Getting started with Greek means learning its alphabet first. It might look different, but it's the foundation for everything else. Many Greek letters are phonetic, which makes pronunciation more straightforward than you might think.

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters. You'll probably recognize some from math and science. Here they are, along with their names and how they generally sound.

You might have noticed that the letter Sigma has two lowercase forms. The 'σ' is used at the beginning or in the middle of a word, while 'ς' is only used at the very end.

Greek has seven vowels: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω. Notice how many of them make the 'ee' sound (η, ι, υ). Also, 'ο' and 'ω' both make an 'o' sound. This simplifies things quite a bit.

While most consonants are straightforward, a few can be tricky for English speakers.

Delta (δ) is not a hard 'd' sound. It's a soft 'th' sound, like in the word 'the' or 'this'.

In Greek, some pairs of letters consistently combine to make a single sound. These are called digraphs. Learning to spot them is key to pronouncing words correctly. Think of them as a 'two for one' deal on sounds.

Let's see one in a word you might find in a bakery.

Here, the 'ου' combination makes the 'oo' sound. Once you start recognizing these pairs, reading Greek becomes much easier.

Time to check your understanding of these new letters and sounds.