Մարդուն խղճալ
“Մարդուն խղճալ” (martun khghjal) — to feel sorry for someone in Western Armenian. Phrase, level B1. խիղճ is conscience, and խղճալ is to pity. Who you pity takes -ին/-ուն: մարդուն, երեխային. Keep it apart from ափսոսալ, to regret what is lost. In a live sentence: “Խղճացի այդ մարդուն” — I felt sorry for that man. Written with the characters Մ, ա, ր, դ, ո, ւ, ն, խ, ղ, ճ, ա, լ. A word from the everyday Western Armenian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Western Armenian | Մարդուն խղճալ |
| Read in Latin letters | martun khghjal |
| Translation | to feel sorry for someone |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
խիղճ is conscience, and խղճալ is to pity. Who you pity takes -ին/-ուն: մարդուն, երեխային. Keep it apart from ափսոսալ, to regret what is lost
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.
- Խղճացի այդ մարդունkhghjatsi ayt martunI felt sorry for that man
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 feel sorry for someone” in Western Armenian?
«Մարդուն խղճալ», read “martun khghjal”. In a live sentence: “Խղճացի այդ մարդուն” — I felt sorry for that man. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters Մ, ա, ր, դ, ո, ւ, ն, խ, ղ, ճ, ա, լ.
How is “Մարդուն խղճալ” written in Latin letters?
martun khghjal. 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?
խիղճ is conscience, and խղճալ is to pity. Who you pity takes -ին/-ուն: մարդուն, երեխային. Keep it apart from ափսոսալ, to regret what is lost. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.