Ο ο — omikron
«omikron» is a vowel of Greek, the “Greek alphabet” script, read as “o as in "pot"”. A short o. Unstressed, it never decays into "uh". For example, in the word “όνομα” — name. The Greek alphabet has 37 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The name of the letter means "o small" — as against ω, "o great". The sound is the same for both. It appears, for example, in the word “Αντίο” — goodbye.
In short
| Character | Ο ο |
| Name | omikron |
| Sound | o as in "pot" |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 15th of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ξ and π, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
A short o. Unstressed, it never decays into "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 | ό | — |
| capital with stress | Ό | — |
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.
- όνομαónomaname
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 «omikron» it is “o as in "pot"”, as in the word “όνομα”), 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 ο read?
As “o as in "pot"” — it is a vowel of the “Greek alphabet” script. A short o. Unstressed, it never decays into "uh". For example, in the word “όνομα” — name.
What is the letter ο called?
Omikron. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Greek script: it is called “omikron” and reads as “o as in "pot"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ο be confused with?
The name of the letter means "o small" — as against ω, "o great". The sound is the same for both. 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.