Մէկ վայրկեան, բացատրեմ

In short

Why it looks that way

բացատրել (patsadrel) means to explain, from բաց (pats), open: to open up. The form բացատրեմ (patsadrem) is a let-me addressed to oneself — how you ask for the floor

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.

• Մէկ վայրկեան, բացատրեմ, թէ ինչու

  meg vayrgyan, patsadrem, t'e inchu

  One moment, let me explain why

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 times
  Kim & 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 times
  Adesope, 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 times
  Bertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.

Next

• Մի՞թէ (mit'e) — really?read “mit'e”
• Լո՞ւրջ (lurch) — seriously?read “lurch”
• Ահա թէ ինչ (aha t'e inch) — oh, so that's itread “aha t'e inch”
• Պարզ է, հասկցայ (barz e, hasgtsa) — clear, I got itread “barz e, hasgtsa”
• All Western Armenian wordsIndex by topic
• Why a word list doesn't sticka note