Introduction to the Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters and shares many common elements with the English alphabet. Several letters look and sound the same, although some look less familiar in the lower case, for example Ν ν.

A few others are false friends, which look familiar but sound quite different, for example Ρ ρ, which is the equivalent of R r. There are a few remaining letters which look completely different, like Λ λ and Σ σ.

Certain words are easily recognizable when written in Greek letters, for example some names of people, places or brands and foreign words which have been taken into Greek from English and other languages.

You could spend the day sightseeing with your two friends ΚΟΛΕΤ Κολέτ (Colette) and ΡΙΚ Ρικ (Rick).

After a late breakfast of ομελέτα (omelette) and τοστ (toasted sandwich) you spend a few hours admiring the Acropolis. Feeling thirsty, you then drop into a bar called ΡΟΜΑ (Roma) for a refreshing κόκα-κόλα. Later you decide to go to the ΣΙΝΕΜΆ (see-neh-mah) to see the film Τιτανικός (tee-ta-nee-koss) – with Greek subtitles!