Αι αι — alfa-iota
«alfa-iota» is a digraph of Greek, the “Greek alphabet” script, read as “e as in "met", written αι”. Reads as a plain e, like ε. For example, in the word “παιδί” — a child. The Greek alphabet has 37 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. Neither "eye" nor "ah-ee": παιδί comes out "pethi". The stress, if it falls on this pair, sits on the ι: παίζω. It appears, for example, in the word “Ναι” — yes.
In short
| Character | Αι αι |
| Name | alfa-iota |
| Sound | e as in "met", written αι |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 25th of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ω and ει, appears in 233 words of this site.
How it sounds
Reads as a plain e, like ε
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.
- παιδίpedía child
The character in the “the letter pairs” group
Eleven pairs of letters read as one sound. Nothing can be read without them: Greek has no separate letters for the oo, b, d and g sounds at all — they are written with the pairs ου, μπ, ντ, γκ.
- Ει ειee as in "see", written ειepsilon-iota
- Οι οιee as in "see", written οιomikron-iota
- Ου ουoo as in "food"omikron-ipsilon
- Αυ αυav or af, decided by the next soundalfa-ipsilon
- Ευ ευev or ef, decided by the next soundepsilon-ipsilon
- Μπ μπb as in "book"mi-pi
- Ντ ντd as in "door"ni-taf
- Γκ γκg as in "go"gama-kapa
- Τσ τσts as in "cats"taf-sigma
- Τζ τζa voiced dz, close to j as in "jam"taf-zita
Words with this character
- Ναιneyes
- Πού είναι;pu íne?where is?
- παιδίpedíchild
- Είναι ακριβόíne akrivóit's expensive
- Πιο φτηνά γίνεται;pio ftiná yínete?can it be cheaper?
- καινούργιοςkenúryosnew
- το συμβόλαιοto simvóleocontract
- ο λαιμόςo lemósthroat
- ανακατεύομαιanakatévomefeel nauseous
- ζαλίζομαιzalízomefeel dizzy
- Χρειάζομαι γιατρόkhriázome yatróI need a doctor
- Είμαι καλάíme kaláI'm fine
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-iota» it is “e as in "met", written αι”, as in the word “παιδί”), 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 αι read?
As “e as in "met", written αι” — it is a digraph of the “Greek alphabet” script. Reads as a plain e, like ε. For example, in the word “παιδί” — a child.
What is the letter αι called?
Alfa-iota. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Greek script: it is called “alfa-iota” and reads as “e as in "met", written αι”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can αι be confused with?
Neither "eye" nor "ah-ee": παιδί comes out "pethi". The stress, if it falls on this pair, sits on the ι: παίζω. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.