a as in "father"”. A pure open a, steady as in "father"; an unstressed a never fades to "uh". For example, in the word “καλά” — good. The Greek alphabet has 37 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “Γεια” — hi.
In short
| Character | Α α |
| Name | alfa |
| Sound | a as in "father" |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 1st of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, after it comes β, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
A pure open a, steady as in "father"; an unstressed a never fades to "uh"
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| with stress | ά | — |
| capital with stress | Ά | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- καλάkalágood
The character in the “twelve letters that read as they look” group
These letters read just as they look, and they make up exactly half the alphabet. Reading starts with them: κάνω, μένω, τι, καλά are assembled from these alone.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «alfa» it is “a as in "father"”, as in the word “καλά”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 37 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Greek character α read?
As “a as in "father"” — it is a vowel of the “Greek alphabet” script. A pure open a, steady as in "father"; an unstressed a never fades to "uh". For example, in the word “καλά” — good.
What is the letter α called?
Alfa. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Greek script: it is called “alfa” and reads as “a as in "father"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.