Familiar sounds, unfamiliar shapes

Meet se, vev, tyun, re and practise telling them apart.

One letter, two cases

These lessons use Eastern Armenian pronunciation and modern reformed spelling. Capitals start sentences and names; most running text is lowercase. The capital and lowercase are the same letter and sound. There are no Arabic-style positional forms.

se

Ս ս makes s. Compare Ս Ո and ս ո: notice which way each shape opens.

vev

Վ վ makes v. Compare վ պ փ and check the descending stroke.

vev

tyun

Տ տ makes t without a strong puff. Do not use its Latin-looking shape to guess the sound.

tyun

re

Ր ր is a short tongue-tip r. Contrast it with the trill written Ռ ռ.