Idea Transcript
ENGLISH HELPSHEET PRONOUNCING THE GREEK ALPHABET Greek letters are widely used in mathematics and other fields of science. There are some differences in pronunciation of the names of the letters between English and most other European languages, which is a common source of mistakes. Especially common mistakes are the names of ι, µ, ν, which are not pronounced as yoh-tə, mee, and nee, respectively. Also, notice that ξ, π, φ, χ, and ψ are pronounced with ‘eye’ at the end, not ‘ee’. Note that there is often a difference between British and American pronunciation of the Greek alphabet. Also, in many American accents, the letter t is replaced by a softened sound similar to d, which typically occurs in beta, zeta, eta, theta, and iota.
α – alpha – æl-fə β – beta – bee-tə (UK), bei-tə (US) γ – gamma – gæ-mə δ – delta – del-tə ε – epsilon – eps-ill-ən or ep-sigh-lonn (UK), ep-sill-aan (US) ζ – zeta – zee-tə (UK), zei-tə (US) η – eta – ee-tə (UK), ei-tə (US) θ – theta – thee-tə (UK), thei-tə (US) (‘th’ as in think) ι – iota – ai-oh-tə (‘ai’ as in eye) κ – kappa – kæ-pə λ – lambda – læm-də µ – mu – myoo (as in music)(UK/US) or moo (as in MOOC) (US) ν – nu – nyoo (the same as new)(UK/US) or noo (as in noodle) (US) ξ – xi – ksaai (as in sick sigh) or zaai ο – omicron – oh-mai-kron (UK), oh-mi-kraan (US) π – pi – paai (the same as pie) ρ – rho – roh (rhymes with go) σ – sigma – sig-mə
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τ – tau – taw (rhyming with saw) (UK) or taau (rhyming with cow) (UK/US) υ – upsilon – ‘ups’ as oops, ʌps or yoops, ‘ilon’ as ill-on or I’ll-ən (UK) , upsill-aan (as in up) or oop-sill-aan (as in oops) (US) φ – phi – faai χ – chi – kaai ψ – psi – psaai (as in top side) or saai (as in side) ω – omega – oh-meg-ə or oh-mɪg-ə (UK), oh-mei-gə (US)
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