Ancient Greek Alphabet: How to Pronounce All 24 Letters the Classical Way

Ancient Greek isn't read aloud with modern Greek sounds. In Plato's Athens, φ was a p followed by a puff of air, not an f, and β was a real b. The Flip It deck Ancient Greek Alphabet & Pronunciation (deck code DQ5110, 24 cards) gives you the reconstructed Classical Attic value of every letter, one card per letter, with IPA and the letter's Greek name. It's short, accurate on the big points, and has two cards you should fix.

Sample cards

What you'll learn

The 24 letters Alpha to Omega; short vs long vowels (ε/η, ο/ω, and α, ι, υ which can be either); the aspirated series θ φ χ = /tʰ pʰ kʰ/ vs the plain stops τ π κ; the double letters ζ, ξ, ψ; nasal gamma (ἄγγελος = angelos); final sigma ς; trilled rho; and the letter names ἄλφα, ἒ ψιλόν, ὂ μικρόν, ὦ μέγα.

Study tips

Learn the stops as a 3 × 3 grid, not as 9 separate cards. Greek organizes its consonants by place and manner. Put them in one table and the aspirates stop being "exceptions":

Hold a hand in front of your mouth: you should feel a puff on φ, θ and χ and nothing on π, τ and κ. English speakers aspirate "pot" and not "spot", and the deck uses exactly those two words as its models.

Fix the two cards that contradict each other.

• Kappa says "completely unaspirated", then writes the name κάππα as /káppʰa/. The name is /káppa/.
• Omicron uses British "call" as its model, but "call" has the long open vowel the deck gives for omega ("saw"). Omicron is short and close, closer to French eau said quickly. Change the example so the two cards don't point to the same sound.

What's missing

The deck teaches the letters but not what's written around them. Rho's name ῥῶ is transcribed /rʰɔ̂ː/, but the rough breathing ( ῾ ) that makes that h sound is never explained, and every word starting with a vowel carries one of the two breathings. There are no cards on the diphthongs αι, ει, οι, ου, αυ, or on the pitch accent marks ´ ` ˆ. The hint fields are empty on all 24 cards. Before moving on, write 7 cards: 2 breathings and 5 diphthongs. You'll need them in your first line of Homer.

Next steps

Once the sounds are automatic, move on to the 285 essential Ancient Greek words and then to Ancient Greek grammar in 75 flashcards, which covers the accents.

To review with spaced repetition, open Flip It and search for deck code DQ5110.