LingoflyԵ ե — yech
«yech» is a vowel of the Armenian script, read as “ye at the start, e inside”. Ye at the start of a word, plain e inside. For example, in the word “Ես” (yes) — I. The Armenian alphabet has 39 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. Ես (yes) reads 'yes', not 'es'; Մեկ (mek) reads 'mek'. The rule works without exceptions. It appears, for example, in the word “Բարև ձեզ” (barev dzez) — hello.
In short
| Character | Ե ե |
| Name | yech |
| Sound | ye at the start, e inside |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 7th of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are լ and ի, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How to type Ե ե
- On a phone: add the Armenian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0565 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0565.
- Unicode code points: ե — U+0565, Ե — U+0535. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Ye at the start of a word, plain e inside
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
The character in the “vowels” group
Eight signs. Two of them — ե and ո — are read with a y-glide and a v at the start of a word. Ես (yes) reads 'yes', Ոչ (voch) reads 'voch'. And ը is a fleeting murmur that in writing is often not written at all.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «yech» it is “ye at the start, e inside”, as in the word “Ես” (yes)), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 39 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Armenian character ե read?
As “ye at the start, e inside” — it is a vowel of the Armenian script. Ye at the start of a word, plain e inside. For example, in the word “Ես” (yes) — I.
What is the letter ե called?
Yech. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Armenian script: it is called “yech” and reads as “ye at the start, e inside”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.