Ει ει — epsilon-iota
«epsilon-iota» is a digraph of Greek, the “Greek alphabet” script, read as “ee as in "see", written ει”. Reads as ee. For example, in the word “εκεί” — there. The Greek alphabet has 37 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The fourth spelling of the ee sound. It meets you in endings more often than any other: είναι, εκεί, φαρμακείο. It appears, for example, in the word “Γεια” — hi.
In short
| Character | Ει ει |
| Name | epsilon-iota |
| Sound | ee as in "see", written ει |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 26th of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are αι and οι, appears in 277 words of this site.
How it sounds
Reads as ee
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.
- εκείekíthere
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.
- Αι αιe as in "met", written αιalfa-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
- Γειαyahi
- Γεια σαςya sashello
- Τι κάνεις;ti kánis?how are you?
- Πόσο κάνει;póso káni?how much is it?
- Βοήθεια!voíthiahelp!
- δουλειάduliájob
- οικογένειαikoyéniafamily
- υπάρχειipárkhithere is
- η ταμειακή απόδειξηi tamiakí apódiksisales receipt
- Πόσο κάνει αυτό;póso káni aftó?how much do I owe?
- κλειστάklistáclosed
- το κλειδίto klidíkey
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 «epsilon-iota» it is “ee as in "see", written ει”, as in the word “εκεί”), 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 ει read?
As “ee as in "see", written ει” — it is a digraph of the “Greek alphabet” script. Reads as ee. For example, in the word “εκεί” — there.
What is the letter ει called?
Epsilon-iota. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Greek script: it is called “epsilon-iota” and reads as “ee as in "see", written ει”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ει be confused with?
The fourth spelling of the ee sound. It meets you in endings more often than any other: είναι, εκεί, φαρμακείο. 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.