LingoflyGreetings and goodbyes in Western Armenian
10 words in Western Armenian on the topic “greetings and goodbyes”: Բարեւ (parev) — hi, Բարեւ ձեզ (parev tsez) — hello, Բարի լոյս (pari luys) — good morning, Բարի օր (pari or) — good afternoon.
10 words on the topic
- Բարեւparevhipa-REV, with the stress on the last syllable — where Armenian puts it almost always
- Բարեւ ձեզparev tsezhelloEnds with
ձեզ(tsez) — 'to you'. The version for strangers, elders and anyone you would not call by their first name - ՅաջողhachoghbyeThe informal parting between friends. A word-initial Յ reads h, and ջ sounds like ch as in 'church': ha-CHOGH, never with a j — and the final gh is a light throat scrape
- Ինչպէ՞ս եսinchbes yeshow are you?Classical spelling writes է where the Eastern standard writes ե:
ինչպէս(inchbes). The question mark ՞ does not wait for the end of the sentence — it sits over the stressed syllable of the word being asked about - Ինչպէ՞ս եքinchbes ek'how are you? (formal)The verb ends in -ք, the polite turn: elders and strangers get this one. The
-եսform is for your own circle
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How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
What is worth knowing about these words
Բարեւ (parev) — hi. Folk etymology reads it as բարի (pari) (good) + արեւ (arev) (sun) — 'good sun'. The opening letter բ sounds like a plain p in the West: your first taste of Western reading.
Բարեւ ձեզ (parev tsez) — hello. Ends with ձեզ (tsez) — 'to you'. The version for strangers, elders and anyone you would not call by their first name.
Բարի լոյս (pari luys) — good morning. Built like every daypart hello: բարի (pari) (good) + լոյս (luys) (light) — 'good light'. The classical spelling writes ոյ but you say 'ooy': LOOYS.
Բարի օր (pari or) — good afternoon. The neutral daytime greeting. Same opener բարի (pari) as in բարեւ (parev) and բարի լոյս (pari luys); օր (or) is 'day'.
Test yourself
Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hi” in Western Armenian?
Folk etymology reads it as
բարի(pari) (good) +արեւ(arev) (sun) — 'good sun'. The opening letter բ sounds like a plain p in the West: your first taste of Western reading - How do you say “how are you?” in Western Armenian?
Classical spelling writes է where the Eastern standard writes ե:
ինչպէս(inchbes). The question mark ՞ does not wait for the end of the sentence — it sits over the stressed syllable of the word being asked about - How do you say “good evening” in Western Armenian?
երեկոյ(yerego) is 'evening': կ sounds like g, and the final յ is silent: yeh-reh-GO. Morning, afternoon and evening all build the same way:բարի(pari) + the time of day - How do you say “hello” in Western Armenian?
Ends with
ձեզ(tsez) — 'to you'. The version for strangers, elders and anyone you would not call by their first name - How do you say “how are you? (formal)” in Western Armenian?
The verb ends in -ք, the polite turn: elders and strangers get this one. The
-եսform is for your own circle
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- Study spread over days wins not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “hi” in Western Armenian?
«Բարեւ» (parev), read “parev”. Pa-REV, with the stress on the last syllable — where Armenian puts it almost always. It is one of 10 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” — the rest are in the table above.
How many greetings do you need to start?
The whole set on this page is 10 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.