Կիթառ նվագել
“Կիթառ նվագել” (kit'arr nvagel) — to play the guitar in Armenian. Phrase, level A2. An instrument is played with no preposition: k'it'arr nvaghel, dyapian nvaghel; football is played with another verb, khaghal — Armenian keeps the two 'plays' apart. In a live sentence: “Կիթառ նվագել գիտեմ” — I can play the guitar. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Կ, ի, թ, ա, ռ, ն, վ, ա, գ, ե, լ. A word from the everyday Armenian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Armenian | Կիթառ նվագել |
| Read in Latin letters | kit'arr nvagel |
| Translation | to play the guitar |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
- Կիթառ նվագելkit'arr nvagelto play the guitar
Why it looks that way
An instrument is played with no preposition: k'it'arr nvaghel, dyapian nvaghel; football is played with another verb, khaghal — Armenian keeps the two 'plays' apart
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.
- Կիթառ նվագել գիտեմkit'arr nvagel gitemI can play the guitar
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 “to play the guitar” in Armenian?
«Կիթառ նվագել», read “kit'arr nvagel”. In a live sentence: “Կիթառ նվագել գիտեմ” — I can play the guitar. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters Կ, ի, թ, ա, ռ, ն, վ, ա, գ, ե, լ.
How is “Կիթառ նվագել” written in Latin letters?
kit'arr nvagel. 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?
An instrument is played with no preposition: k'it'arr nvaghel, dyapian nvaghel; football is played with another verb, khaghal — Armenian keeps the two 'plays' apart. 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.