Pronouncing the Greek Alphabet

Greece, Monemvasia, alley in old town — Wolfgang Weinhäupl / Getty Images

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Updated on January 29, 2020

Whether you are traveling to Greece, enjoy eating in a local Greek restaurant, or just a curious person, it can be educational and helpful to know some Greek. One of the best things about learning the Greek language is that words are pronounced the way they are written. There are no silent "e" type letters. If a letter is in the word, it is pronounced. And letters are always pronounced the same way, with the exception of a few diphthongs.

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, some of them representing sounds that are not part of the English language. To create sounds not included in the alphabet, two letters are combined. For example:

the hard d sound is made using "nt,"
the b sound is created by putting together "m" and "p,"
the j sound is created with a combination of "t" and "z," which doesn't quite match but comes close, and the same goes for the hard ch sound, which is written using "ts." The exception to this rule is in Crete where, in the local dialect, the letter k is often given the hard ch sound,
the hard g sound (as in "gutter") is made with "gk."

The Greek Alphabet

Letter Upper, lower	Name	Pronounced	When speaking, sounds like
A, α	alpha	AHL-fah	ah
Β, β	vita	VEE-tah	the letter v
Γ, γ	gamma	GHAH-mah	the letter y when it comes before e, u, i; otherwise like a soft gargle gh
Δ, δ	thelta	THEL-tah	hard th as in "there"
Ε, ε	epsilon	EHP-see-lon	eh
Ζ, ζ	zita	ZEE-tah	the letter z
Η, η	ita	EE-tah	ee
Θ, θ	thita	THEE-tah	soft th as in "through"
Ι, ι	iota	YO-tah	ee
Κ, κ	kappa	KAH-pah	the letter k
Λ, λ	lamtha	LAHM-thah	the letter l
Μ, μ	mu	mee	the letter m
Ν, ν	nu	nee	the letter n
Ξ, ξ	xee	ksee	the letter x
Ο, ο	omikron	OH-mee-kron	oh
Π, π	pi	pee	the letter p
Ρ, ρ	ro	roh, roe	a rolled r
Σ, σ, ς	sigma	SEEGH-mah	the letter s
Τ, τ	tau	tahf	the letter t
Υ, υ	upsilon	EWP-see-lon	ee
Φ, φ	phi	fee	the letter f
Χ, χ	chi	hee	a light gargly ch as in "challah"
Ψ, ψ	psi	psee	ps as in "chips"
Ω, ω	omega	oh-MEH-ghah	somewhere between "awe" and "oh"

Common Diphthongs

A diphthong is a sound that is formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable. The sound starts in one vowel and then moves toward the other. Some examples in English are coin and loud. This chart outlines some Greek diphthongs.

ΑΥ, αυ	au	av or af
ΕΥ, ευ	eu	ev or ef
ΟΥ, ου	ou	oo
ΑΙ, αι	ai	eh