Pronunciation of the Greek alphabet in English

Greek letters are widely used in mathematics and other fields of science. There are a couple of differences in pronunciation of the names of the letters between English and most other European languages, which is a common source of mistakes. That's why in the following, I used a notation for pronunciation that should be easy to understand for non-native speakers, but native speakers should do just fine too.

Especially common mistakes are the names of ι, μ, ν (which are not pronounced as yoh-tə, mee, and nee, respectively). Also, notice that ξ, π, φ, χ, and ψ are pronounced with “eye” at the end, not “ee”:

α – alpha – æl-fə

β – beta – bee-tə (UK), bei-tə (US)

γ – gamma – gæ-mə

δ – delta – del-tə

ε – epsilon – eps-ill-ən or ep-sigh-lonn (UK), eps-ill-aan (US)

ζ – zeta – zee-tə (UK), in the US more commonly zei-tə

η – eta – ee-tə (UK), in the US more commonly ei-tə

θ – theta – thee-tə or thei-tə (in the US; both with 'th' as in think)

ι – iota – eye-oh-tə

κ – kappa – kæ-pə

λ – lambda – læm-də

μ – mu – myoo

ν – nu – nyoo

ξ – xi – ksaai (as in “sick sigh”) or zaai

ο – omicron – oh-my-kronn (UK), aa-mə-kraan or oh-mə-kraan (US)

π – pi – paai (the same as pie)

ρ – rho – roh (rhymes with go)

σ – sigma – sig-mə

τ – tau – taa'u (rhyming with cow) or taw (rhyming with saw)

υ – upsilon – “ups” as oops, ʌps or yoops, “ilon” as ill-on or I'll-ən

φ – phi – faai (as in “identify”)

χ – chi – kaai (as in “kite”)

ψ – psi – psaai (as in top side) or saai (as in “side”)

ω – omega – oh-meg-ə or oh-mɪ-gə

(UK), oh-mey-gə or oh-meg-ə (US)

Comments

Jakub 21d

Did you know that you can click on the letters to see more information about them?

Pavla 21d

Jakub, great article, I would like to save it so I can return to it. Will it be possible to save favorite articles? Thank you for the inspiring work.

Jakub 21d

Yes, this will be possible. It's one of the functionalities I am working on.

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