Greek Alphabet Table
| Letter | Latin | Name | Ancient sound | Modern sound | Greek numeral |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Α α | A a | alpha | Short: similar to a as in English hat; Long: a as in English father | a as in American English father (short) | 1 |
| Β β | B b | beta | b as in English better | v as in English vote | 2 |
| Γ γ | G g | gamma | g as in English get; ng as in English sing when used before γ, κ, ξ, χ, and possibly μ | g as in Spanish lago; similar to y as in English yellow; ng as in English long; ñ as in Spanish año | 3 |
| Δ δ | D d | delta | d as in English delete | th as in English then | 4 |
| Ε ε | E e | epsilon | ea as in Scottish English great; é as in French été; similar to ay as in English overlay, but without pronouncing y. | - | 5 |
| Ζ ζ | Z z | zeta | sd as in English wisdom,or possibly dz as in English adze | z as in English zoo | 7 |
| Η η | Ē ē | eta | e as in English net; long ai as in English fairy ê as in French tête | i as in English machine (short) | 8 |
| Θ θ | Th th | theta | t as in English top | th as in English thin | 9 |
| Ι ι | I i | iota | Short: i as in French vite,; Long: i as in English machine | i as in English machine (short) | 10 |
| Κ κ | C c, K k | kappa | k as in English, but completely unaspirated as in asking | k as in English make; q as in French qui | 20 |
| Λ λ | L l | lambda | l as in English lantern | - | 30 |
| Μ μ | M m | mu | m as in English music | - | 40 |
| Ν ν | N n | nu | n as in English net | - | 50 |
| Ξ ξ | X x | xi | x as in English fox | - | 60 |
| Ο ο | O o | omicron | o as in German ohne, similar to British English call ô as in French tôt | - | 70 |
| Π π | P p | pi | Unaspirated p as in English spot | - | 80 |
| Ρ ρ | R r, Rh rh | rho | rr as in Spanish carro; r as in Spanish caro | - | 100 |
| Σ σ/ς | S s | sigma | s as in English soft; s as in English muse when used before β, γ, or μ | - | 200 |
| Τ τ | T t | tau | Unaspirated t as in English stoke | - | 300 |
| Υ υ | Y y, U u | upsilon | Short: u as in French lune, ü as in German Brüder; Long: u as in French ruse | i as in English machine (short) | 400 |
| Φ φ | Ph ph | phi | p as in English pot | f as in English five | 500 |
| Χ χ | Ch ch, Kh kh | chi | c as in English cat | ch as in Scottish loch; h as in English hue | 600 |
| Ψ ψ | Ps ps | psi | ps as in English lapse | - | 700 |
| Ω ω | Ō ō | omega | aw as in English saw | as in Canadian English know | 800 |
The Greek alphabet is 24 letters and roughly 2,800 years old, which makes it the oldest alphabet still written in its original home. Every row of the table is one letter with four faces: the shape (upper and lower case), the Latin descendant it eventually fathered, the English name you call it, and two pronunciations - how it sounded in Ancient Greek and how it sounds in Modern Greek, because several letters changed jobs over the centuries (beta slid from b to v, phi from p-h aspirated to plain f, delta hardened from d to the th of then).
The number column is the quiet superpower: Greek letters double as digits, so alpha is 1, iota is 10, kappa is 20 and omega is 800 - the system Greeks still use for ordinals and chapter numbers. Look closely and two values are missing: 6 and 90. Those numbers belonged to letters that dropped out of the living alphabet (digraph-style digamma and the boomerang koppa) but survived as numerals - which is why a Greek price tag can contain letters you will never find in a dictionary. The table also hides one spelling quirk: sigma has two lowercase forms, and the final-sigma rule in the FAQ explains which one ends a word.
How to use
- Identify by shape, then confirm by name: the table is ordered alpha to omega, so the letter after delta is always epsilon - the ordering itself is where the word alphabet comes from (alpha-beta).
- Read the number column as a two-digit system: units alpha to theta (1-9), tens iota to koppa (10-90), hundreds rho to omega (100-800); a small mark after the letter marks it as a numeral, so alpha-mark is 1 and omega-mark is 800.
- Pick the sound column that matches your task: classicists and choir singers use the ancient column, travelers and modern-Greek readers use the modern one - same spelling, different music, and the table keeps both honest side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the Greek numeral column skip 6 and 90?
Because those numbers belonged to letters that fell out of the living alphabet. Six was written with digamma (later crossed into the stigma form), ninety with koppa - both were retired from everyday writing as the alphabet slimmed down to 24 letters, but numerals are conservative, so the number line kept them. That is why the table jumps from epsilon (5) to zeta (7) and from pi (80) to rho (100): the gaps are fossil letters that still do one job. Modern Greek prints 6 as the stigma-like symbol and 90 as a koppa variant, and both look alien precisely because they are older than the rest of the alphabet on the page.
Why does sigma have two lowercase forms?
Greek writes sigma as the round sigma inside a word and as the final sigma at the end of it - one letter, two shapes, chosen purely by position. The table row shows the pair together (sigma sigma-forms) because a learner meeting both needs to know they are the same letter: read a word like apostolos and it opens with the round form and closes with the final one. No other Greek letter does this, which is why the final sigma is the classic trap for beginners transcribing capitals to lowercase - a capital sigma lowercases to round or final depending on where it lands in the word.
Did the Latin alphabet really come from Greek?
Yes, by a two-step relay. Western Greek varieties traveled to Italy (Cumae, then the Etruscans), and the Romans borrowed and polished the Etruscan version - which is why the Latin column of the table shows direct descendants like A a, B b, M m, but also oddities: Greek gamma became Latin C (the G was a Roman invention with an added bar), and there was no Latin letter for the Greek W-sound, which drifted into F. Cyrillic took the other exit a millennium later: the 9th-century missionaries from Thessaloniki built it on Greek capitals, which is why Russian flyers today wear shapes a Greek speaker can mostly sound out.
Which Greek letters trap you in math class?
Three classics. Pi looks like a table but is just p - Greeks pronounce it pee, and it is the ordinary letter p, not a sacred constant, in every Greek word like principal. Rho looks exactly like Latin P but is an r (trilled as in Spanish perro), so a Greek word spelled with rho-start has no relationship to pea. And chi looks like an x but is a throaty ch as in Scottish loch - Latin x actually descends from a different letter, xi. The reverse trap is real too: once you can read Greek letters, formulas stop being decoration - the theta of angles and lambda of wavelengths are literally the letters in the table saying their names.