Learn the basic system. Greek reads like English, from left to right, and some letters are very similar to English letters. However, there are letters that are completely unrecognizable to the untrained eye. Read through the alphabet several times and train yourself to recognize all of the letters. Attain a beginning biblical Greek grammar, such as William Mounce's \"Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar\" or Clayton Croy's \"A Primer of Biblical Greek,\" and read the first chapters on the alphabet. Use a pen and paper to write down every letter as you learn.
Learn the vowels. There are seven vowels in Greek, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?. Five look similar to their English counterpart: ? is “a,” as in “hall,” ? is “e,” as in “bet,” ? is “i,” as in “list,” ? is “o,” as in “off,” and ? is “u,” as in “put.” The two other letters, ? and ?, correspond to a longer English “e” and “o.” The letter ? makes a long “e” sound, as in “hey,” and ? makes a long “o” sound, as in “hole.”
Learn the consonants. The rest of the consonants are fairly easy to memorize. While most letters have parallels in English, a few are somewhat odd since they represent two English letters. The letter ? is pronounced as “theta,” representing the “th” sound. The letter xi, ?, sounds like “ks,” much like the English “x.” Another confusing letter is ?, pronounced like the “ch” in “Bach.” Finally, ? is pronounced as psi.
Recognize the different forms. The ? in Greek is the only lower-case letter that has two forms. Whenever ? comes at the end of word, it turns into ?. In addition, the capital letters of Greek have a few unexpected forms. Watch out for ?, which looks like ? in capitals, ?, which becomes ?, and ?, which becomes ?.
Learn the rules for different forms. Like any language, Greek has rules and principles governing its letters. When certain letters are joined together, they create a new sound. When this occurs with two vowels, it is called a diphthong. However, new sounds can be created by a broad combination of letters.