Greek9 min read

The Greek Alphabet: 24 Letters with Pronunciation and Example Words

Published September 23, 2026Updated September 24, 2026

You already know more of the Greek alphabet than you think. Math class gave you π, Σ, Δ and θ. Fraternity row gave you Α, Β, Γ. Even the word alphabet is just the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta, glued together. There are 24 letters: 7 vowels and 17 consonants. And unlike English, Greek is spelled the way it sounds. Learn the letters and about ten letter pairs, and you can read a menu, a street sign or a ferry timetable aloud, even before you know what the words mean.

Pronunciation is written in plain English spelling, with the stressed syllable in capitals: ka-li-MEH-ra.

The 24 letters

Two things jump out. The ee sound has five spellings (η, ι, υ, ει, οι) and o has two (ο, ω): that matters for spelling, not reading. And sigma has two lowercase forms: σ inside a word, ς only at the end, as in σπίτι and φίλος.

Greek letters in math and science

Need the letters for a formula rather than a trip? In math and science they keep their traditional English names: beta is BAY-tuh in class but VEE-ta in Athens, and mu and nu are myoo and nyoo. The most common ones and their usual meanings (they vary by field):

Pronunciation and stress

The single most helpful rule: Greek marks the stress for you. Every word of two or more syllables carries an accent mark, the tonos, over the stressed vowel: καλημέρα, θάλασσα, ψωμί. One-syllable words like και (and) or το (the) go without it. The position can change the meaning: πότε (PO-te) is "when?", ποτέ (po-TE) is "never."

A few more rules clear up most doubts:

• Vowels stay pure. No gliding, no swallowing unstressed vowels. μόνο is MO-no, never "MO-nuh."
• Delta is not d. δ is the voiced th of this and mother. Θ is the voiceless th of think. Mixing them up is the most common giveaway of an English-speaking accent in Greek.
• Gamma is not g. Before a, o and ou it's a soft, breathy g made at the back of the throat; say "g" without closing the tongue fully. Before e and i it turns into y: γεια (ya) means "hi."
• Chi is not k and not ch. It's the throaty h in loch or German Bach. Before e and i it softens to the sound in huge.
• Sigma buzzes before voiced consonants: κόσμος (KOZ-mos), "world, people."
• The Greek question mark is the semicolon. Τι κάνεις; means "How are you?" A raised dot · does the job of our semicolon.

Look-alike letters that trip you up

The hardest letters are not the new ones. They are the ones that look like something you know and sound like something else. Learn these first, or your brain will keep reading them the English way.

Letter combinations

After the letters come the pairs. There are about a dozen, and you will meet them in almost every sentence.

When is αυ "av" and when is it "af"? Before vowels and voiced sounds it's av (αύριο); before voiceless sounds like t, k, p, s, th it's af (αυτό). The same goes for ευ. You rarely need the rule: say the word aloud and your mouth picks the easier option.

Double consonants are read as one: θάλασσα is THA-la-sa, Ελλάδα (Greece) is e-LA-tha.

Test yourself on six words from the table. Each one hides a look-alike letter or a letter combination.

Your first 20 words, by letter group

Memorizing the alphabet in order is slow and dull. It works better to split the letters into three groups and read real words right away. Here are 20 words you can use on your first day in Greece.

Group 1: letters that look and sound familiar (Α, Ε, Ι, Κ, Μ, Ο, Τ, Ζ)

Group 2: the look-alikes (Η, Ρ, Υ, Β, Ν, Χ, Ω)

Group 3: the new letters (Γ, Δ, Θ, Λ, Ξ, Π, Σ, Φ, Ψ)

For more words by topic, with pronunciation and memory hooks, see Greek words by topic: greetings, family, days and time. For a longer starter list, read Greek words: 100 basic words. And if you're wondering how much work the rest of the language is, here is an honest answer on whether Greek is hard to learn.

How long does the alphabet take?

A realistic plan is three evenings of 20 to 30 minutes:

1. Evening 1. Familiar letters and look-alikes: read groups 1 and 2 aloud until Η and Ρ stop tripping you up.
2. Evening 2. New letters and stress: read group 3 and practice δ and θ, tongue between the teeth.
3. Evening 3. Letter pairs: read any Greek text aloud, a menu or a sign, just for the sound.

After that you'll recognize every letter; speed comes from reading real words.

Practice in the app

The alphabet sticks best on living words. In Palabra, every Greek word comes with pronunciation, an example sentence and an English sound-alike: ψωμί (bread) is a monk humming a "psalm-y" tune while slicing a loaf. Start with the "meeting people" and "Food" topics, add them to your words, and they'll come back for review right when you're about to forget them.

After a week of that, you'll stop reading letters and start reading words.

How this post was made: the draft was written with the help of our model (AI); facts were checked against the sources. How we make it