Greek 101

Everyone knows the saying, "It's all Greek to me", but right now it's really all Greek to you. Today will be your first lesson in common Greek words and phrases. Let's get started!

The first thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with the Greek Alphabet. Although you can fins the translated text in many books, being able pronounce the letters will help you pronounce the words properly.

As you can see from the chart, the Greek alphabet is not entirely the same as the English alphabet. Some letters look easy to pronounce, but as you move along and learn more you'll see that they sound like a combination of different letters.

You can find this chart online at: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gle/images/greek_alphabet.gif

Now that you have a taste of the basics, we'll move onto a few phrases and test your language skills. The phrases are courtesy of Howard Hillman's Greece Wonder Guide. You can take a look at their website by clicking here... http://www.hillmanwonders.com/greece/greek_phrases.htm

Another great site is: http://www.aroundgreece.com/greek-phrases.html

* Good Morning

Kalimera

kah - lee - mer - rah

* Good Night

Kaliniktah

kah - lee - neek - tah

* Hello

Yassou

yah' - soo

* How are you?

Ti kanes

tee - kah - nis

* Yes

Ne

neh

* No

Ohi

oh' - hee

Here are a few tips on pronouncing a few of the letters:

• Pronounce the letter “i” as "ee" (rhymes with "see")
• Pronounce the letter “g” as the letter "y"
• Pronounce the letter “d” as you would pronounce the soft “th” in "theology"

Hope you had fun today! Let me know how you're progressing and shoot me a comment! Have fun!