Lesson 1: Introductions and being polite

Functional outcome: Meet someone, greet them, and say a little about yourself.

This is a beginner-controlled Eastern Armenian lesson, not a proficiency guarantee. Read the Armenian first; the phonetic cues are approximate aids, not IPA or native-speaker validation.

Learn: 15 items

Type Armenian Meaning Approximate Eastern cue
word բարև hello ba-REV
word շնորհակալություն thank you shə-nor-ha-ka-loo-T'YOON
word անուն name a-NOON
word Հայաստան Armenia ha-yas-TAN
word լավ good lav
chunk Բարև ձեզ Hello (polite) ba-REV dzez
chunk Իմ անունը ... է My name is ... eem a-NOO-nə ... e
chunk Ես ... եմ I am ... yes ... em
chunk Ուրախ եմ I’m glad / happy. oo-RAKH em
chunk Իսկ դո՞ւ And you? eesk doo?
sentence Բարև, ես Անի եմ։ Hello, I am Ani. ba-REV, yes a-NEE em.
sentence Իմ անունը Դավիթ է։ My name is Davit. eem a-NOO-nə da-VEET' e.
sentence Ես լավ եմ, շնորհակալություն։ I am well, thank you. yes lav em, shə-nor-ha-ka-loo-T'YOON.
sentence Դու հայ ե՞ս։ Are you Armenian? doo hay es?
sentence Ուրախ եմ քեզ տեսնել։ Nice to see you. oo-RAKH em k'ez tes-NEL.

Pattern

The auxiliary changes with the person: Ես լավ եմ = I am well; Դու լավ ես = you are well; Նա լավ է = he/she is well. Pronoun ես is read yes, but auxiliary ես is es. Ուրախ եմ means “I’m glad/happy”; it is not a context-free literal translation of “nice to meet you.”

Mini-dialogue

Read for meaning first. Then cover the English and try the exchange.

Speaker Armenian Meaning Approximate cue
Ani Բարև ձեզ։ Hello (polite). ba-REV dzez.
Levon Բարև։ Իմ անունը Լևոն է։ Hello. My name is Levon. ba-REV. eem a-NOO-nə le-VON e.
Ani Ուրախ եմ քեզ տեսնել։ Դու լա՞վ ես։ I’m glad to see you. Are you well? oo-RAKH em k'ez tes-NEL. doo lav es?
Levon Լավ եմ, շնորհակալություն։ Իսկ դո՞ւ։ I’m well, thank you. And you? lav em, shə-nor-ha-ka-loo-T'YOON. eesk doo?
Ani Ես էլ լավ եմ։ I’m well too. yes el lav em.

Effortful recall — answer before opening the key

  1. Say “Hello, my name is …” without looking.
  2. How do you say “I am well, thank you”?
  3. Ask one person “And you?”
Answer key
  1. Բարև, իմ անունը ... է։
  2. Լավ եմ, շնորհակալություն։
  3. Իսկ դո՞ւ

Guided real-world task

At a low-stakes meeting, give a two-line introduction: greeting + name. If the other person answers, reuse լավ եմ / իսկ դու՞.

Repair and retry

Make your first attempt without copying the dialogue. If one phrase fails, isolate that phrase, compare it with the Learn table, say/write it once in a new context, then repeat the whole task. Do not mark it “known” merely because it was visible.

Reuse bridge

Before the next lesson, reuse one earlier greeting, one courtesy phrase, and one previous task phrase in a new two-line exchange.

Source note: The saved Eastern Armenian corpus and older card corpus were consulted as references. These controlled beginner items are labeled in the companion JSON as adapted, assistant-authored, or an Anki reference; no audio or native-speaker validation is claimed.