Learning the Greek Alphabet

Hello Everyone,

Here is a Youtube video I found that speaks it slowly, so you can see the letter and hear the sound pronunciation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FyEWbwBarQ

This is just so to help you, I think there is a couple of wrong pronunciations but I will ask Heidi to review this for me.  Good Luck with learning your 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

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

The words we learned:

kalimera = good morning - καλημέρα. Used both when coming to and going away from a place. 

kalispera = good afternoon - καλησπέρα. Used only when coming to a place or meeting someone in the evening or at night.

kalinihta = good night - καληνύχτα. Used only as a goodbye greeting in the evening or at night.


ya-ssou = hello or goodbye - γειά σου (greeting to one person or a friend)

ya-ssas = hello or goodbye - γειά σας (greeting to more persons or a more formal and polite way to greet an unknown person)

adio = goodbye - αντίο