Greek Alphabet Cards

107 points49 comments17 hours ago
nayuki

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.

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mwexler

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

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ARandomerDude

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.

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gschizas

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.

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jnmandal

Μπράβο ρε. Πόσο όμορφο

Avijit_Thawani

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.

NooneAtAll3

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

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jonathanlydall

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

https://letterland.com/

EstanislaoStan

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.

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romeinaday

no download or buy link?

iandanforth

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

BigTTYGothGF

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

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russum

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

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vazma

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

metaphor

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
epilys

> 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.

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