Introducing yourself and polite address

Use Ես … եմ to introduce yourself. The verb normally follows the name or description: Ես Անահիտն եմ. It does not change for a woman or a man. Նա means either he or she.

Դու addresses one person familiarly; դուք addresses several people or one adult politely. Both polite singular and plural use եք. You can leave out a subject pronoun when the verb makes it clear. The pronoun ես starts with ye; the auxiliary in դու ես starts with plain e. The auxiliaries եմ, ենք, եք and են also start with plain e.

The definite article is attached to a noun: բանալի is key, բանալին is the key. After a consonant you often see ը, but before a following vowel sound you commonly see ն: տունը, տունն է. Names can also take this ending when identifying someone: Անահիտն եմ. Armenian has no grammatical masculine/feminine noun classes.

The question mark ՞ is placed over the stressed vowel of the questioned word. The full stop is ։. Read the words normally; the marks indicate intonation.

• Ես Անահիտն եմ։I am Anahit.

• Դուք նոր հարևանն եք։You are the new neighbour (polite).

• Սա իմ տունն է։This is my house.