Υ υ — ipsilon
«ipsilon» is a vowel of Greek, the “Greek alphabet” script, read as “ee as in "see", written υ”. On its own it reads ee; in the pairs αυ and ευ it turns into a v or an f. For example, in the word “τυρί” — cheese. The Greek alphabet has 37 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. A letter with two jobs: in τυρί it is ee, in αύριο it is a v. Which one is decided by the vowel to its left. It appears, for example, in the word “Ευχαριστώ” — thank you.
In short
| Character | Υ υ |
| Name | ipsilon |
| Sound | ee as in "see", written υ |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 20th of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are τ and φ, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
On its own it reads ee; in the pairs αυ and ευ it turns into a v or an f
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 | ύ | — |
| capital with stress | Ύ | — |
| with two dots | ϋ | read separately from the neighboring vowel |
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.
- τυρίtirícheese
The character in the “a familiar look — a different sound” group
The main difficulty of Greek. The letter is recognized at first glance but sounds different: β is a v, η and υ are ee, ω is an o, χ is a kh. A word read the way it looks, math-class style, a native speaker will not recognize.
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 «ipsilon» it is “ee as in "see", written υ”, as in the word “τυρί”), 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 υ read?
As “ee as in "see", written υ” — it is a vowel of the “Greek alphabet” script. On its own it reads ee; in the pairs αυ and ευ it turns into a v or an f. For example, in the word “τυρί” — cheese.
What is the letter υ called?
Ipsilon. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Greek script: it is called “ipsilon” and reads as “ee as in "see", written υ”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can υ be confused with?
A letter with two jobs: in τυρί it is ee, in αύριο it is a v. Which one is decided by the vowel to its left. 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.