Դրամ
“Դրամ” (dram) — dram in Armenian. Noun, level A1, topic — shopping and money. related to the Greek drachma and older than the currency itself. Price tags shorten it to the sign with a stroke through it. In a live sentence: “Հազար դրամի մանր ունե՞ք” — Do you have change for a thousand drams? You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Դ, ր, ա, մ. One of 89 words in the set “shopping and money” in the Armenian course.
In short
| Written in Armenian | Դրամ |
| Read in Latin letters | dram |
| Translation | dram |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- Դրամdramdram
Why it looks that way
related to the Greek drachma and older than the currency itself. Price tags shorten it to the sign with a stroke through it
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Հազար դրամի մանր ունե՞քhazar drami manr unek'?Do you have change for a thousand drams?
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- Որքա՞ն է արժեvork'an e arzhe?how much is itarzhel — to cost. The question hook sits on vork'an — 'how much' — not at the end of the phrase
- Խանութkhanut'shopa borrowing familiar to the whole region. The shopkeeper in it is khanutpan, where -pan means 'keeper'
- Շուկաshukamarketany market, from groceries to exchanges: ashkhatashuka — the job market. The Yerevan flea market is more often called by name — Vernisazh
- Վաճառասեղանvacharraseghancountervacharrel — to sell, seghan — table: literally 'a table for selling'
- Վաճառողvacharroghsellerthe same vacharr- root as in the counter. The -ogh ending turns a verb into its doer: 'the selling one'
- Գնորդgnordbuyerfrom gnel — to buy. Do not mix with gnal — to go: one letter, and the meaning is another
- Կշեռքksherrk'scales (weighing)from kshrrel — to weigh. In Armenian the word is singular, whatever your own language suggests
- Կիլոգրամkilogramkilogramat the market people almost always say the short kilo: mek kilo lolik
- Թարմt'armfreshstarts with the aspirated t' — a t on the exhale. The word of the market: t'arm hats, t'arm dzuk
- Հասածhasatsripefrom hasnel — to reach, to ripen. A ripe fruit is literally 'arrived'
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “dram” in Armenian?
related to the Greek drachma and older than the currency itself. Price tags shorten it to the sign with a stroke through it
- How do you say “scales (weighing)” in Armenian?
from kshrrel — to weigh. In Armenian the word is singular, whatever your own language suggests
- How do you say “market” in Armenian?
any market, from groceries to exchanges: ashkhatashuka — the job market. The Yerevan flea market is more often called by name — Vernisazh
- How do you say “ripe” in Armenian?
from hasnel — to reach, to ripen. A ripe fruit is literally 'arrived'
- How do you say “buyer” in Armenian?
from gnel — to buy. Do not mix with gnal — to go: one letter, and the meaning is another
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “dram” in Armenian?
«Դրամ», read “dram”. In a live sentence: “Հազար դրամի մանր ունե՞ք” — Do you have change for a thousand drams? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters Դ, ր, ա, մ.
How is “Դրամ” written in Latin letters?
dram. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
related to the Greek drachma and older than the currency itself. Price tags shorten it to the sign with a stroke through it. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.