How to Memorize the Greek Alphabet

Memorizing the Greek alphabet will help you learn to read and write in Greek.

Greek is an Indo-European language spoken throughout Greece and many other countries, including Turkey and Cyprus. According to the Ethnologue language report, there are 13 million speakers of Greek worldwide. Greek uses a unique alphabet that first was developed around 750 B.C. and was the first alphabet in the world to include vowels. There are differences between the ancient Greek alphabet, used to write classical Greek texts, and the modern Greek alphabet that Greek people use to express their language today. If you are learning to speak Greek and intend to travel to Greece, it is this second alphabet that you should focus on memorizing to enable you to communicate in the modern language.

Instructions

1. Download a copy of the Greek alphabet chart, such as that available on the Omniglot language website. Print the chart and stick in on the wall in a prominent place in your home, where you will see it on a regular basis. Focus on the chart for a few seconds each time you pass it, to familiarize yourself with the shape and order of the characters. You will find it easier to memorize individual letters if you already have some familiarity with them.

2. Copy out the letters of the alphabet onto a blank piece of paper, one letter at a time. Note that there are several Greek letters, such as "A," "B" and "M," where the capital letter is exactly the same in Greek and in English, but the lower-case letter is different. Copy out the upper- and lower-case letters together so that you learn to associate the two forms of the letter with one another. Write the characters out repeatedly until you are confident that you can reproduce them from memory.

3. Learn the names of the Greek letters. You already may be familiar with some of these names; for example, the Greek letter "A" is called "alpha" and the Greek letter "B" is called "beta." Focus on learning the less-obvious names, such as the Greek letter "E," which is called "epsilon," and the Greek letter "T," known as "tau." Make flashcards for yourself that show the name of the letter on one side and the Greek characters in upper and lower cases on the other side, and practice trying to predict one from the other.

4. Practice using the alphabet. Use online games such as that on the In Rebus website to test your ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet and place them in the correct order. Identify letters that you are having difficulty with and focus on practicing these in particular.

Tips & Warnings

• Dedicate a certain amount of time each day to studying the Greek alphabet. Half an hour in the early morning is ideal, as your brain will be at its most active and able to absorb new information effectively. Reviewing the Greek alphabet for short regular intervals will help reinforce it in your mind.

• Be careful of letters that look similar in Greek and in English but have different sounds. The Greek letter "P," for example, corresponds to the English letter "R."

References

• Ethnologue: Greek
• Omniglot: Greek
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: The Greek Alphabet

Resources

• Omniglot: Greek Alphabet Chart
• In Rebus: Learn the Greek Alphabet