Phabetia

The Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters and has been written for almost three thousand years, which makes it the direct ancestor of the Latin one you are reading now. That is why many of them feel familiar: alpha is our A, tau is our T and omicron is our O.

The difficulty is not in the letters that look different, but in the ones that look familiar and are not what they seem. Ρ is not a P, it is an R. Η is not an H, it is a long I. Χ is not an X, it sounds like the ch in loch. And lowercase nu, ν, gets mistaken for a v. Half a dozen traps like these account for almost every beginner's mistake.

Learning it opens more than you would expect: modern Greek, a good share of scientific and mathematical vocabulary, and the ability to read a sign in Athens and realise it says «ΤΑΞΙ».

The 24 letters of the Greek alphabet

Uppercase Lowercase Name Sounds like Looks like
Α α Alpha A
Β β Beta V B
Γ γ Gamma G
Δ δ Delta D A
Ε ε Epsilon E
Ζ ζ Zeta Z
Η η Eta I H
Θ θ Theta TH O
Ι ι Iota I
Κ κ Kappa K
Λ λ Lambda L A
Μ μ Mu M
Ν ν Nu N
Ξ ξ Xi X
Ο ο Omicron O
Π π Pi P
Ρ ρ Rho R P
Σ σ Sigma S E
Τ τ Tau T
Υ υ Upsilon Y
Φ φ Phi F O
Χ χ Chi KH X
Ψ ψ Psi PS
Ω ω Omega O W

Words to practise

How you learn it in Phabetia

Every new letter is introduced first with its name and its Latin equivalent, and you have to recognise it before you start practising it. Then come the exercises: letter to sound, sound to letter, quick memory, telling it apart from the Latin letter it resembles, spotting the intruder, completing a word and reading one.

Characters arrive two or three at a time and are never dropped: each level carries the previous ones along. What you get wrong comes back sooner and more often; what you have mastered shows up rarely, and anything you have not seen for days climbs back up on its own.

There are no lives and no punishment: getting one wrong interrupts nothing. To move on you only need 70 % right.

Frequently asked questions

How many letters does the Greek alphabet have?

Twenty-four, each with an uppercase and a lowercase form. Sigma also has a different lowercase form at the end of a word (ς), but it is the same letter.

How long does it take to learn?

Recognising all 24 letters fluently usually takes a few days of short sessions. What takes longer is not memorising them, but no longer hesitating over the ones that look like Latin letters.

Do I need to know Greek?

No. What you learn here is to read the letters, not the language. It is exactly the step before that, and it works the same for modern Greek, for ancient Greek and for physics formulas.

Other alphabets