Two Ways to Say “And”

Unlike English, and many other languages, Armenian has two words to say “and.” But, as with many synonyms, people tend to use one particular word and put aside all others. It is a matter of style. If you care about your speech, you will want to speak accurately. Otherwise . . . you may see the results every day.

The two conjunctions in question are yev (եւ) and oo (ու). Do they have any difference in meaning? No.

If you want to say “I will first go to eat and then go home,” you can either say
Նախ պիտի ուտեմ եւ յետոյ պիտի քնանամ (Nakh bidi oodem yev hedo bidi knanam) or
Նախ պիտի ուտեմ ու յետոյ պիտի քնանամ (Nakh bidi oodem oo hedo bidi knanam).

However, you can take advantage of the existence of both words to improve your quality of speech. Thus,
1) You should not use yev or oo alone several times in the same sentence, as in:
Ես եւ դուն պաղպաղակ կերանք եւ յետոյ տուն գացինք
(Yes yev toon baghbaghag gerank yev hedo doon katsink, “You and I ate ice cream and then went home”).
It is better to use oo between yes and toon (“You and I”):yes oo toon.

2) In general, when a word ends in a consonant and the next starts with a consonant, it is advisable to use oo (շուն ու կատու/ shoon oo gadoo “dog and cat”), and when a word ends in a vowel and the next starts with a vowel, yev is the word of choice (քու եւ իմ/koo yev im “your and my”).

3) If the surrounding words are filled with oo¬, it is better not to use the conjunction oo. For instance, instead of ուրախութիւն ու երջանկութիւն (oorakhootioon oo yerchangootioon “joy and happiness”), it is better to say ուրախութիւն եւ երջանկութիւն (oorakhootioon yev yerchangootioon).