Το «α» είναι φωνήεν.

Το is the neuter singular definite article: the.

In Greek, when you refer to a letter as an object or symbol, it is commonly treated as neuter, so you say:

• το α
• το β
• το ω

So Το «α» means the letter a.

The « » marks are Greek-style quotation marks, often called guillemets.

Here they show that α is being mentioned as a character/symbol, not used as part of a normal word. It is like English:

• "a" is a vowel.

Greek often writes this as:

• Το «α» είναι φωνήεν.

You may also sometimes see other quotation styles in modern printed or digital Greek, but « » is very standard.

Είναι means is here.

It is the 3rd person singular present tense of είμαι = to be.

So:

• Το «α» = the letter a
• είναι = is
• φωνήεν = vowel

Together: The letter a is a vowel.

Greek does have an indefinite article:

• ένας = a/an (masculine)
• μία / μια = a/an (feminine)
• ένα = a/an (neuter)

But after είμαι (to be), Greek often omits the indefinite article when giving a classification or definition.

So Greek naturally says:

• Το «α» είναι φωνήεν.

rather than

• Το «α» είναι ένα φωνήεν.

The version with ένα is possible in some contexts, but the version without it sounds more neutral and definition-like.

Φωνήεν means vowel.

It is a neuter noun. Its grammatical gender matches the article you would use with it:

• το φωνήεν = the vowel

You do not need the article here because it comes after είναι in a classification statement.

Φωνήεν is neuter.

You can tell from its article in dictionary form:

• το φωνήεν

This matters when you use articles, adjectives, or pronouns with it.

After είναι (is), Greek uses a predicate noun. In this sentence, φωνήεν stays in the nominative form.

So:

• Το «α» = subject
• είναι = linking verb
• φωνήεν = predicate noun

This is similar to English a is a vowel.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

To “a” EE-ne fee-EN

More carefully:

• Το = to
• α = a
• είναι = EE-ne
• φωνήεν = fo-NEE-en or fee-EN, depending on how simplified you want the guide

A few helpful points:

• αι in είναι sounds like e in modern Greek.
• ων/οη/ήε spellings can look complicated, but modern pronunciation is simpler than the spelling suggests.
• The stress matters: είναι, φωνήεν.

Greek writes an accent mark on stressed polysyllabic words.

So:

• είναι has more than one syllable, so it shows its stress.
• φωνήεν also has more than one syllable, so it shows its stress.

But:

• το is one syllable
• α is one syllable

Monosyllables usually do not take a written accent in normal spelling.

In this sentence, α is the symbol/character.

The name of the Greek letter is άλφα.

So Greek can refer to it in two ways:

• το «α» = the letter a, shown as a symbol
• το άλφα = the letter alpha, using its name

Both are possible, but this sentence uses the symbol itself.

Yes, Greek word order is fairly flexible.

The most neutral order here is:

• Το «α» είναι φωνήεν.

But Greek could also say:

• Φωνήεν είναι το «α».

That version gives more emphasis to φωνήεν. For a basic statement or definition, the original order is the most straightforward.

Το is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence.

The α is lowercase because the sentence is specifically referring to the lowercase letter α.

If you wanted to refer to the uppercase form, you could write:

• Το «Α» είναι φωνήεν.

Both uppercase and lowercase alpha are vowels.

It is much more natural here to keep το.

Greek usually prefers the article when talking about a letter as a thing:

• Το «α» είναι φωνήεν.

Without το, the sentence sounds less standard and less natural in ordinary usage.

Yes. This is a very useful pattern:

Το «X» είναι ...
= The letter “X” is ...

For example:

• Το «β» είναι σύμφωνο. = b/beta is a consonant.
• Το «ε» είναι φωνήεν. = e/epsilon is a vowel.

So you can reuse the same structure with other letters very easily.