How to remember the Greek Alphabet - Alpha, beta, Gamma, delta - and Epsilon, zeta

Greek alphabet
Αα	Alpha	Νν	Nu
Ββ	Beta	Ξξ	Xi
Γγ	Gamma	Οο	Omicron
Δδ	Delta	Ππ	Pi
Εε	Epsilon	Ρρ	Rho
Ζζ	Zeta	Σσς	Sigma
Ηη	Eta	Ττ	Tau
Θθ	Theta	Υυ	Upsilon
Ιι	Iota	Φφ	Phi
Κκ	Kappa	Χχ	Chi
Λλ	Lambda	Ψψ	Psi
Μμ	Mu	Ωω	Omega

Problem
How do you learn the Greek alphabet? Use Tiny Cards from Duolingo. Once you've grasped the letters you can start their learning Greek course, for free.

They start by asking you to identify the letters on their reversing cards. You learn about four to six letters at a time.  You could do just one card a day. One every hour. Or the whole lot in one go first thing every morning. (Or when you wake at night and want to do something useful.)

You have five lots of four letters, then three. Let's start with six.

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta
Γγ	Gamma
Δδ	Delta
Εε	Epsilon
Ζζ	Zeta

You have four ways to learn.
1 REPETITION - ALPHA BETA GAMMA DELTA

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta
Γγ	Gamma
Δδ	Delta

Rote learning. Just keep going through and reading what the cards say. The first two letters are easy, similar to alphabet, alpha beta.

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta

After that, alpha beta, gamma, delta. Say it aloud.

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta
Γγ	Gamma
Δδ	Delta

All four letters end in an 'a' sound, two syllables. Not B but Beta. Like the girl's name, Elizabeth. The draft or try-out of a system is the Beta version, like a B road before you build the motorway or A road.

Now let's look at the letters while we say them. Gamma rays on the Delta. You can just say it.

Alternatively, visualize the letters A B shot like gamma rays across the delta or flat land. Alpha beta gamma delta. Emphasis on the first syllable for all four.
AL-pha
BE-ta
GA-ma
DEL-ta.

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta
Γγ	Gamma
Δδ	Delta

But what does the letter gamma look like? Rather like a squared off C. (ABC).

Γγ

Gamma

The top points forwards.  The writer is lazy or in a hurry and doesn't finish it. Once you have seen the top half  pointing horizontally to the right, and the left pole, you know which letter it is, C or G. How do you remember it is G n Greek and not C? Cagoule? The letter C is in a cage? Maybe think of it like a signpost, saying Go! Alpha beta gamma delta. I remember, Alpha Beta Greek (alphabet).

You keep getting it wrong. It's rather disheartening. Eventually you get there. It's time consuming. A lesson in persistence. Greek and other children are drilled every day until they get it right.

Δδ

Delta

The D is a squashed D, not a neatly rounded D, a triangle. That is easier for a kid to write in a hurry on a hard slate. Like the doorway of a tent, back when writing was invented. A triangular Doorway to a tent on the Delta.

2 Learn the letters in sets of three or four with a sentence or vision of an action or object, or remember the sounds.
I'm going to tell you how to remember individual letters.

I'd been doing the cards for several days before I realised that the little card on the left before you start has all the letters.It is a bit blurred and looks like a symbol just to tell you want you are learning. But consider it part of the course.

Before you start each card, in Tinycards, look back at the symbol card of the Greek Alphabet on the left.

3 The next two letters are easy. E Z. (The Brits or British speakers say Zed but the Americans call the letter Z Zee, which makes it even easier for them to remember this rhyme.)
 Epsilon Zeta.

Εε	Epsilon
Ζζ	Zeta

How do you remember the letter E is called epsilon? Why do I need it? You won't need it later, unless you are spelling your name for somebody.

Okay. I might need it. I need it for the Tinycards exercise. They ask you to type in the name of the letter.

Okay. Absolute silence whilst I think. (Ep - solute silence, ep - silon. I have learned the ep- sil. How about the last syllable? Absolute silence while we carry on learning. Epsilon.

Now let's look at all six letters.

Αα	Alpha
Ββ	Beta
Γγ	Gamma
Δδ	Delta

Εε	Epsilon
Ζζ	Zeta

Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta.

Zeta rhymes with beta.
Alpha beta
Gamma delta
Epsilon Zeta.

That's enough for a coffee break session.  Read it again.
Alpha beta
Gamma delta
Epsilon Zeta.

I went into Wiki looking for Greek letters to copy. But the Greek letters are all in complicated tables, for example, comparing Greek with Phoenician - which is very similar to Hebrew. However, Wiki added one handy thought. For the benefit of mathematicians:
(PS - Greek symbols are used as symbols in mathematics, physics and other sciences. Many symbols have traditional uses, such as lower case epsilon (ε) for an arbitrarily small positive number.)

So, I went into Simple Wiki and found a simple table. Here it is:

Greek alphabet
Αα	Alpha	Νν	Nu
Ββ	Beta	Ξξ	Xi
Γγ	Gamma	Οο	Omicron
Δδ	Delta	Ππ	Pi
Εε	Epsilon	Ρρ	Rho
Ζζ	Zeta	Σσς	Sigma
Ηη	Eta	Ττ	Tau
Θθ	Theta	Υυ	Upsilon
Ιι	Iota	Φφ	Phi
Κκ	Kappa	Χχ	Chi
Λλ	Lambda	Ψψ	Psi
Μμ	Mu	Ωω	Omega

How To Remember Lower Case Letters
Now we can recognize the capital letters, we need to know the little letters.

A alpha is easy, the same as the English.

Beta, looks like a letter b carried around like a flag on a pole so everybody can see it.

Gamma is harder because the lower case reminds me of a y. Think of it as like the lower part of the right side of the letter G. It has a hanging tail like a lower case g (which I write facing the other way to the printed g you see here). We'll just have to go back to the idea that early writers simplified the letters. 

Just keep looking at the first three letters, the pairs of upper and lower case, then the first four, then the first five, then the first six.

The lower case d and e are easy. But the person who write the lower case z must have been an art student, adding a fancy squiggle on the end. Or maybe he or she fell asleep while writing. ZZZZ zzz
Ζζ.
 When you are ready, go on to the next letters in my next post.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and teacher of languages.