How to Pronounce the Greek Letters Like a Greek (Ββ, Γγ, Δδ, Θθ, Ρρ, Υυ..) | Greek Alphabet

Today I will help you pronounce the Greek letters the letters of the Greek alphabet like a Greek. Although Alpha (Αα), Epsilon (Εε), and most Greek letters are easy to pronounce, there are a few that absolutely confuse most Greek language students. These Greek letters are Ββ, Γγ, Δδ, Θθ, Ρρ, Υυ. Students who learn Greek outside of Greece often pronounce these letters as if they read Latin scriptures. But why is that and how can someone overcome their pronunciation difficulties?
You can also find the video at helinika.com: helinika.com/2021/06/08/diffi...
🌞Subscribe: / @helinika
OFFERS
👉Claim your Udemy discount for learning Greek: www.udemy.com/course/helinika...
The course includes:
-11 downloadable pdfs and resources
-Certificate of completion
Intermediate course: www.udemy.com/course/intermed...
🧿Greek souvenirs: helinika.com/shop-greek-souve...
Music by Mr. Jello - No Going Back - thmatc.co/?l=32E14D0A
RECOMMENDATIONS
Greek books (contemporary): • Greek Books to Learn G...
Greek movies and tv-series: • Best Greek Movies and ...
Old Greek movies (black&white cinema): • Greek Golden Age Cinem...
Greek KZbin channels: • Greek KZbin Channels...
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fb: helinikacom
Twitter: @Helinika_
LinkedIn: / helinika
Instagram: @marialena_perpiraki
Visit helinika.com for more!
#helinika #learngreek #greekalphabet

[@helinika]

(NEW) Find my book "Stories to Learn Greek": helinika.com/shop-4/

[@lightwarriorawakened]

How would one pronounce ΧΞϚ´ ?

[@Seven71987]

I think X in Greek is a voiceless gamma. I think that's a acronym not a actual word.

[@Seven71987]

Beta must be V Gamma must be the voiced version of the CH sound on Loch and Bach Delta must be a voiced TH Theta must be a voiceless TH Rho despite looking like a P is a R And Upsilon must be I and so does H in Greek.

[@stephenscribbles]

Part of my girlfriend's family is Greek and I really want to learn at least a bit to impress them. This is going to be harder than I thought, but I want to keep learning. Thank you for helping us beginners!

[@spikefivefivefive]

If English speakers are confused about the differences in the pronunciation between Delta and Theta, consider the difference between the English pronunciations at the beginning of the words "think" and "this". They are totally not interchangeable. However I had always thought Delta in Greek is more like the fricative D in Spanish as in the "nada".

[@AndrewAliferis]

Excellent! I’m Greek-American and have so many pronunciation issues with modern Greek. You do a great job of explaining. If I have just one suggestion, please provide the translation for the examples so that we can learn the vocabulary as well.

[@helinika]

Thanks for the feedback Andrew!

[@dominator8245]

Actually only Germans in the middle and south of Germany have difficulties pronouncing r, in Bavaria we actually also roll the r :)

[@masse7704]

Swedes too

[@maankawas5957]

Very helpful!

[@2002erli]

Good Explanation

[@josephwaters2792]

Looks like Γγ was actually pronounced 4 different ways in the 3 different sample words depending on the next letter or letter combination.

[@CoyotePlayzGamez]

Είμαι Αμερικανίδα 13 χρονών που μιλάει άπταιστα ελληνικά.. Φοβερή δουλειά!

[@paulorenatodemaria6106]

Thank you, very kind of you.

[@zapatrzenieuwu5171]

Yeah that was confusing for me, thank u for make it clear ☺️

[@hermonymusofsparta]

Keep up the good work!

[@mulan10003]

Very helpful lesson!

[@helinika]

😊

[@Kovachhh]

Σ’ ευχαριστώ!

[@QuantumLeapAGI]

excellent video. thank you very much.

[@hellophoenix]

A great lesson and it helped me a lot

[@helinika]

Χαίρομαι! Glad to hear that ^^

[@MAwaisKhan5060]

Thanks your words very helpful and your teaching skills are very nice. love From Pakistan

[@snailmix]

Gamma has definitely been the hardest for me to get the hang of the pronunciation. It’s also hard to tell when it’s a soft g, when it’s pronounced like a y, and when it’s a hard g or even an n or ng sometimes. So many different sounds for one letter. Η/η also gets me because I always want to pronounce it like an H or an n

[@joshuabornowski761]

I'm still not understanding why they say gamma is sometimes pronounced as a 'wh'. I don't hear that at all

[@ada7180]

I suspect it's pronounced as y when it's the first letter and is followed by i or e, e.g. the names Γιάννης and Γεώργιος, pronounced Yannis and Yeor(g)ios. In other cases gamma is pronounced like a voiced H, or something between h and g. This can be heard clearly in the video. And to get the proper g sound, they use double gamma (yy) or gamma-kappa (yk).

[@PatrickSmits]

Hi, the difference between δ and theta is still not clear for me Can you help?

[@ada7180]

@@PatrickSmits delta sounds like th in this, and theta - like th in path

[@PatrickSmits]

I I think Delta is pronounced with Vocal chord and theta without Vocal chord( just tongue against upper teeth .) Is that wright?🤔😊

[@littlebrookreader949]

Blessings to you! 😊😊😊

[@suprecam9880]

A lot of fun to watch and learn with your videos. You convinced me to start learning Greek. Thank you!~ Subscribed.

[@helinika]

Thank you so much ^^

[@abdou36965]

Merci beaucoup pour cette intéressante leçon sur la prononciation des lettres grec.vous êtes formidable.

[@patriciamillin1977]

Thank you. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I have family living in Cyprus and have noticed similarities between Greek and Spanish pronunciation, for example beta (v) and delta (soft th). I was just never sure how much is Cypriot dialect and if it’s the same as in Greece. I lived in Cyprus myself during the 60s and have noticed that some pronunciations have changed over the years, for example kai, which I always learned was ke, but have often heard my nieces and nephews pronounce it like dshe or je.

[@helinika]

Happy to hear that! The dje/tse pronunciation for "και" is indeed a dialect (you hear it mostly in Creta and Cyprus)

[@patriciamillin1977]

@@helinika I thought as much. Thank you for verifying 🤔😊

[@crbgo9854]

I have never heard of a distinction between the "ee" sounds how to recognize there place in spelling that is awesome

[@ParlaAmericanoWithBob]

Thank you

[@stadiagamer9689]

preparing for my first greek lesson with you right now. thank you

[@helinika]

Καλή αρχή! :)

[@TsomeoneT]

Fun fact: the letter Y comes from the greek letter ypsilon that is why in romanian, french and i think other romanic languages it is called "igrec" which means greek I

[@sabtuchannel9590]

Thanks

[@rocklob069]

As I've been learning russian, the hard parts for me are the ones that look like cyrillic like epsilon which sounds like "oo" as in moon

[@jadezwamibardzo493]

Σας ευχαριστώ! Είσαι όμορφος ~ ☺️

[@zapatrzenieuwu5171]

Ooo polska widzę 🥴

[@jadezwamibardzo493]

@@zapatrzenieuwu5171 owszem xd

[@the_bathroom]

*όμορφη

[@plantemor]

thank you for this lovely little video :D I'm Danish, but have taken an interest in understanding the sounds of the greek alphabet as part of a little project I'm working on. Your video was very helpful. It is exciting to learn something new and have a door cracked open to an alphabet that used to be, well, total Greek to me, huehueh.

[@helinika]

Great to hear that! :)

[@cosmiceggs2385]

So δ is the long "th" sound and θ is the shorter one? For the English word comparison, it does sound shorter.

[@Arthur-so2cd]

you are an amazing teacher : )

[@PauloRLustosa]

Please, do you have a video pronouncing the anciant greek alphabet? Best regards.

[@helinika]

Hi Paulo! I don't have a video on the ancient Greek alphabet. However, in Greece, we pronounce ancient Greek the same way we pronounce modern Greek :)

[@PatrickSmits]

I think I've got it now: δ you use vocal chord (φωνητική χορδή te and θ with tongue and teeth.

[@StevDoesBigJumps]

It's nice to see a distinction between delta and theta, like eth and thorn (ð, đ) in old english. Also it's kind of fascinating that y becomes i in practically every country south of germany. instead of ü.

[@sentient1640]

I need it for the math.

[@Richard-qs8dn]

👌

[@kenzeier2943]

I am studying koine (New Testament) Greek. I have been taught other sounds.

[@scarletb79]

Is Molon Labe pronounced labe in ancient Greek?

[@the_bathroom]

Idk but in modern greek its lave

[@YelpBullhorn]

I’m English and I’m trying to learn some Greek, but I really struggle with gamma and rho. I hear the W, R, G and Y sound, depending on who is saying it, and what word they are saying! And as for rolling my Rs..... well where do I start? It’s just impossible.

[@helinika]

It's not impossible! My English pronunciation is also not like the one of a native speaker. Don't give up :)

[@beakfordclakington1337]

okay; that cleared that up. like socrates once said, 'im back to square -5'. not really i blame those uncontientious romans for interpreting greek letters and ideas superficially

[@helinika]

Don't worry, it's just the oronunciation that needs to be readjusted

[@helinika]

Claim your Udemy discount for learning Greek: www.udemy.com/course/helinika-basic-greek-language-course/?referralCode=8E7C16674FDA34F71834

[@helinika]

And here is your discount for Helinika's intermediate course: www.udemy.com/course/intermediate-greek-language-course-b1b2-with-helinika/learn/lecture/28379522?referralCode=2C15574AD126B18E2FBC#overview

[@peeps169]

​@@helinika hi

[@dranilganvir6133]

❤

[@sapphoenixthefirebird5063]

Castilian Spanish has many of the same sounds! Alpha = A Beta = non-word-initial B or V Gamma = non-word-initial G, consonant Y, LL (yeismo only), N Delta = non-word-initial D Epsilon = E Zeta = (no equivalent, Spanish has no /z/ sound) Eta = I, vowel Y Theta = soft C, Z (distincion and ceceo only) Iota = I, vowel Y Kappa = C, K, QU, word-initial G Lambda = L, LL (lleismo only) Mu = M Nu = N, Ñ Xi = X Omicron = O Pi = P, word-initial B or V Rho = non-word-initial single R (tapped R) Sigma = S, soft C, Z (seseo only) Tau = T, word-initial D Upsilon = I, vowel Y Phi = F Chi = soft G, J Psi = PS Omega = O

[@arthurjohnson9982]

A more phonetic transcription: Α /a/ Β /v/ Γ [ɣ] / [ʝ] Δ /ð/ Ε /e/ Ζ /z/ Η /i/ Θ /θ/ Ι /i/ Κ /k/ Λ /l/ Μ /m/ Ν /n/ Ξ /ks/ Ο /o/ Π /p/ Ρ /ɾ/ Σ /s/ Τ /t/ Υ /i/ Φ /f/ Χ [x] / [ç] Ψ /ps/ Ω /o/

[@mustafacavlak]

I'm really confused with the letter Δ,δ. Many people say it's the same with letter D in Latin, you pronounce it like "th" in the word there and when I try text to speech in translate, the female voice pronounce it like "v" like the v in the word venomous.

[@helinika]

I can assure you it is pronounced as "th".

[@baze3SC]

Interestingly, the "confusion" between B and V appears also in other languages like Hebrew. I think it's called betacism.

[@spikefivefivefive]

Spanish too

[@Sam_Green____4114]

The most letter l have a problem with is Psi Ψ ! l find it very difficult !

[@Deivid_C]

P definitely confuses me with the p sound. I see the P and immediately think it is 'pa'.

[@theproofessayist8441]

As someone invested in mathematics - I now sometimes take a light joke out of how bad the American English pronunciation of variable symbols can be.

[@vedangpathak]

Memorising Schrodinger's equation is just a piece of cake for greeks. 🐈

[@Der.Kleine.General]

Schrööööööödinger 😑

[@vedangpathak]

@@Der.Kleine.General 🤣🤣 sorry, Schrödinger

[@conde_concini]

I'm Brazilian, but I can't correctly pronounce the letter gamma

[@helinika]

Γαία (earth) is pronounced like "yeah" Γυναίκα - γυν -》 pronounced just like yin from yin and yang Hope this helps :)

[@conde_concini]

@@helinika thanks a lot!

[@psoonipad6generation118]

This Greek letter η is pronounced like a i

[@nikolaosbouboulis7883]

Sei Efharisto polli

[@axiomist4488]

So Pythagoras is Peetagoras, not Paytagoras. Thats what I thought.

[@samsadax230]

It is Peethaghoras, "th" like in "think" and "gh" is the gamma explained in the video.

[@patrickmcguire2434]

Are you sure you don't have 7 Dwarfs?😀

[@GrannyIsWatchingYou]

Ατμοσφαιρα λικε δε ουορλδ καλλεδ ατμοσφερ κομε φρομ δε γρηέικ ουορλδ καλλεδ ατμόσφαιρα

[@panda5996]

All I know about Greek was the line “This is Sparta!!!” Yelled by a Scottish actor before kicking a black guy into a pit.