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Study :: Biblical Language Resources :: Grammars :: Greek :: Simplified Greek :: The Greek Alphabet

The Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet has some letters that are identical to English letters. On the other hand, most of the letters are quite different, and the sounds of some of these letters are also quite different from English. However, with practice, you can easily master these differences. The following format begins in the far left column with the Greek capital letters. These are used quite rarely, so we won't spend any time in memorizing them. However, you do need to familiarize yourself with what they look like so when you do come to them in the text, you will know how to pronounce them. The second column contains the Greek small letters, and it is these letters you will need to memorize. The third column is the English transliteration of the Greek letter. Transliteration means you are writing the English letter or combination of letters that represent a particular Greek letter. The fourth and final column is the correct pronunciation of these Greek letters according to English pronunciation. You will notice that I have underlined the letter in the English word that represents the sound the Greek letter actually makes when you pronounce it.

Greek Letters:

CAPITAL	Small	Name	English Equivalent
A	α	Alpha	Long: a as in Father Short: a as in bat
Β	β	Beta	b as in ball
Γ	γ	Gamma	g as in game
Δ	δ	Delta	d as in dog
Ε	ε	Epsilon^†	e as in met
Ζ	ζ	Zeta	z as in zoo at the beginning of a word dz as in adz is usually in the middle of a word
Η	η	Eta^†	ē as in obey
Θ	θ	Theta	th as in with
Ι	ι	Iota	Long: i as in Christina Short: i as bit
Κ	κ	Kappa	k as in keep
Λ	λ	Lambda	l as in look
Μ	μ	Mu	m as in much
Ν	ν	Nu	n as in not
Ξ	ξ	Xi	x as in flex
Ο	ο	Omicron^†	o as in object
Π	π	Pi	p as in play
Ρ	ρ	Rho	r as in real
Σ	^* σ ς	Sigma	s as in see
Τ	τ	Tau	t as in take
Υ	υ	Upsilon	u as in clue
Φ	φ	Phi	ph as in phone
Χ	χ	Chi	ch as in chaos
Ψ	ψ	Psi	ps as in wraps
Ω	ω	Omega^†	ō as in own

^*There are two forms for the Greek letter Sigma: the σ is the form used at the beginning or middle of a word (e.g. σῶμα = sōma = body; ὲκκλησία = ekklēsia = church); the ς is the form used as the last letter of a word (e.g., λόγος = logos = word).

^†When transliterating these letters, because ^†epsilon and ^†eta and ^†omicron and ^†omega are written the same in English (e.g., epsilon and eta are both "e" and omicron and omega are both "o"), you will distinguish between them in the following manner: epsilon-ε-will be "e" and eta-η-will be "ē" with the bar over it omicron-o-will be "o" and omega-will be "ō" with the bar over it (e.g., ἤνεγκα = ēnegka; άγκώνόϛ = agkōnos).

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The Greek Alphabet