մագազին Noun
Looks like magazine Really means a shop, a store
A printed magazine is ամսագիր in Armenian; մագազին only means a shop.
Some Armenian words look like an English word you already know, then mean something completely different. Here are 10 of the most common traps, each with the English word it resembles, what it really means, and how to say the English sense instead.
False friends in Armenian are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, մագազին means a shop, not magazine, and անեկդոտ means a joke, not anecdote. This free guide lists 10 real Armenian false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 10 Armenian false friends.
Looks like magazine Really means a shop, a store
A printed magazine is ամսագիր in Armenian; մագազին only means a shop.
Looks like anecdote Really means a joke, a funny story
A true short story (an anecdote) is պատմություն in Armenian; անեկդոտ means a joke.
Looks like cabinet Really means an office or study room
A cabinet (the furniture) is պահարան in Armenian; կաբինետ is just a room.
Looks like costume Really means a business suit
A costume (fancy dress) is տարազ in Armenian; կոստյում means a business suit.
Looks like rope Really means a minute (unit of time)
Rope (the cord) is պարան in Armenian; րոպե always means a minute.
Looks like ham Really means taste, flavor
Ham (the meat) is խոզի միս (pork) in Armenian; համ just means taste or flavor.
Looks like pat Really means a wall
To pat (tap gently) is շոյել in Armenian; պատ only means a wall.
Looks like crack Really means fire, flame
A crack (a split) is ճեղք in Armenian; կրակ means fire, as in կրակել, to shoot.
Looks like ton Really means a holiday, a feast day
A ton (the weight) is տոննա in Armenian; տոն means a holiday, like Ամանոր, New Year.
Looks like par Really means a dance
Par (the golf or standard term) has no single Armenian match; պար always means a dance.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Armenian with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, so the true meaning attaches to the story instead of the English lookalike. Save the tricky words and review them later. Free to start.
A false friend is a word that looks or sounds like a word in your language but carries a different meaning. English and Armenian overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Armenian մագազին still reads like "magazine" to an English eye even though it means "a shop, a store".
These slips are common because your brain rewards the shortcut: a familiar-looking word feels safe, so you skip the check. That is fine until մագազին or անեկդոտ changes the meaning of a whole sentence. Recognizing the pattern is half the fix. Knowing the handful of high-frequency offenders on this page is the other half.
The durable fix is not memorization but exposure in context. When you read Armenian and see one of these words doing its real job in a sentence, with a translation a tap away, the correct meaning wins. That is exactly what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
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False friends are Armenian words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like մագազին, which looks like "magazine" but means "a shop, a store". They exist because both languages inherited or borrowed from shared roots that then drifted apart. The fix is meeting them in real sentences until the true meaning sticks.
No. Armenian մագազին actually means a shop, a store, not magazine. A printed magazine is ամսագիր in Armenian; մագազին only means a shop. This is one of the most common Armenian false friends for English speakers, so it is worth learning early.
Memorizing a list helps for a day; context makes it permanent. When you meet Armenian words like մագազին and պար inside real sentences, with the translation one tap away, the correct meaning attaches to the situation instead of to the English lookalike. That is how reading in Lingo7 trains them out of you.
Yes. Armenian and English share a large amount of vocabulary through Latin, French, and centuries of borrowing, and that overlap is exactly what breeds false friends. This page covers 10 of the most common ones, from մագազին (looks like magazine) to պար (looks like par). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.