Modern Greek/Lesson 3x

This is the third lesson teaching you how to read, write and pronounce Greek. Already you know 10 of the 24 Greek letters. By the end of this lesson, you will know more than half of the alphabet.

The next letter you should learn is Pi:

Π π

Both the capital and the small letter look different from the Latin alphabet, but they should be familiar to anybody with a high school education in maths. Pi is pronounced as a regular P (IPA [p]). Here are some sample words that you should be able to read now:

Πεκίνο (old European name for Beijing) Πιέρ (French name) ρεπόρτερ πακέτο Πάολο Νεπάλ

Now you're probably wondering how to write B. The answer is not Beta, because Beta is pronounced in Modern Greek as an English V. In order to represent the sound of a regular B, Greeks need two letters: Mu and Pi (μπ). Sometimes at the middle of a word μπ may sound like [mb], but this detail is not very strict for the pronunciation. Here are some examples:

μπαρ μπικίνι μπετόν μπανάνα Καμπέρα Μπενίν

Now you're going to learn an extremely important letter, which is very common in Greek: Sigma.

Σ σ ς

Sigma has three forms, rather than just two like the other letters. There's one capital sigma (Σ), which is also used in science, e.g. as the mathematical symbol for sums, and there are two versions of small sigma. The first one (σ), which looks like a circle with an added line is used at the start or the middle of a word. The second small sigma (ς), looking similar to an ill-proportioned small S is only used at the end of a word. Sigma is pronounced as an English S (IPA [s]). Knowing this letter (and the ones taught before), you can read lots of new words:

παπάς (not "dad" but the Greek word for "priest") μπαμπάς (this is the correct word for "dad") Πέτρος (common Greek name) Ισπανία (important country in Europe) Κόστα Ρίκα Πακιστάν Σρι Λάνκα Λάος Παρίσι (capital of France) Όσλο Σαν ... (common start for city names) Μπρισμπέιν (city in Australia) Καράκας Σάο Πάολο Ελσίνκι ιστορία

Now it's time for another letter combination, similar to μπ. When they mean the sound of D, Greeks don't write Delta but Nu and Tau combined: ντ. Sometimes at the middle of a word ντ may sound like [nd], but this is not very strict for right pronunciation. Generally, it's used to mean [d] especially in foreign words. Example words:

Σαντάμ Μόντρεαλ Τορόντο Ντολόρες Αντόνιο Μαντόννα ντισκοτέκ

Delta, the letter you might expect to sound like D, actually sounds like th in "this" (IPA: [ð]). The capital form closely resembles the Cyrillic letter Д. Here's the letter, the last one for this lesson:

Δ δ

Delta appears in lots of words, so take this opportunity for a major revision:

Ιρλανδία Καναδάς Ολλανδία Ανδόρρα Δανία (country north of Germany) Ινδία Ιορδανία Ισλανδία διαμάντι διάλεκτος Ανδρέας δισκέτα Λονδίνο (capital of the UK) Τολέδο Ρόδος

That's it for this lesson! If you didn't have trouble reading the example words, you're ready to continue with lesson 4!

Solutions