Two shapes together: ու and և

Read u as a two-character spelling, and meet the familiar word for “and”.

Ու, ու, ՈՒ: the vowel u

The two characters ո + ւ work together as ու, pronounced u, like oo in food. Modern reformed alphabet lists treat this digraph as a letter. At the start of a name or sentence it is Ու; in all-capital text it is ՈՒ. Do not pronounce its two components separately.

Ու ու ՈՒ

u · the same vowel in three capitalisation styles

և means “and”

և is a ligature related to ե + ւ. In modern reformed spelling it is read ev, or commonly yev at the start of a word. Its capitalised spelling is Եվ and its all-capital spelling is ԵՎ. These are spelling combinations, not Arabic-style positional forms.

Եվ և ԵՎ

ev / yev · and