Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the alphabet used to write the ancient and modern Greek languages. It was adapted from the Phoenician alphabet in about the 9th century BC. The Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are descended from the Greek alphabet.

The very early Greek alphabet included a few letters not shown in the table below. Also, early Greek could be written left to right or right to left, in which case the letters would face the other direction.

LetterNameApproximate
Sound in
Ancient Greek
Approximate
Sound in
Modern Greek
Notes
Α, αAlphaaa 
Β, βBetabv 
Γ, γGammaggh, yγγ pronounced ng as in the word finger
Δ, δDeltadth (voiced) 
Ε, εEpsilonee 
Ζ, ζZetazdz 
Η, ηEtaeee 
Θ, θThetat (aspirated)th (voiceless) 
Ι, ιIotaeeee, y 
Κ, κKappakk 
Λ, λLambdall 
Μ, μMumm 
Ν, νNunn 
Ξ, ξXiksks 
Ο, οOmicronoo 
Π, πPipp 
Ρ, ρRhorr 
Σ, σSigmasswritten ς at the end of a word
Τ, τTautt 
Υ, υUpsilonooee 
Φ, φPhip (aspirated)f 
Χ, χChik (aspirated)kh 
Ψ, ψPsipsps 
Ω, ωOmegaoo