How to read in Greek
The Greek alphabet: 24 letters, a third of which do not sound the way they look The script is called “Greek script” (written in itself as “ελληνικό αλφάβητο”); it has 36 letters. You take it a few characters per session — in a week or two a shop sign stops being a picture.
24 letters, and half of them you have already met
Greek writing is the ancestor of the Latin alphabet, so half the letters are familiar at first glance. α, ε, ι, ο, κ, λ, μ, ν, π, ρ, σ, τ read just as they look. Another dozen you have met in math class and on college sweatshirts: π, Σ, Δ, θ, λ, Ω.
It is read left to right. Capital and small letters differ. There are only twenty-four letters — fewer than in the Latin alphabet.
One feature is visible at once: sigma is written two ways. Inside a word — σ, at the very end — ς. These are not two letters but one: φίλος reads "filos".
The difficulty of Greek is not the number of letters but that a familiar shape often sounds unlike what you expect. The third and fourth steps are given to it.
The accent is part of the spelling, not a hint
In a Greek word longer than one syllable a dash over the stressed vowel is obligatory: καλά, όνομα, ευχαριστώ. A word written without it is written with a mistake — this is not a dictionary hint, but a letter of the orthography.
For the reader it is a gift. Stress in Greek wanders and cannot be predicted by ear, yet in writing it is always shown. There is nowhere to err.
There are three rules, and all are short. The mark stands only over a vowel, only once per word, and only in words of two syllables or more. One-syllable words are written without it: ναι, δεν, το. Capitals in mid-sentence keep their accent (Έλληνας), and a word typed in all capitals does without it.
- καλάkalágood
- όνομαónomaa name
- ναιneyes
One ee sound written five ways
The best-known feature of Greek: the ee sound is written five different ways, and by ear they do not differ at all. This is not a dialect nuance and not vowel length — the sound is exactly one.
It happened long ago: two and a half thousand years back η, ι, υ, ει, οι sounded different. Then they merged, and the spelling stayed as it was. Reading is the easy side of it: see any of the five spellings and read ee. Writing is the harder side: the choice has to be memorized with the word.
The same fate met the o sound: ο and ω are one and the same sound, neither longer nor lower. The names of the letters ("o small" and "o great") speak of the size of the sign, not of the sound.
| spelling | reads as | example |
|---|---|---|
| η | ee | πόλη — a city |
| ι | ee | φίλος — a friend |
| υ | ee | τυρί — cheese |
| ει | ee | εκεί — there |
| οι | ee | φίλοι — friends |
| ο | o | όνομα — a name |
| ω | o | ώρα — an hour |
Five letters that deceive
Here is the main source of mistakes for a newcomer. The letter looks familiar, but its sound is another one. A word read on visual habit alone a native speaker will not recognize.
- β is a v, not a b: in Greek the letter is called "vita". "Beta" is the ancient reading, and it survives only in learned terms;
- χ is a kh, not an x: ευχαριστώ comes out "efkharisto";
- ρ is an r, not a p, though the capital Ρ looks like a Latin P;
- δ and θ live between the teeth: the tongue tip goes between them, as in "this" and "think". The plain d of "door" is written with the pair ντ, not with the letter δ;
- γ is a g said in the throat, and before e and i it turns almost into a y: γεια reads "ya".
| letter | reads as | and not as |
|---|---|---|
| β | v | b |
| χ | kh | x |
| ρ | r | p |
| δ | the th of "this" | the d of "door" |
| θ | the th of "think" | f |
Vowels that read in pairs
Four vowel pairs are read as one sound, and the first of them is indispensable: Greek has no separate letter for the oo sound at all. It is written only with the pair ου.
Such a pair cannot be split: παιδί is "pethi", not "pe-a-idi"; σούπα is one smooth "sou", not two vowels. Sometimes a pair does read apart. Then two dots or an accent stand over the second vowel — the sign to read them one by one.
The accent inside a pair stands over the second sign: σούπα, παίζω.
| pair | reads as | example |
|---|---|---|
| ου | oo | σούπα — soup |
| αι | e | παιδί — a child |
| ει | ee | εκεί — there |
| οι | ee | οικογένεια — a family |
Where b, d and g come from
Greek has no letters for these three sounds. β reads as a v, δ is the soft th, γ is the throaty gh. The sounds themselves exist in the language, and they are written with pairs of consonants.
μπ — b, ντ — d, γκ — g. At the start of a word the sound is pure: μπαμπάς comes out "babas". In the middle an m or an n grows in front of it: mb, nd, ng.
All borrowings are written with these same pairs: μπαρ — bar, ντους — shower, γκαράζ — garage. Seeing μπ on a sign, read b and do not look for a second meaning.
Two more pairs cover sounds that sit between English letters: τσ — ts, τζ — dz.
αυ and ευ: v or f, decided by the neighbor
These last two pairs are built trickier than the rest. In them upsilon reads as a consonant, and the next sound decides which one.
Before a voiced sound and at the end of a word — v: αύριο ("avrio"), ευρώ ("evro"). Before a voiceless consonant — f: αυτός ("aftos"), ευχαριστώ ("efkharisto").
The rule needs no checking — it works by itself once the word is said aloud: the mouth simply refuses "avharisto".
With this, reading is done. All 24 letters and all eleven pairs are covered, and any Greek word can now be read aloud.
| pair | before a voiced sound | before a voiceless one |
|---|---|---|
| αυ | av: αύριο — tomorrow | af: αυτός — he |
| ευ | ev: ευρώ — euro | ef: ευχαριστώ — thank you |
What order to take the characters in
The writing course is split into 7 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 36 letters in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked
How many characters do you need to learn to read in Greek?
36 letters. After that a word stops being a picture — even when its meaning is still unknown.
What to learn first: letters or words?
Letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a “word — translation” card tells you no more than a picture does.
How long does it take to learn to read in Greek?
One step a day — 7 days. That is about recognizing characters, not understanding: you will start reading aloud before you understand what you read.