LingoflyΑι αι — alfa-iota
«alfa-iota» is a digraph of the Greek script, read as “e as in "met", written αι”. Reads as a plain e, like ε. For example, in the word “παιδί” (pedí) — a child. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. This character does not count as a letter of the alphabet. Neither "eye" nor "ah-ee": παιδί (pedí) comes out "pethi". The stress, if it falls on this pair, sits on the ι: παίζω (pézo).
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 to type Αι αι
- On a phone: add the Greek keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type the codes U+03B1, U+03B9 one at a time, pressing Alt+X after each.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source and, holding Option, type the codes 03B1, 03B9 in a row.
- Unicode code points: αι — U+03B1 U+03B9, Αι — U+0391 U+03B9. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
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.
The character in 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
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” (pedí)), 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 — 24 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 script. Reads as a plain e, like ε. For example, in the word “παιδί” (pedí) — a child.
What is the sign 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 (pedí) comes out "pethi". The stress, if it falls on this pair, sits on the ι: παίζω (pézo). 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.