Unit 2: Everyday Communication - Cases, Verbs, and Register
Core concepts
Unit 2 moves from isolated forms to real communication: greetings and leave-taking, introductions, family and school vocabulary, numbers, time, shopping, and simple transactions. Grammatically you must control the case system more fully - nominative, accusative-dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental, and locative - and know that case endings attach to the noun stem, sometimes with a linking vowel. Learn the conjugation of the present and past imperfect of common verbs (լինել, ունենալ, գնալ, գրել, կարդալ, ուտել, խմել) and the negative particle չ-, which fuses with the verb (չեմ, չես, չէ).
Politeness and register
Armenian distinguishes informal դու from polite/plural դուք. Questions are formed with question words (ինչ, ով, որտեղ, երբ, ինչպես, ինչու) and rising intonation; yes/no questions often add արդյոք in formal style.
Traps to watch
- Using the wrong case after prepositions and postpositions - Armenian favours postpositions governing specific cases.
- Mixing the polite դուք with a singular verb form.
- Forgetting that չ- precedes the auxiliary, not the main verb.
- Confusing cardinal and ordinal numbers (երկու vs երկրորդ).
- Translating "have" literally: Armenian expresses possession with ունենալ or a dative construction, not a separate verb "to have" in all tenses.
Worked example
To ask politely "Do you (polite) have a pen?" use Դուք գրիչ ունե՞ք - the question particle -՞ sits on the stressed syllable of the verb, and ունեք agrees with plural/polite դուք. Rule of thumb: match the pronoun to the verb ending before worrying about word order.