to use the traditional orthography. Nevertheless, writings of either form are mutually intelligible, since the difference between the two orthographies is not large. Morphology Pronouns Armenian has T-V distinction, with , , used informally and capitalized , , as the polite forms. Nouns Eastern Armenian nouns have seven cases, one more than Western Armenian. They are: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), genitive (possession), dative (indirect object), ablative (origin), instrumental (means) and locative (position). Of the seven cases, the nominative and accusative, with exceptions, are the same, and the genitive and dative are the same, meaning that nouns have mostly five distinct forms for case. Nouns in Armenian also decline for number (singular and plural), but do not decline for gender (i.e. masculine or feminine). Declension in Armenian is based on how the genitive is formed. There are several declensions, but two are the most used (genitive in i, and genitive in u): Two notes: First, notice that the Ablative form in Eastern Armenian is , where it is -ê in Western Armenian: Abl.sg WA karê/EA Second, notice that in Western Armenian, the plural forms followed the u-declension, while in Eastern Armenian the plural forms follow the i-declension: Gen.pl WA karineru/EA Articles Like some other languages such as English, Armenian has definite and indefinite articles. The indefinite article in Eastern Armenian is , which precedes the noun: ('a book', Nom.sg), ('of a book', Gen.sg) The definite article is a suffix attached to the noun, and is one of two forms, either or , depending on whether the final sound is a vowel or a consonant, and whether a following word begins with a vowel or consonant: ('the man', Nom.sg) ('the barley' Nom.sg) but: ('This is the man') ('This is the barley') Adjectives Adjectives in Armenian do not decline for case or number, and precede the noun: ('the good book', Nom.sg) ('of the good book', Gen.sg) Verbs Verbs in Armenian are based on two basic series of forms, a "present" form and an "imperfect" form. From this, all other tenses and moods are formed with various particles and constructions. There is a third form, the preterite, which in Armenian is a tense in its own right, and takes no other particles or constructions. (See also Armenian verbs and Eastern Armenian verb table for more detailed information.) The present tense in Eastern Armenian is based on two conjugations (a, e). In Eastern Armenian,