Learn about Greek consonants
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Greek Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn 13 Greek consonant sounds that are produced by double consonant combinations. |
| γγ (as in γγαστρώνω) |
| γγ (as in φεγγάρι) |
| γγ (as in έγγραφο) |
| γκ (as in γκολ) |
| γκ (as in εγκοπή) |
| μπ (as in μπάνιο) |
| μπ (as in αμπέλι) |
| μπ (as in σαμπουάν) |
| ντ (as in ντουλάπα) |
| ντ (as in ένταλμα) |
| ντ (as in ίντερνετ) |
| τσ (as in τσά2) |
| τζ (as in τζάκι) |
| These combinations might seem intimidating at first, but you'll be surprised at how easy they are to tackle. |
| Are you ready? |
| Then let's get started! |
| We will be examining the first four double consonant combinations together. That's because those have pronunciation variations that luckily follow similar patterns or rules, so to make things easier for you we have grouped them according to those rules. |
| When these four double consonant combinations are at the beginning of a word or within a word but after a consonant, then we pronounce them like this... |
| "γγ |
| γγαστρώνω |
| γκ |
| γκολ |
| αργκό |
| μπ |
| μπάνιο |
| μπάρμπας |
| ντ |
| ντουλάπα |
| καλντερίμι" |
| The first two sounds are like the G in the word 'goggles', while the next two are like the B from 'buy' and D from 'dad'. |
| γγ/γκ, γγ/γκ (slowly) |
| γγ/γκ, γγ/γκ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| When these double consonant combinations are within a word and after a vowel, they are usually pronounced with nazalization and they sound like this... |
| "γγ |
| φεγγάρι |
| γκ |
| εγκοπή |
| μπ |
| αμπέλι |
| ντ |
| ένταλμα" |
| The first two sounds are like the NG in the word 'finger', while the next two are like the MB in 'amber' and ND in 'end'. |
| γγ/γκ, γγ/γκ (slowly) |
| γγ/γκ, γγ/γκ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| Many Greeks, especially when they speak casually, might pronounce these double consonant combination as a "dry" G B and D sounds respectively even within a word and after a vowel. But the standard and more refined pronunciation is the way we showed you just now. |
| Another thing to keep in mind is that the above rule does not always apply to these consonant combinations. Some words, usually foreign or loan words but some native Greek words as well, might behave unexpectedly. |
| For example the combination of M and P in Greek, are never pronounced as B when followed by a T sound. Every letter in this case is pronounced separately. For example... |
| "μπτ |
| Πέμπτη |
| μεμπτός |
| σύμπτυξη" |
| Other exceptions include... |
| "γγ |
| έγγραφο |
| γκ |
| αλέγκρο |
| μπ |
| σαμπουάν |
| ντ |
| ίντερνετ" |
| For the first word, it's like the NG sound in the word 'finger', but instead of a hard G like before, it's with a very loosely held G sound. You should feel a slight buzzing sensation. For the second word, we have a sound that is the familiar G sound of 'goggles'. And in the third and fourth words the double consonant combinations are actually pronounced separately resulting in a M-P sound, like in 'Imperial', and an N-T sound like 'internet'. Let's hear them again. |
| γγ / γκ (slowly) |
| γγ / γκ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| μπ, μπ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| ντ, ντ (slowly) |
| The next consonant sound is... |
| "τσ |
| τσέλο |
| Τσιτσάνης |
| τσούζω" |
| Like the TS in the word 'cats' or 'tsunami'. |
| τσ, τσ (slowly) |
| τσ, τσ (slowly) |
| The final consonant sound is... |
| "τζ |
| τζάκι |
| τζίφος |
| ατζέντα" |
| "When these two letters are paired together, they'll create a DZ sound. |
| It starts off as a d sound, but ends with a z sound. |
| Here's a great tip. You can produce this sound by saying the word 'dads'." |
| τζ, τζ (slowly) |
| τζ, τζ (slowly) |
| Well done! You just learned 13 Greek consonant sounds. |
| "γγ (as in γγαστρώνω) |
| γγ (as in φεγγάρι) |
| γγ (as in έγγραφο) |
| γκ (as in γκολ) |
| γκ (as in εγκοπή) |
| μπ (as in μπάνιο) |
| μπ (as in αμπέλι) |
| μπ (as in σαμπουάν) |
| ντ (as in ντουλάπα) |
| ντ (as in ένταλμα) |
| ντ (as in ίντερνετ) |
| τσ (as in τσάι) |
| τζ (as in τζάκι)" |
| We've now covered every single sound you need to know in order to speak Greek properly. Isn't that great? |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about Greek accents. |
| How difficult were they to learn? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Greek Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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