Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi everybody, this is Stefania! Welcome to GreekPod101.com’s Alfaveeto made easy. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn the Greek alphabet: the alfaveeto!
You’ve made it to the tenth lesson! Are you excited? I certainly am! So I won’t say more but will go directly to our two new letters -- one more consonant and the last vowel.
The consonant will look familiar since it appears both as a sound and as a shape in the English alphabet. Its name is “Veeta”. In English, it is commonly called “beta”, but in fact this letter has a “v” sound. Don’t get confused because it looks like the Roman alphabet “B”.
As you can see, there is a striking similarity between the uppercase and lowercase versions; their shape won’t be too hard, so just be careful about the sound.
This is the uppercase “Veeta”.
It is handwritten like this: Β
And this is the lowercase “Veeta”.
It is handwritten like this: β
Like other letters we have seen, the lowercase “Veeta” is written closer to the line and its vertical line extends below it. Easy, isn’t it?
Let’s do it again- Here’s the uppercase form: Β
And here’s the lowercase form: β
Got it? Good! Let’s go to our next letter. Like I said before, this is the last vowel. And it’s an easy one, too because –well, you’ll see! Its name is “Ipsilon,” -- often called “upsilon” in English - and its sound is, well, “ee” –yes, one more “ee” to go with the “Yota” and “Eeta” we already learned.
These look familiar, right? The uppercase is an English “y” and the lowercase is pretty much an English “u”, isn’t it?
This is the uppercase “Ipsilon”.
It is handwritten like this: Υ
And this is the lowercase “Ipsilon”.
It is handwritten like this: υ
Did you get them right? Maybe because they resemble two English/Roman letters they seem a little confusing, no? Oh, well –as they say, practice makes perfect, so…
Let’s do it again- Here’s the uppercase form: Υ
And here’s the lowercase form: υ
Twenty letters down and only four to go; isn’t that a relief? Let’s see what we can do with our new letters.
One easy, everyday word that uses both of them is “βραδυ” the Greek word for “evening”. Shall we write this together?
βραδυ
Not that hard, yes? How about something else. This word is “διαβαση” (“diavasi”) the Greek word for “street crossing” and it’s written like this:
διαβαση
Did you try them? Good, good! Now let’s do our usual recap, shall we? The letters we’ve learned so far are “Alpha”, “Mee”, “Taf”, “Yota”, “Kappa”, “Omikron”, “Pee”, “Sigma”, “Eeta”, “Psee”, “Gama”, “Epseelon”, “Ro”, “Hee”, “Nee”, “Omega”, “Delta”, “Lamda”, “Veeta” and “Ipsilon”.
Now it's time for Stefania’s insights.
As I mentioned in the previous lesson, when a letter is exactly the same in form as an English letter, please be careful not to confuse the sounds. “Veeta” is such a case; it’s very easy to slip towards “Beta”, a word that came into the English vocabulary through the University system and continues to be very common in college fraternities. I know it’s hard for these organizations to change their names after all these years, but you know better, don’t you?
Did you know there is a Greek letter which if turned on its side, becomes another Greek letter? These letters are both unique to the Greek alphabet, so check out our next lesson and see how they look!
See you in the next Alfaveeto made easy lesson!
Ya hara!

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