Lingofly΄ — tonos
«tonos» is a sign of the Greek script. No sound of its own: the dash shows which syllable takes the stress. 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. In a word longer than one syllable it is obligatory — a word without it is written with a mistake. It stands only over a vowel and only once per word. On a carrier the character looks like this: ά.
In short
| Character | ΄ |
| Name | tonos |
| Sound | the stress mark |
| What it is | a sign |
| On the carrier | ά |
In our course the character comes 36th of 37: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are τζ and ¨.
How it sounds
No sound of its own: the dash shows which syllable takes the stress
The character in the “marks over the vowels” group
Stress in Greek is not a dictionary hint but an obligatory part of the spelling. A word longer than one syllable without its dash is written with a mistake. The two dots are rarer — needed where two vowels in a row must be read separately.
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, 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 ΄ read?
The stress mark. It is a sign of the Greek script. No sound of its own: the dash shows which syllable takes the stress.
What is the sign ΄ called?
Tonos is what this character is called when the alphabet is recited aloud.