Stuff About Greek
—Including the alphabet
Simplybible.com occasionally refers to Greek words because the New Testament was written in Greek —not classical Greek, nor modern Greek, but the Greek commonly spoken around the world in the time of Christ and the early church.
The following table gives you the names, approximate sounds, and shapes of the letters of the Greek alphabet.
| SMALL LETTERS | CAPITALS | |||
| alpha | a | α | Alpha | Α |
| beta | b | β | Beta | Β |
| gamma | g | γ | Gamma | Γ |
| delta | d | δ | Delta | Δ |
| epsilon | e | ε | Epsilon | Ε |
| zeta | z | ζ | Zeta | Ζ |
| eta | ee | η | Eta | Η |
| theta | th | θ | Theta | Θ |
| iota | i | ι | Iota | Ι |
| kappa | k | κ | Kappa | Κ |
| lambda | l | λ | Lambda | Λ |
| mu | m | μ | Mu | Μ |
| nu | n | ν | Nu | Ν |
| xi | x | ξ | Xi | Ξ |
| omicron | o | ο | Omicron | Ο |
| pi | p | π | Pi | Π |
| rho | r | ρ | Rho | Ρ |
| sigma | s | σ ς | Sigma | Σ |
| tau | t | τ | Tau | Τ |
| upsilon | u | υ | Upsilon | Υ |
| phi | ph | φ | Phi | Φ |
| chi | ch | χ | Chi | Χ |
| psi | ps | ψ | Psi | Ψ |
| omega | oo | ω | Omega | Ω |
Translators provide the meaning of the Greek to us by way of our own language. And reference books by Greek experts help us research the Greek even though we ourselves may not be schooled in it. To use books such as Strong’s Concordance and Wigram’s Englishman’s Greek Concordance, one needs to know the Greek alphabet.
Simplified Greek
Simplybible.com presents Greek words in simplified form. Lots of important things that dangle around Greek words are missing —enclitics, breathings, accents, subscripts, and such. Don't worry if you don't know what these are. When we refer to a Greek word, we will spell it without any of those trappings, just to keep things simple. The only exception is that where there is an "h" sound we will put a marker `.
We'll treat a Greek word’s basic form, as a symbol of a cluster of related and derivative words. Greek changes the form of words a lot more than English. For example if the word suffer becomes suffering the basic word is still recognizable. However if πασχω (pascho) turns into παθειν (pathein) or παθηματων (patheematoon) the basic word is obscured. So we would cite the basic form pascho rather than one of the declensions or other forms of the word.
Some Greek Quirks
Vowell Sounds: Eta ( η ) is the long or double E, and has an "ee" or "eh" sound. Likewise omega ( ω ) is the long or double O, and has an "oo" or "oh" sound. There are also several dipthongs (two vowels combined) which sound pretty much as they look, and as you would assume they are pronounced.
Consonant Sounds: Chi ( χ ) is not pronounced as the ch in "chap" but as a Scot pronounces the ch in "loch". Gamma ( γ ) in front of other consonants has the "ng" sound as in the word "banging". Examples: Gamma doubled ( γγ ) is like the ng in "ring". Gamma with kappa ( γκ ) is like the nk in "plonk". Gamma with xi ( γξ ) is like the nks in "links".
Shapes: Sigma is an S shape ( ς ) at the end of a word but an O shape ( σ ) within a word.