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Without looking, recite the letters of the Greek alphabet in order. How did you do? Were you surprised by how much you remembered, or by how much you forgot? No matter, it’s good to review the alphabet as a way of getting back into Greek. Don’t feel that you have to memorize the alphabet again. The main thing at this point is that you can read every letter and make the correct sounds associated with each one.5

Many of the letters look a lot like their English counterparts that are pronounced the same way, so we won’t spend time on those.6 Here are the ones you may have forgotten:

γ	gamma	makes the hard “g” sound (like gate)
		makes a “ng” sound when there are two gammas together (like singing)
ζ	zeta	makes a “z” or “dz” sound (like zoo or ads)
η	eta	makes a long “a” sound (like eight)
θ	theta	makes a soft “th” sound (like theater)
μ	mu	just like “m” in English
ν	nu	looks like English “v” but sounds like English “n”
ξ	xi	makes the “ks” sound (like the x in taxi)
π	pi	just like “p” in English
ρ	rho	looks like English “p” but sounds like English “r”
σ	sigma	just like “s” in English (the sigma looks a lot like “s” when it comes at the end of a word)
φ	phi	just like English “f”
χ	chi	like the German “ch” (as in Loch Ness monster) or like English k
ψ	psi	makes “ps” sound (like oops)
ω	omega	makes long “o” sound (like no)

Hopefully the letters are coming back to you pretty well now. Let’s move on to something just a little bit harder: doubled vowel sounds, aka diphthongs. When two vowels come together in Greek, they usually make a single sound—but not always. The trick is remembering what that single sound is and when they make two sounds. The rule is: If the two vowels make a diphthong, they make one sound; if they do not make a diphthong, they make two sounds. Here are the diphthongs you need to know:

αι	makes English “ai” sound (like the ai in aisle)
ει	like the Greek η and the long English “a” (like the ei in eight)
ευ	like “eu” in the word feud
οι	like the “oi” in oil
ου	like the Greek υ and the English “ou” (like through)
ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ	some people consider the iota subscript to be a diphthong; pronounce as if the iota isn’t there—but pay attention to this letter later, as it makes a difference for translation

There’s also the diaeresis, which is two dots over the second letter of what is normally a diphthong (¨), indicating that you should pronounce both letters separately, like the “ai” in the English word naïve.

So, there you have it, a quick review of the things you need to know in order to read the Greek words out loud. We’re not yet worried about knowing what all the words mean, just being able to sound them out. Understanding the words will follow along directly!

Exercise 3

Reread the verses from day 2’s exercise. This time, read each verse out loud. Spend thirty minutes reading aloud. Again, if you are able to read all the verses within thirty minutes, you may either read them again or read another passage of your choice.

1. Luke 2:522. Mark 10:143. John 3:164. Rom 3:235. Rom 6:236. Eph 2:8–97. 1 John 4:7–88. John 11:35

9. John 8:1210. Rom 1:1611. 2 Cor 12:912. Eph 3:20–2113. Rev 1:814. Rom 10:1315. Gal 1:10

Bonus: Pick one or two of these verses and memorize them in Greek!

Reminder: Are you doing the fifteen extra minutes each day? If you didn’t commit to that already, it’s not too late. Start today!

5. Recent research supports the claim that Koine Greek was pronounced more like modern Greek than like the “Seminary Greek” that you probably learned. Nevertheless, since this book aims to be a refresher for what you already learned—and since you probably already learned the “Seminary Greek” pronunciations—I will continue to use those here. If this topic interests you, you can learn more in Constantine R. Campbell, “Pronunciation,” in Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 192–99.

6. Here is the complete alphabet: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, π, ρ, σ/ς, τ, υ φ, χ, ψ, ω.