Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 2: False Friends

In Lesson 1 (A; and B), we learned that there are some characters in the Armenian alphabet that are very similar to the English alphabet. When the letters also sound the same, that’s great! When they don’t… it’s less than helpful. These “false friends” look like English letters, but are pronounced differently in Western Armenian, so they can really trip you up.

Armenian	ա	ո	ս	ց	ւ	յ
English look-alike	w	n	u	g	L	j
Actual pronunciation	a	(v)o	s	ts	v	h

Here’s how I remembered them:

1. ա ≠ w, ա = a
   • I found this to be an easier letter to remember, just because it’s the first letter of the Armenian alphabet. I already had it down, with “ayp, pen, kim.”
   • But you could also think of “awww” – looks like a w, is really an a.
2. ո ≠ n, ո = vo
   • NO, not an “n,” this is a VO
3. ս ≠ u, ս = s
   • u looks like a Smile, smile starts with “s”
4. ց ≠ g, ց = ts
   • goats
5. ւ ≠ L, ւ = v
   • ւ o v e
6. յ ≠ j, յ = h
   • յ looks like a hook, hook starts with “h”

Other tricks:

• I kept mixing up “u” and “ո,” because they’re shaped similarly. Grouping similar shapes and drilling them, or coming up with mnemonics for why they were different helped. e. “u” is “ո” upside down, like Snow falling from the ground to the sky.
• Read this post about other tricks for learning the alphabet, and see if any of them work for you: Top tips for learning the Western Armenian alphabet
• Sometimes it helps to look at these letters in different fonts, to see how they’re differentiated a bit more from the Latin/English letters:

CONGRATULATIONS
You’ve learned 15 Armenian letters! You’re almost halfway there!

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Test yourself:
You’ve already learned two Armenian equivalents for the letter “o” – what are they?
………. Highlight in between the brackets for the answer: [ո & օ]
And two for the letter “h” – what are they?
………. Highlight in between the brackets for the answer: [հ & յ]

Homework:
Find an Armenian book or newspaper and write out 6 words that contain ONLY letters that you have learned so far.

Follow along in the St. Nersess online learning course, and/or using these Alphabet worksheets

Or try this worksheet I made to help yourself differentiate:

Access the rest of the lessons in this series here:

• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 1A: You CAN Learn to Read Armenian
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 1B: E, E, E
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 2: False Friends
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 3A: Odd Couples
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 3B: Alien Beings
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4A: Look Alikes
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4B: M & N
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 4C: An important letter (and more practice reading)
• Western Armenian Alphabet, Lesson 5B: The Last Few Letters