The 8 groups of road signs, and how to learn them

Road signs in Armenia are divided into 8 groups: warning, priority, prohibitory, mandatory, special regulation, information, service, and additional information signs (plates) — RA Government Decision No. 955-N of June 28, 2007, Annex 1, point 167. Vehicle identification signs are not one of those groups: they come from a separate Form No. 3 and go on the vehicle, not by the road (Rules, point 175). bibip's catalog lists them as a ninth category so they are easy to find, but under the Rules they are not a group of road signs.

Each group has its own visual language — shape, color, border: a triangle with a red border warns, a white circle with a red border prohibits, a blue circle instructs ("this way only"), a blue square sets a traffic regime, rectangles inform. Once you know a group's language, a sign you have never seen becomes readable, without memorizing hundreds of pictures.

Below are all 8 groups, with how to recognize them and where the exam sets traps.

The eight groups of signs

1. Warning signs

A triangle: white ground, red border. They prohibit nothing and require nothing — they warn of a hazard ahead: a dangerous bend, a steep descent, a pedestrian crossing, a railway crossing. Signs 1.1, 1.2 and 1.5–1.33 stand 150–300 m before the dangerous section outside built-up areas and 50–100 m inside them; any other distance goes on plate 8.1.1 "Distance to object" (Rules, Form No. 1, section 1). A handful of the group are not triangles at all — the railway markers 1.3.1, 1.3.2 and 1.4.1–1.4.6 — but for the rest: see a triangle, be ready for something.

2. Priority signs

A small group that decides who gives way to whom: 2.1 "Main road" (a yellow diamond), 2.4 "Give way" (an inverted triangle) and 2.5 "No driving without stopping" — the octagonal sign everyone calls STOP, whose official name is the one in quotes. These are the only signs you can identify by shape alone, even from behind. The group ties directly into the right of way at intersections.

3. Prohibitory signs

A circle: white ground, red border. They ban one specific action — entry, overtaking, stopping, the horn. Two details account for most of the mistakes. Zone of effect: signs 3.16, 3.20, 3.22, 3.24 and 3.26–3.30 act up to the nearest intersection after the sign, and in a built-up area with no intersection to the end of the built-up area; a yard exit does not interrupt the zone. Exemptions: signs 3.1–3.3, 3.18.1, 3.18.2 and 3.19 do not apply to public transport vehicles — trams, trolleybuses and buses running on routes with stops.

The white ground is not universal either: 3.27 "No stopping" and 3.28 "No parking" are blue with a red border.

4. Mandatory signs

A circle, blue ground. Where a prohibitory sign says "you may not", a mandatory sign says "this way only": straight ahead only, right only, a path for cyclists. A blue circle is an instruction, not a suggestion. Worth knowing for the exam: signs 4.1.1–4.1.6 that allow a left turn also allow a U-turn, and they do not apply to public transport vehicles (Rules, Form No. 1, section 4).

5. Special regulation signs

A square or rectangle, blue ground. These set a traffic regime: 5.1 "Motorway", 5.5 "One-way road", 5.21 "Residential zone", 5.14 "Lane for public transport vehicles". People confuse them with mandatory signs — the difference is the shape: a square, not a circle. One trap worth memorizing by number: the built-up-area rules start at 5.23.1 and 5.23.2 "Start of built-up area", while 5.25 only names a built-up area and does not bring those rules into force on that road.

6. Information signs

Rectangles that tell you something: where parking is (6.4), where a road dead-ends (6.8.1), which direction leads where (6.9.1, 6.10.1), how far it still is to a town (6.12 "Distance sign"). They prohibit nothing, but exam questions often use them to set up a situation.

7. Service signs

Blue rectangles with a white field showing the service: 7.3 "Filling station", 7.2 "Hospital", 7.9 "Hotel or motel", 7.7 "Place to eat". From the exam's point of view, the easiest group of all.

8. Additional information signs (plates)

Small white plates, never used on their own: they refine the main sign — its zone of effect (8.2.1), a direction, the type of vehicle it applies to (8.4.1, 8.4.3), the times it applies (8.5.4), the lane it covers (8.14). In exam questions it is very often the plate that changes the correct answer.

Identification signs: a ninth category in the catalog, not a group in the Rules

These are not on the road but on the vehicle itself: "Learner vehicle", "Long vehicle", "Transport of children", "Studs", "Deaf driver". Under point 175, as amended by Decision No. 559-N (in force since October 1, 2025), fitting every identification sign is compulsory whenever the circumstance it marks exists. There are exactly two exceptions — "Doctor" and "Person with disability" — fitted at the driver's discretion.

What changed in the Rules in 2024 and 2025

Two more recent changes are missing from older study notes. Decision No. 559-N also added the mandatory signs 4.9.1 "Driving with snow chains" and 4.9.2 "End of driving with snow chains" and plate 8.5.8 "Black ice", which limits 4.9.1 to the periods when the roadway is covered in snow or ice. And Decision No. 1880-N, in force since December 10, 2024, renamed plate 8.17 to "Persons with disabilities", 8.18 to "Except persons with disabilities" and the identification sign to "Person with disability".

How to learn them without rote memorization

Start with shape and color, not with an individual sign. Fix the logic of the groups first: triangle means warning, red circle means prohibition, blue circle means instruction. After that, the individual signs settle much faster.

Work through the lookalike pairs. Most mistakes come from confusing similar signs: 2.4 "Give way" against a warning triangle, 3.27 "No stopping" against 3.28 "No parking". Learn those side by side, concentrating on what separates them.

Read signs in real traffic. Every day, try to "read" the signs you pass on the street and say to yourself what each one requires. It is free practice, and far more effective than scrolling a list of pictures.

Where to practice

The Road Signs page collects the signs of every group with images and explanations, and the theory chapter for Group 4 covers zones of effect and exemptions. In the practice section you can work through the sign questions from the official question bank without registering — that is Group 4 · Road signs — while the road-marking questions are in Group 7 · Stopping, parking and road markings.

See also: zone of effect of a road sign.