LingoflyԵս
- ԵսyesI
“Ես” (yes) — I in Armenian. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. Sounds like yes; the letter e at the start of a word gives a ye sound. In a live sentence: “Ես Մոսկվայից եմ” (yes Moskvayits em) — I am from Moscow. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Ե, ս. One of 25 words in the set “pronouns” in the Armenian course.
In short
| Written in Armenian | Ես (yes) |
| Read in Latin letters | yes |
| Translation | I |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
How to pronounce it
sounds like yes; the letter e at the start of a word gives a ye sound
Why it looks that way
em — 'am, is' — almost always stands beside it: yes lav em is literally 'I good am'
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.
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- Դուduyoufor family, children and peers; with a stranger it is duk'
- Դուքduk'you (plural)one word for the polite 'you' and for 'you' about several people
- ՆաnaheArmenian has no gender: the same na means he, she and it
- Մենքmenk'wethe -k' ending marks the plural: yes → menk', du → duk', na → nrank'. All three pronouns are built the same way
- Նրանքnrank'theyna plus the same -nk' as in menk'. Sounds like nə-RANK': a little schwa sneaks in between the first letters
- Իմimmythe noun after it takes the article: im tunə. Plan B is a tail on the noun: tuns — the same thing
- Քոk'oyourthe tail version is -d: girk'd — your book. The polite 'your' is Dzer, with a capital
- Մերmerourdo not confuse with merr, the root of dying: one letter and the length of the rolled rr apart
- Ձերdzeryour (polite)in polite address it is written with a capital — Dzer — and so is Duk'
- Նրաnrahis, her, their (whose)no gender in Armenian: nra works about a man and a woman alike. 'Their' is nrancts
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “I” in Armenian?
em — 'am, is' — almost always stands beside it: yes lav em is literally 'I good am'
- How do you say “your” in Armenian?
the tail version is -d: girk'd — your book. The polite 'your' is Dzer, with a capital
- How do you say “he” in Armenian?
Armenian has no gender: the same na means he, she and it
- How do you say “his, her, their (whose)” in Armenian?
no gender in Armenian: nra works about a man and a woman alike. 'Their' is nrancts
- How do you say “my” in Armenian?
the noun after it takes the article: im tunə. Plan B is a tail on the noun: tuns — the same thing
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 “I” in Armenian?
«Ես» (yes), read “yes”. Sounds like yes; the letter e at the start of a word gives a ye sound. In a live sentence: “Ես Մոսկվայից եմ” (yes Moskvayits em) — I am from Moscow. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters Ե, ս.
How is “Ես” (yes) written in Latin letters?
yes. 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?
Em — 'am, is' — almost always stands beside it: yes lav em is literally 'I good am'. 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 this 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.