The Greek alphabet has 24 letters — 7 vowels and 17 consonants — and has been in continuous use for nearly 2,800 years. The chart below gives every letter with its name, romanization, and modern Greek pronunciation: the way β actually sounds in Athens today, not the "beta" of math class. Printable, and free.
Traditional order, upper and lower case, with modern Greek pronunciation. Sigma has two lowercase forms: σ at the start or middle of a word, ς only at the end — σοφός (wise) uses both. Names in parentheses show how Greeks pronounce the letter's name today, where it differs from the English classroom habit.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Αα | alpha | a | /a/ | a in "father" |
| Ββ | beta (vita) | v | /v/ | v in "vine" — not b |
| Γγ | gamma (ghama) | g | /ɣ/ | soft, gargled g; like y in "yes" before e and i sounds |
| Δδ | delta (thelta) | d | /ð/ | th in "this" — not d |
| Εε | epsilon | e | /e/ | e in "met" |
| Ζζ | zeta (zita) | z | /z/ | z in "zoo" |
| Ηη | eta (ita) | i | /i/ | ee in "see" |
| Θθ | theta (thita) | th | /θ/ | th in "think" |
| Ιι | iota (yota) | i | /i/ | ee in "see" |
| Κκ | kappa | k | /k/ | k in "kite" |
| Λλ | lambda (lamda) | l | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| Μμ | mu (mi) | m | /m/ | m in "map" |
| Νν | nu (ni) | n | /n/ | n in "note" |
| Ξξ | xi (ksi) | x | /ks/ | x in "box" |
| Οο | omicron | o | /o/ | o in "more" |
| Ππ | pi (pee) | p | /p/ | p in "pet" |
| Ρρ | rho (ro) | r | /r/ | rolled or tapped r, as in Spanish "pero" |
| Σσ / ς | sigma | s | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| Ττ | tau (taf) | t | /t/ | t in "top" |
| Υυ | upsilon (ipsilon) | y | /i/ | ee in "see" |
| Φφ | phi (fi) | f | /f/ | f in "fun" |
| Χχ | chi (hi) | ch | /x/ | ch in Scottish "loch"; like h in "hue" before e and i sounds |
| Ψψ | psi (psee) | ps | /ps/ | ps in "lapse" — pronounced fully, even at the start of a word |
| Ωω | omega | o | /o/ | o in "more" — identical to omicron today |
There are two live traditions for pronouncing Greek letters, and mixing them up is the single biggest source of confusion. Math, physics, and classics courses in the English-speaking world use the Erasmian (reconstructed ancient) tradition: beta = b, delta = d, eta = a long "ay", pi rhymes with "pie". Modern Greek moved on centuries ago: β is /v/ (vita), δ is the th in "this" (thelta), η is "ee" (ita), and π is "pee". Neither is wrong — they describe different eras of the language. This chart gives the modern values, which is what you will hear in Greece today.
The sound shifts left Greek spelling with a famous quirk called iotacism: the vowels η, ι, and υ and the digraphs ει and οι — five common spellings, six counting the rare υι — are all pronounced exactly the same, as /i/. Ancient Greek distinguished all of them, and the spelling still records those lost distinctions, which is why even native speakers have to memorize which "ee" a word uses. Two more vowel mergers: αι sounds like ε, and ω sounds like ο.
The old b, d, and g sounds did not disappear — modern Greek writes them with digraphs: μπ = b (μπύρα, beer), ντ = d (ντομάτα, tomato), and γκ/γγ = g. Meanwhile αυ and ευ are pronounced av/ev before voiced sounds and af/ef before voiceless ones (αυτό = af-TO), and ου is simply "oo". Learn these few combinations and Greek spelling becomes almost perfectly phonetic to read.
The Greek alphabet was adapted from the Phoenician script around the 9th–8th century BC — and the adaptation changed writing forever. Phoenician recorded only consonants; the Greeks repurposed letters they didn't need (aleph, he, yodh, ayin) as vowels, creating the first true alphabet that wrote every sound of the language. After centuries of regional variants, Athens officially adopted the 24-letter Ionian alphabet in 403 BC, and the letter inventory has not changed since.
Nearly every alphabet in Europe descends from it. The Etruscans borrowed an early western Greek variant and passed it to the Romans, producing the Latin alphabet; Byzantine missionary work in the 9th century AD produced Cyrillic; Coptic and Gothic were built directly on Greek models. The lowercase letters are much younger than the capitals — they developed from Byzantine minuscule handwriting around the 9th–10th century AD, which is why classical inscriptions are all capitals.
Pronunciation kept evolving while the spelling stayed frozen, producing the modern-versus-Erasmian split described above. The most recent reform came in 1982, when Greece officially adopted the monotonic system: the polytonic tangle of breathings and three accent marks inherited from Hellenistic scholars was reduced to a single stress accent (the tonos), which is what you see in Greek text today.
24: seven vowels (α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω) and seventeen consonants. Sigma adds a second lowercase form, ς, used only at the end of a word. The 24-letter inventory has been stable since Athens adopted it in 403 BC — the longest run of any alphabet still in use.
Science and classics in English use the Erasmian tradition, which aims at ancient Greek pronunciation: b for β, d for δ, "pie" for π. Modern Greek pronunciation shifted long ago — β became /v/, δ became the th in "this", and π is "pee". Both systems are internally consistent; just don't expect an Athenian to recognize "beta". If you're learning Greek to speak it, use the modern column in the chart above.
This is iotacism: ancient Greek pronounced η, ι, υ, ει, and οι as five distinct vowels, but over the centuries they all collapsed into /i/. The spelling never changed, so modern Greek has five common ways to write one sound (six with the rare υι). It's the main spelling difficulty for Greek schoolchildren — and proof that English isn't the only language whose orthography preserves dead pronunciations.
It's the same letter as σ (sigma) in a special word-final shape: write σ anywhere in a word except the end, and ς only as the last letter — σοφός (wise) shows both. Capitals don't make the distinction; the uppercase is always Σ. When typing, most Greek keyboard layouts put ς on the W key.
From Phoenician, a consonant-only script, in around the 9th–8th century BC. The Greek innovation was writing vowels with full letters, making it the first complete alphabet. It is also a prolific parent: Latin (via Etruscan) and Cyrillic both descend from it, so most European writing traces back to these 24 letters.