THE BEAUTY OF GREEK LANGUAGE

The Greek language seems to be hard at first. It sounds very melodic, so phonetically it may be easy to learn, but the alphabet… it doesn’t resemble the Latin alphabet at all. 

The first step in Greek language acquisition is to learn all the letters and their pronunciation. Then, you can start building first words and phrases. 

This article serves as a little sneak peak on the Greek language: we show you the alphabet and the most simple phrases you should learn at the beginning, especially before your journey to Greece. 

GREEK ALPHABET 

The ancient Greeks didn’t invent the alphabet. However, they may be credited with inventing an alphabet – a new form of alphabetic writing, one that added signs for vowels to signs for consonants. Their alphabet is the world’s first fully phonetic alphabetic script, which emerged sometime around 800 BC.

The uppercase and lowercase forms of the twenty-four letters are:

Letter	Greek	Phoenician original	English	Greek (Modern)
Α	ἄλφα	aleph	alpha	[ˈalfa]
Β	βῆτα	beth	beta	[ˈvita]
Γ	γάμμα	gimel	gamma	[ˈɣama]
Δ	δέλτα	daleth	delta	[ˈðelta]
Η	ἦτα	heth	eta	[ˈita]
Θ	θῆτα	teth	theta	[ˈθita]
Ι	ἰῶτα	yodh	iota	[ˈʝota]
Κ	κάππα	kaph	kappa	[ˈkapa]
Λ	λάμβδα	lamedh	lambda	[ˈlamða]
Μ	μῦ	mem	mu	[mi]
Ν	νῦ	nun	nu	[ni]
Ρ	ῥῶ	reš	rho	[ro]
Τ	ταῦ	taw	tau	[taf]

GREEK PHRASES

Below you will find the most basic phrases! They may be especially helpful at the very beginning. 

English	Greek	Sounds like
Hello/Goodbye	Γεια σου	Yassu
How are you?	Τι κάνεις;	Tee kanis?
I’m fine, thank you	Καλά, ευχαριστώ	Kala, efharisto
Nice to meet you	Χάρηκα	Harika
Good morning	Καλημέρα	Kalimera
Good evening/night	Καληνύχτα	Kalinichta
Please	Παρακαλώ	Parakalo
Thank you	Ευχαριστώ	Efharisto
Yes	Ναι	Neh
No	Όχι	O’hee
Excuse me	Συγγνώμη	Signomi
What is your name?	Πώς σε λένε;	Pos se leneh?
My name is…	Με λένε…	Me leneh…
Do you speak English?	Μιλάτε Αγγλικά;	Milate Agglika?
What time is it?	Τι ώρα είναι;	Ti hora ineh?
How much is this?	Πόσο κάνει;	Poso kani?
Cheers! (when drinking)	Γεια μας!	Yamas!
A beer/coffee/tea/shot, please	Μια μπύρα/έναν καφέ/ένα τσάι/ ένα σφηνάκι, παρακαλώ	Miah mpira/enan kafe/ena chai/ena sfinaki, parakalo
Όpa! (when dancing)	Ώπα!	Opahh!

Source:

https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/ancient-greek-alphabet-letters-symbols-how-pronounce-origin/

https://medexperience.com/blog/basic-greek-phrases