Greek alphabet

Modern Greek is written with a different alphabet from that used in all other mainstream European languages. Because classical Greek (the language of Homer, Plato, Aristotle and many others) and New Testament Greek (the language of parts of the Christian Bible) also used it in their written forms, it is a much respected script in academic circles. It is used for quotations from the classics, and also to indicate unknown quantities in Maths and Physics. Some of the letters are used to denote particular values - variables such as λ ('lambda', a wavelength whose numerical value is not known) and constants such as π ('pi', ~ 3.14; the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle).

For the convenience of some students, we give a table here of the Greek alphabet. This is the standard typeface in Microsoft Word - in other fonts, or in handwriting, these letters will not always look exactly like this. Sometimes, too, they will have accents and other diacritic marks.

Like our Roman alphabet, its ancestor, the Greek alphabet, has two closely related forms. In the table, the capital (or 'upper case', or 'majuscule') letter is given first. In the second column, there is the lower case (or 'small letter', or minuscule) letter. The name in English is very close to a native English speaker's pronunciation of the names of these letters. In the mouths of speakers of other languages (including modern Greek), they often sound different.

The order in which the letters are given is the conventional order of the Greek. You will notice that it is different from the order of the English alphabet, the 'A-B-C'. (Our word 'alphabet', of course, comes from the first two letters of the Greek: 'alpha[-]bet[a]'.)

Upper case	Lower case	Name	Sound in Ancient Greek	Sound in Modern Greek
Α	α	Alpha	long or short a	short a - in Modern Greek all the vowels are relatively short.
Β	β	Beta	b	v
Γ	γ	Gamma	g, as in 'game' or 'golf'	gh or y, depending on the following vowel
Δ	δ	Delta	d	th, as in 'the'
Ε	ε	Epsilon	short e	short e
Ζ	ζ	Zeta	z, pronounced like the dz in 'adze'	z, as in 'zoo'
Η	η	Eta	long e, pronounced like the ai in 'dairy'	short i
Θ	θ	Theta	th, as in 'theatre'	th, as in 'theatre'
Ι	ι	Iota	long or short i	short i
Κ	κ	Kappa	k	k
Λ	λ	Lambda	l	l
Μ	μ	Mu	m	m
͝	ν	Nu	n	n
Ξ	ξ	Xi	ks	ks
Ο	ο	Omicron	short o	short o
Π	π	Pi	p	p
Ρ	ρ 	Rho	r	r
Σ	σ, at end of word ς‚	Sigma	s, as in 'sea'	s, as in 'sea'
Τ	τ	Tau	t	t
Υ	υ	Upsilon	long or short u, pronounced as a French u	short i
Φ	φ	Phi	ph, as in 'pharmacy'	ph, as in 'pharmacy'
Χ	χ	Chi	ch, as in (Scottish) 'loch'	ch, as in (Scottish) 'loch'
Ψ	ψ	Psi	ps	ps
Ω	ω	Omega	long o	short o