50 Common Greek Words Every Beginner Should Know
A starter list of everyday Modern Greek words with English meanings, grouped by theme, to build a working vocabulary fast.
Modern Greek is the living descendant of a language with one of the longest continuously documented histories in the world, spoken today by around 13 million people primarily in Greece and Cyprus. Building a working vocabulary starts with small, everyday word groups.
Greetings and courtesy
Γεια σου (yia sou — hi/hello, informal), ευχαριστώ (efharisto — thank you), παρακαλώ (parakalo — please/you're welcome), αντίο (adio — goodbye), συγγνώμη (signomi — sorry/excuse me).
Numbers
Ένα (ena — one), δύο (dyo — two), τρία (tria — three) through δέκα (deka — ten) — many of these roots will look genuinely familiar to English speakers, given how much Greek vocabulary has fed into English scientific and mathematical terminology.
Family
Μητέρα (mitera — mother), πατέρας (pateras — father), αδελφός (adelfos — brother), αδελφή (adelfi — sister), φίλος/φίλη (filos/fili — friend, gendered).
Everyday life
Νερό (nero — water), ψωμί (psomi — bread), σπίτι (spiti — house), δουλειά (doulia — work), σχολείο (scholio — school).
The Greek alphabet: worth learning early, not avoiding
Modern Greek uses its own distinct alphabet, not the Latin alphabet — some letters look visually similar to Latin letters but represent entirely different sounds (Greek Ρ sounds like an English R, not P; Greek Ν is an N, not the Latin-looking H it might resemble). Learning the actual Greek alphabet early, rather than relying on transliteration, avoids exactly this kind of confusing false familiarity.
Why this matters for dictionary lookups
Looking up words in proper Greek script, rather than Roman transliteration alone, trains your eye to recognise genuine Greek letterforms from the start — essential for reading anything in Greece or Cyprus beyond what's specifically translated for tourists.
A simple way to build from this list
- Learn the Greek alphabet's basic letters before or alongside your first vocabulary.
- Pick five to eight words a day, reading them in Greek script.
- Use each word in a short sentence of your own.
- Review yesterday's words before adding today's.
Look up any Greek word instantly, in proper script, offline, with English Greek Dictionary →
English Greek Dictionary
Offline English–Greek dictionary with meanings in proper Greek script
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