;Simple Amharic sentences One may construct simple Amharic sentences by using a
subject and a
predicate. Here are a few simple sentences: {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE
Pronouns Personal pronouns Amharic grammar distinguishes
person,
number, and often
gender. This includes
personal pronouns such as English
I, Amharic ; English
she, Amharic . As in other Semitic languages, the same distinctions appear in three other places in their grammar. ; Subject–verb agreement All Amharic verbs
agree with their
subjects; that is, the person, number, and (in the second- and third-person singular) gender of the subject of the verb are marked by
suffixes or prefixes on the verb. Because the affixes that signal subject agreement vary greatly with the particular verb
tense/
aspect/
mood, they are normally not considered to be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verb
conjugation. ; Object pronoun suffixes Amharic verbs often have additional morphology that indicates the person, number, and (second- and third-person singular) gender of the object of the verb. {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE While morphemes such as in this example are sometimes described as signaling
object agreement, analogous to subject agreement, they are more often thought of as object pronoun
suffixes because, unlike the markers of subject agreement, they do not vary significantly with the tense/aspect/mood of the verb. For
arguments of the verb other than the subject or the object, there are two separate sets of related suffixes, one with a
benefactive meaning (
to,
for), the other with an adversative or locative meaning (
against,
to the detriment of,
on,
at). {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am| transl = EAE Morphemes such as and in these examples will be referred to in this article as
prepositional object pronoun suffixes because they correspond to prepositional phrases such as
for her and
on her, to distinguish them from the
direct object pronoun suffixes such as 'her'. ;Possessive suffixes Amharic has a further set of morphemes that are suffixed to nouns, signaling
possession: , , , ; , . In each of these four aspects of the grammar, independent pronouns, subject–verb agreement, object pronoun suffixes, and possessive suffixes, Amharic distinguishes eight combinations of person, number, and gender. For first person, there is a two-way distinction between singular (
I) and plural (
we), whereas for second and third persons, there is a distinction between singular and plural and within the singular a further distinction between masculine and feminine (
you m. sg.,
you f. sg.,
you pl.,
he,
she,
they). Amharic is a
pro-drop language: neutral sentences in which no element is emphasized normally omit independent pronouns: 'he's Ethiopian', 'I invited her'. The Amharic words that translate
he,
I, and
her do not appear in these sentences as independent words. However, in such cases, the person, number, and (second- or third-person singular) gender of the subject and object are marked on the verb. When the subject or object in such sentences is emphasized, an independent pronoun is used: '
he's Ethiopian', '
I invited her', 'I invited
her'. The table below shows alternatives for many of the forms. The choice depends on what precedes the form in question, usually whether this is a vowel or a consonant, for example, for the first-person singular possessive suffix, 'my country', 'my body'. Within second- and third-person singular, there are two additional polite independent pronouns, for reference to people to whom the speaker wishes to show respect. This usage is an example of the so-called
T–V distinction that is made in many languages. The polite pronouns in Amharic are 'you (sg. polite)'. and 's/he (polite)'. Although these forms are singular semantically—they refer to one person—they correspond to third-person plural elsewhere in the grammar, as is common in other T–V systems. For the possessive pronouns, however, the polite 2nd person has the special suffix 'your sg. pol.' For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Amharic adds the independent pronouns to the preposition 'of': 'mine', 'yours m. sg.', 'yours f. sg.', 'hers', etc.
Reflexive pronouns For
reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.), Amharic adds the possessive suffixes to the noun 'head': 'myself', 'herself', etc.
Demonstrative pronouns Like English, Amharic makes a two-way distinction between near ('this, these') and far ('that, those')
demonstrative expressions (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs). Besides number, Amharic – unlike English – also distinguishes between the masculine and the feminine genders in the singular. There are also separate demonstratives for formal reference, comparable to the formal personal pronouns: 'this, these (formal)' and 'that, those (formal)'. The singular pronouns have combining forms beginning with
zz instead of
y when they follow a preposition: 'because of this; therefore', 'like that'. The plural demonstratives, like the second and third person plural personal pronouns, are formed by adding the plural prefix to the singular masculine forms.
Nouns Amharic
nouns can be primary or derived. A noun like 'foot, leg' is primary, and a noun like 'pedestrian' is a derived noun.
Gender Amharic nouns can have a masculine or feminine
gender. There are several ways to express gender. An example is the old suffix
-t for femininity. This suffix is no longer productive and is limited to certain patterns and some isolated nouns. Nouns and adjectives ending in usually take the suffix
-t to form the feminine form, e.g. 'Ethiopian (m.)' vs. 'Ethiopian (f.)'; 'heavenly (m.)' vs. 'heavenly (f.)'. This suffix also occurs in nouns and adjective based on the pattern , e.g. 'king' vs. 'queen' and 'holy (m.)' vs. 'holy (f.)'. Some nouns and adjectives take a feminine marker : 'child, boy' vs. 'girl'; 'sheep, ram' vs. 'ewe'; 'senior, elder (m.)' vs. 'old woman'; 'monkey' vs. 'monkey (f.)'. Some nouns have this feminine marker without having a masculine opposite, e.g. 'spider', 'whirlpool, eddy'. There are, however, also nouns with the suffix that are treated as masculine: 'army', 'big drum'. The feminine gender is not only used to indicate biological gender, but may also be used to express smallness, e.g. 'the little house' (lit. house-FEM-DEF). The feminine marker can also serve to express tenderness or sympathy.
Specifiers Amharic has special words that can be used to indicate the gender of people and animals. For people, is used for masculinity and for femininity, e.g. 'boy', 'girl'; 'physician, doctor (m.)', 'physician, doctor (f.)'. For animals, the words , , or (less usual) can be used to indicate masculine gender, and or to indicate feminine gender. Examples: 'calf (m.)'; 'cock (rooster)'; 'hen'.
Plural The plural suffix is used to express plurality of nouns. Some
morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel. For nouns ending in a consonant, plain is used: 'house' becomes 'houses'. For nouns ending in a
back vowel (-a, -o, -u), the suffix takes the form , e.g. 'dog', 'dogs'; 'drum', 'drums'. Nouns that end in a
front vowel pluralize using or , e.g. 'scholar', or 'scholars'. Another possibility for nouns ending in a vowel is to delete the vowel and use plain , as in 'dogs'. Besides using the normal external plural (), nouns and adjectives can be pluralized by way of
reduplicating one of the
radicals. For example, 'lady' can take the normal plural, yielding , but 'ladies' is also found. Some
kinship-terms have two plural forms with a slightly different meaning. For example, 'brother' can be pluralized as 'brothers' but also as 'brothers of each other'. Likewise, 'sister' can be pluralized as ('sisters'), but also as 'sisters of each other'. In
compound words, the plural marker is suffixed to the second noun: 'church' (lit. house of Christian) becomes 'churches'.
Archaic forms Amsalu Aklilu has pointed out that Amharic has inherited a large number of old plural forms directly from Classical Ethiopic (Geʽez) (Amharic: ). There are basically two archaic pluralising strategies, called external and
internal plural. The external plural consists of adding the suffix
-an (usually masculine) or (usually feminine) to the singular form. The internal plural employs vowel quality or
apophony to pluralize words, similar to English
man vs.
men and
goose vs.
geese. Sometimes combinations of the two systems are found. The archaic plural forms are sometimes used to form new plurals, but this is only considered grammatical in more established cases. • Examples of the external plural: 'teacher', ; 'wise person', ; 'priest', ; 'word', . • Examples of the internal plural: 'virgin', ; 'land', . • Examples of combined systems: 'king', ; 'star', ; 'book', .
Definiteness If a noun is definite or
specified, this is expressed by a suffix, the
article, which is -
u or -
w for masculine singular nouns and , or for feminine singular nouns. For example: In singular forms, this article distinguishes between the male and female gender; in plural forms this distinction is absent, and all definites are marked with -
u, e.g. 'the houses', 'the maids'. As in the plural,
morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel.
Accusative Amharic has an accusative marker, -
(ə)n. Its use is related to the definiteness of the object, thus Amharic shows
differential object marking. In general, if the object is definite, possessed, or a proper noun, the accusative must be used, but if the direct object is not determined, the accusative marker is generally not used. {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am The accusative suffix is usually placed after the first word of the noun phrase: {{fs interlinear|indent=2|lang = am
Nominalization Amharic has various ways to derive nouns from other words or other nouns. One way of nominalizing consists of a form of
vowel agreement (similar vowels on similar places) inside the three-radical structures typical of
Semitic languages. For example: • CəCäC: – 'wisdom'; 'sickness' • CəCCaC-e: – 'obesity'; 'cruelty' • CəCC-ät: – 'moistness'; 'knowledge'; 'fatness'. There are also several nominalising suffixes. • : – 'relation'; 'Christianity'; 'laziness'; 'priesthood'. •
-e, suffixed to place name X, yields 'a person from X': 'someone from
Gojjam'. • and serve to express profession, or some relationship with the base noun: 'pedestrian' (from 'foot'); 'gate-keeper' (from 'gate'). • and – '-ness'; '
Ethiopianness'; 'nearness' (from 'near').
Copula The
copula is expressed by the particle .
Negative Copula The negative copula is formed with .
Past Copula The past copula is expressed by whose negative is .
Future Copula The future expressed by the imperfect of , .
Subordinate Copula The subordinate copula is expressed by conjugating or for the present and future, and for the past.
Possession Amharic lacks a specific verb ‘to have’. Instead, it uses verbs of existence combined with an object suffix pronoun. For the present, the verb ‘there is’ is used. For the past, ‘there was’ is used, and for the future, the imperfect of , is used. Thus, a sentence like ‘I have four books’ literally translates to ‘four books is-to-me’. Furthermore, since the possessee is the subject, the verb agrees with the possessee rather than the possessor.
Verbs Verb Stems The basic meaning of Amharic verbs are given by its consonants known as '
radicals' with vowels used to express shades of meaning. They can be divided into the following classes: triradicals, biradicals, quadriradicals, and pluriradicals or verbs with more than four radicals.
Triradicals Triradicals have three types. • Type A: , characterized by lack of gemination of the 2nd radical in non-perfect forms. • Type B: , characterized by gemination of the 2nd radical in all verb forms. • Type C: , characterized by the vowel after the 1st radical.
Biradicals In biradicals the 2nd consonant is geminated in the perfect if it is the 2nd radical of the root. The only classes to have three types are: and . Other biradicals only have one type. • Type : • Type A: 'to hear' • Type B: 'to drink' • Type C: 'to attempt' • Type : • Type A: 'to remain behind' • Type B: 'to distinguish, separate' • Type C: 'to shave'
Quadriradicals In quadriradicals, the 3rd radical is geminated in the perfect and has two types: • Type 1: 'to testify' • Type 2: 'to mix', characterized by the vowel after the 2nd radical.
Derived stems Derived stems are formed by either reduplication of the 2nd radical in triradicals, and of the 3rd radical in quadriradicals, or by prefixing morphemes.
Conjugation As in other
Semitic languages, Amharic verbs use a combination of prefixes and suffixes to indicate the subject, distinguishing three persons, two numbers, and (in the second and third persons singular) two genders.
Perfect The perfect is typically used to express the past and formed using suffixes. The negative perfect is formed by adding the prefix and the suffix to the affirmative perfect, though the suffix may be omitted in subordinate clauses introduced by a conjunction or relative marker.
Simple Imperfect The simple imperfect form is used for the present and future in the main negative clause, and both affirmative and negative in subordinate clauses, including the relative clause. It is formed used using a combination of prefixes and suffixes. The negative imperfect is formed by adding the prefix and the suffix .
Compound Imperfect The compound imperfect is used to express the present or future in the main clause and is formed by combining the simple imperfect with the verb .
Jussive The
jussive is formed using the same prefixes and suffixes as the imperfect except for the 1st person singular, which uses . The 2nd person is only used in the negative jussive which is formed using the prefix .
Imperative The
imperative is used for orders and commands, and only has forms for the second person singular and plural. Negative imperatives are expressed using the negative jussive.
Participles Participles are derived from basic and derived stems. The participle forms of triradicals for type A is , for type B , and for type C .
Verbal Nouns The verbal noun of a regular triradical is formed by prefixing to the form for type A, for type B, and for type C.
Gerund Along with the infinitive and the present participle, the gerund is one of three
non-finite verb forms. The infinitive is a nominalized verb, the present participle expresses incomplete action, and the gerund expresses completed action, e.g. '''''' 'Ali, having eaten lunch, went to the market'. There are several usages of the gerund depending on its morpho-syntactic features.
Verbal use The gerund functions as the head of a subordinate clause (see the example above). There may be more than one gerund in one sentence. The gerund is used to form the following tense forms: • present perfect '''''' 'He has said'. • past perfect '''''' 'He had said'. • possible perfect '''''' 'He (probably) has said'.
Adverbial use The gerund can be used as an adverb: '''''' 'From time to time, he laughs'. (From 'to pass')
Adjectives Adjectives are words or constructions used to qualify nouns. Adjectives in Amharic can be formed in several ways: they can be based on nominal patterns, or derived from nouns, verbs and other parts of speech. Adjectives can be nominalized by way of suffixing the nominal article (see
Nouns above). Amharic has few primary adjectives. Some examples are 'kind, generous', 'mute, dumb, silent', 'yellow'.
Nominal patterns :CäCCaC – 'heavy'; 'generous' :CäC(C)iC – 'fine, subtle'; 'new' :CäC(C)aCa – 'broken'; 'bent, wrinkled' :CəC(C)əC – 'intelligent, smart'; 'hidden' :CəC(C)uC – 'worthy, dignified'; 'black'; 'holy'
Denominalizing suffixes : – 'powerful' (from 'power'); 'true' (from 'truth') : – 'secular' (from 'world') : – 'intelligent' (from 'heart'); 'earthly' (from 'earth'); 'religious' (from 'religion')
Prefix : 'urban' (); 'Christian' (); 'wrong' ().
Adjective noun complex The adjective and the noun together are called the 'adjective noun complex'. In Amharic, the adjective precedes the noun, with the verb last; e.g. 'a bad master'; (lit. big house he-built) 'he built a big house'. If the adjective noun complex is
definite, the definite article is suffixed to the adjective and not to the noun, e.g. (lit. big-def house) 'the big house'. In a possessive construction, the adjective takes the definite article, and the noun takes the pronominal possessive suffix, e.g. (lit. big-def house-my) . When enumerating adjectives using 'and', both adjectives take the definite article: (lit. pretty-def-and intelligent-def girl came) . In the case of an indefinite plural adjective noun complex, the noun is plural and the adjective may be used in singular or in plural form. Thus, 'diligent students' can be rendered (lit. diligent student-PLUR) or (lit. diligent-PLUR student-PLUR). ==Literature==