Greek Alphabet Cards (opens in new tab)

(labs.randomquark.com)

131 pointsricochet119d ago59 comments

59 comments

Funny thing, as a Greek I preferred Latin letters for math symbols, which I knew fluently, as this helped me focus easier on them among the Greek text. I believe this is one of the reasons Greek letters are used in Latin languages.

All 24 Greek letters are used as math variables, depending on the field. Eg κ, λ, μ for arithmetic, χ, ψ for equations, graphs and differential, θ, ω for probability. Someone should definitely know to handle them easily.

These cards are designed for kids, though they seem effective for adults too, as their language knowledge is similar to a small kid's. Another simple way is to print and fill pre-school charts that show repetitive large letters. It's never too late to learn Greek!

gschizas9d ago

ομφαλός (belly button) is quite weird for ο (omikron), but I can't think of something better!

Just listing the letters below and my rating for each letter, maybe someone has a better idea for some of them:

α - αχλάδι (pear) 5/5

β - βάρκα (boat) 5/5

γ - γίδα (goat) 4/5

δ - δεινόσαυρος (dinosaur) 4/5

ε - έντομο (insect, bug) 4/5

ζ - ζώνη (belt) 3/5

η - ηλιοτρόπιο (sunflower) 3/5

θ - θρόνος (throne) 4/5

ι - ιππόκαμπος (seahorse) 3/5

κ - κάκτος (cactus) 2/5

λ - λιοντάρι (lion) 4/5

μ - μάσκα (mask) 4/5

ν - νυχτερίδα (bat) 4/5

ξ - ξύλο (wood, stick of wood) 2/5

ο - ομφαλός (belly button) 1/5

π - πόρτα (door) 4/5

ρ - ρακέτα (racket) 4/5

σ - σαλιγκάρι (snail) 5/5

τ - τραπέζι (table) 5/5

υ - υποβρύχιο (submarine) 4/5

φ - φίδι (snake) 5/5

χ - χιόνι (snow) 2/5

ψ - ψάρεμα (fishing) 3/5

ω - ωκεανός (ocean) 5/5

I'm basing my rating on how common a word is, and how much the shape resembles the drawing and vice versa.

jaharios9d ago

For χ - χελιδόνι (swallow) with X tail-wings is the best

nayuki9d ago

While bored in high school math class around the year 2005, I forced myself to learn the Greek alphabet. That very much came in handy in university, as Greek letters are frequently used for variables in computer science, mathematics, and physics.

jimkleiber9d ago

Also plastered on frat and sorority houses all over town :-) (at least at many universities in the US)

mwexler9d ago

Very handy. My math education would have gone much better if my notes weren't full of "lambda is the half stickman; sigma is upside down Q or broken E" and other really silly things

gobdovan9d ago

Yeah, they should mark the Greek alphabet as a mandatory prerequisite for college math. It had an unreasonable effect on how quickly I was processing notation-heavy math after learning some Greek for going on a trip over there.

nephihaha9d ago

As I say above, the issue is that modern Greek pronounces some letters very differently. We use the classical pronunciation in maths etc.

ARandomerDude9d ago

Get a decent Greek grammar book and go through the first couple chapters, even if you don’t plan to complete the book. After completing the exercises you’ll be amazed by how quickly the Greek alphabet stuck. Repeat every 10 years if necessary.

pjmlp9d ago

As Portuguese that was of great help, given the amount of words with Greek roots, understanding the alphabet automatically made me available several words that I already knew.

Naturally had to skill up on everything else.

nephihaha9d ago

The problem is that the ancient and modern Greek alphabets are slightly different. The ancient pronunciations map more easily on to our alphabet. I find the modern ones less intuitive e.g. beta being a V sound. There is an example below, where someone writes Bravo in modern Greek, and uses "mu beta" for the "b" sound and "beta" for the "v" sound.

wvbdmp9d ago

B/V shifts or mergers are very common, notably in many Spanish variants they will, for example, write “vaca”, betraying the latin root “vacca”, but very clearly say “baca”. Coming from a language that clearly differentates between these sounds, it’s surprising how close they are.

ARandomerDude9d ago

For ancient Greek, two great books are:

Greek: an Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn.

Basics of Biblical Greek by William Mounce

Both are standard texts with solutions easily available online.

jnmandal9d ago

Μπράβο ρε. Πόσο όμορφο

EstanislaoStan9d ago

I read this whole article like you were going to teach them Ancient Greek, but now I'm guessing modern is more likely?

Anyway, some of my strongest language class memories from college are from translating parts of the Odyssey and New Testament.

stavros9d ago

Yeah these cards have modern Greek words on them.

Avijit_Thawani9d ago

Fascinating! I assume Mandarin is one of the other two languages your kids are learning, in which case you may be interested or have already seen Chineasy app and book, for a similar experience with Hanzi.

jonathanlydall9d ago

Very cool. With English there is Letterland which seems quite similar at a glance.

https://letterland.com/

iandanforth9d ago

I have similar projects in mind. How were these printed?

NooneAtAll39d ago

I wish cards like these didn't stop at ONE letter

a lot of reading skill is in connecting one letter to the next, syllable-grouped

teaching should incorporate that

FarmerPotato9d ago

There was a hilarious illustrated book "Greek to Me". It is a thorough (English) introduction to koine Greek, mainly Bible as well as classical from Herodotus, Arrian, et al.

It uses the silly-picture mnemonic approach. For instance, the verb εγειρω features a fellow raising up a suction-cup arrow with an egg stuck in it.

Present-indicative conjugations are in a picture of an omelet oozing in an oasis:

-ω -ομεν

-εις -ετε

-ει -ουσιν

romeinaday9d ago

no download or buy link?

russum9d ago

Are there good sets out there for other languages: English, German, etc?

unkeen9d ago

This is about memorizing foreign letters.

vazma9d ago

Very nice, I can borrow the idea to teach also my kids :)

BigTTYGothGF9d ago

I never understood what was supposed to be so hard about Greek letters.

FarmerPotato9d ago

Kids aren't born knowing the Roman alphabet either. These cards are for four-year olds!

psychoslave9d ago

Nothing special, probably not even the hardest out there to learn. But that's still requiring some effort, just like learning any alphabet actually. Greek somehow kept prestigious place in academia, so it's just more likely going to show that friction in the face of those who are there to learn completely unrelated matter for which using different alphabet is superfluous.

That just reminded me I have a teach yourself devanagari by practicing book waiting for me.

metaphor9d ago

During undergrad years, IFC fraternity pledges had to memorize the Greek alphabet for obvious reasons. This is how the capital letters were taught amongst bros.

  A BRA
  EZ HO
  I KAM
  NEON
  PETY
  OXY O

epilys9d ago

> However, I haven’t found any such cards for Greek characters, so I think mine are the first in Greek.

Huh? A simple web search shows many, many, many results.

EstanislaoStan9d ago

I tried searching and even had Claude search in modern Greek and didn't find specifically cards with objects shaped like the letters.

Can you share what you found?

tokai9d ago

Search for Greek Flashcards.

EstanislaoStan9d ago

Just did and still not seeing exactly what OP has made where the object looks like the letter. There are a few where the letters are abused to vaguely look like (use same texture) objects.

Maybe my Google foo sucks but could someone actually link what they're seeing?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

59 comments

tsoukase8d ago

gschizas9d ago

ομφαλός (belly button) is quite weird for ο (omikron), but I can't think of something better!

Just listing the letters below and my rating for each letter, maybe someone has a better idea for some of them:

α - αχλάδι (pear) 5/5

β - βάρκα (boat) 5/5

γ - γίδα (goat) 4/5

δ - δεινόσαυρος (dinosaur) 4/5

ε - έντομο (insect, bug) 4/5

ζ - ζώνη (belt) 3/5

η - ηλιοτρόπιο (sunflower) 3/5

θ - θρόνος (throne) 4/5

ι - ιππόκαμπος (seahorse) 3/5

κ - κάκτος (cactus) 2/5

λ - λιοντάρι (lion) 4/5

μ - μάσκα (mask) 4/5

ν - νυχτερίδα (bat) 4/5

ξ - ξύλο (wood, stick of wood) 2/5

ο - ομφαλός (belly button) 1/5

π - πόρτα (door) 4/5

ρ - ρακέτα (racket) 4/5

σ - σαλιγκάρι (snail) 5/5

τ - τραπέζι (table) 5/5

υ - υποβρύχιο (submarine) 4/5

φ - φίδι (snake) 5/5

χ - χιόνι (snow) 2/5

ψ - ψάρεμα (fishing) 3/5

ω - ωκεανός (ocean) 5/5

I'm basing my rating on how common a word is, and how much the shape resembles the drawing and vice versa.

jaharios9d ago

For χ - χελιδόνι (swallow) with X tail-wings is the best

nayuki9d ago

jimkleiber9d ago

Also plastered on frat and sorority houses all over town :-) (at least at many universities in the US)

mwexler9d ago

Very handy. My math education would have gone much better if my notes weren't full of "lambda is the half stickman; sigma is upside down Q or broken E" and other really silly things

gobdovan9d ago

nephihaha9d ago

As I say above, the issue is that modern Greek pronounces some letters very differently. We use the classical pronunciation in maths etc.

ARandomerDude9d ago

pjmlp9d ago

As Portuguese that was of great help, given the amount of words with Greek roots, understanding the alphabet automatically made me available several words that I already knew.

Naturally had to skill up on everything else.

nephihaha9d ago

wvbdmp9d ago

ARandomerDude9d ago

For ancient Greek, two great books are:

Greek: an Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn.

Basics of Biblical Greek by William Mounce

Both are standard texts with solutions easily available online.

jnmandal9d ago

Μπράβο ρε. Πόσο όμορφο

EstanislaoStan9d ago

I read this whole article like you were going to teach them Ancient Greek, but now I'm guessing modern is more likely?

Anyway, some of my strongest language class memories from college are from translating parts of the Odyssey and New Testament.

stavros9d ago

Yeah these cards have modern Greek words on them.

Avijit_Thawani9d ago

jonathanlydall9d ago

Very cool. With English there is Letterland which seems quite similar at a glance.

https://letterland.com/

iandanforth9d ago

I have similar projects in mind. How were these printed?

NooneAtAll39d ago

I wish cards like these didn't stop at ONE letter

a lot of reading skill is in connecting one letter to the next, syllable-grouped

teaching should incorporate that

FarmerPotato9d ago

There was a hilarious illustrated book "Greek to Me". It is a thorough (English) introduction to koine Greek, mainly Bible as well as classical from Herodotus, Arrian, et al.

It uses the silly-picture mnemonic approach. For instance, the verb εγειρω features a fellow raising up a suction-cup arrow with an egg stuck in it.

Present-indicative conjugations are in a picture of an omelet oozing in an oasis:

-ω -ομεν

-εις -ετε

-ει -ουσιν

romeinaday9d ago

no download or buy link?

russum9d ago

Are there good sets out there for other languages: English, German, etc?

unkeen9d ago

This is about memorizing foreign letters.

vazma9d ago

Very nice, I can borrow the idea to teach also my kids :)

BigTTYGothGF9d ago

I never understood what was supposed to be so hard about Greek letters.

FarmerPotato9d ago

Kids aren't born knowing the Roman alphabet either. These cards are for four-year olds!

psychoslave9d ago

That just reminded me I have a teach yourself devanagari by practicing book waiting for me.

metaphor9d ago

During undergrad years, IFC fraternity pledges had to memorize the Greek alphabet for obvious reasons. This is how the capital letters were taught amongst bros.

  A BRA
  EZ HO
  I KAM
  NEON
  PETY
  OXY O

epilys9d ago

> However, I haven’t found any such cards for Greek characters, so I think mine are the first in Greek.

Huh? A simple web search shows many, many, many results.

EstanislaoStan9d ago

I tried searching and even had Claude search in modern Greek and didn't find specifically cards with objects shaped like the letters.

Can you share what you found?

tokai9d ago

Search for Greek Flashcards.

EstanislaoStan9d ago

Just did and still not seeing exactly what OP has made where the object looks like the letter. There are a few where the letters are abused to vaguely look like (use same texture) objects.

Maybe my Google foo sucks but could someone actually link what they're seeing?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse