Modern Greek/Lesson 2x

This is the second lesson teaching you how to read, write and pronounce Greek. In the last lesson, you have already learned the letters alpha, iota, kappa, omicron, tau and rho. Now, we will slowly build on those, so that you can read more words. At the end of this lesson you will find the translations of the words. First try to find out the meanings on your own!

The next letter you should learn is Nu (this letter is pronounced ni in Greek):

Ν ν

Again the capital letter looks the same as in the Latin alphabet. The small letter looks similar to a lowercase V. It's still pronounced like a regular N (IPA [n]) though. It also appears in the following names that you should be able to read now:

ΝΑΤΟ (very difficult ;-) ) Άννα (a girl's name) Ιράν (a country in the Middle East) Κίνα (a country in the Far East) Τίρανα (capital city of Albania) Ανόι (capital city of Vietnam)

Next letter is Mu:

Μ μ

While the capital letter is identical again, the lower letter is decidedly different from the Latin one this time. It's very commonly used as a special symbol in various academic fields though. The pronunciation is just like a regular M (IPA [m]). Here are words with Mu:

μαμά (every child's call) Μαρόκο (African country south of Spain) Ομάν (Arabic country) Αμμάν (capital of Jordan) Μαρκ Μαρία Μόνικα αρμονία άτομο μονοτονία

I'd also like you to meet the letter Epsilon:

Ε ε

Capital letter as in the Latin alphabet, small letter a variation on the capital letter. You have probably seen it before. Epsilon is pronounced approximately as in bet (IPA [ε]). German "Bett" and French "mère" are exactly the same as this Greek sound. Practise reading some more words:

Αρμενία Κορέα Κάρμεν Κατερίνα κέικ κρέμα κάμερα

Finally, here's the letter Lambda:

Λ λ

This is the equivalent of the letter L. It looks quite different, but you will probably be able to memorise it quickly anyway (anyone familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet will immediately notice its similarity with the letter Л). Be careful not to confuse a capital alpha with a capital lambda! Here are a few more words to practise, and of course this letter and all the others will frequently appear in the following lessons, too.

αλκοόλ κιλό Ιταλία καραμέλα

That's it for this lesson! If you didn't have trouble reading the example words, you're ready to continue with lesson 3!

Solutions