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.

Letter	Name	Approximate Sound in Ancient Greek	Approximate Sound in Modern Greek	Notes
Α, α	Alpha	a	a
Β, β	Beta	b	v
Γ, γ	Gamma	g	gh, y	γγ pronounced ng as in the word finger
Δ, δ	Delta	d	th (voiced)
Ε, ε	Epsilon	e	e
Ζ, ζ	Zeta	zd	z
Η, η	Eta	e	ee
Θ, θ	Theta	t (aspirated)	th (voiceless)
Ι, ι	Iota	ee	ee, y
Κ, κ	Kappa	k	k
Λ, λ	Lambda	l	l
Μ, μ	Mu	m	m
Ν, ν	Nu	n	n
Ξ, ξ	Xi	ks	ks
Ο, ο	Omicron	o	o
Π, π	Pi	p	p
Ρ, ρ	Rho	r	r
Σ, σ	Sigma	s	s	written ς at the end of a word
Τ, τ	Tau	t	t
Υ, υ	Upsilon	oo	ee
Φ, φ	Phi	p (aspirated)	f
Χ, χ	Chi	k (aspirated)	kh
Ψ, ψ	Psi	ps	ps
Ω, ω	Omega	o	o