Amharic Nouns

Welcome to the third Amharic lesson about nouns. This time we will first learn about fruits and vegetables, followed by grammar rules, then food items, finally a conversation in Amharic to help you practice your daily phrases. To hear the pronunciation, just click on the sound icon.

potatoes ድንች [dənəčə]

tomatoes ቲማቲም [timatimə]

onions ሽንኩርት [šənəkurətə]

carrots ካሮት [karotə]

fruits ፍራፍሬ [fərafəre]

apples ፖም [pomə]

bananas ሙዝ [muzə]

oranges ብርቱካን [bərətukanə]

Nouns Grammar Rules

In general nouns refer to a person, an object, or abstract ideas. For example: a fast runner the noun is [runner] because it refers to a person. The examples below use nouns in different ways and places to demonstrate how they behave in a sentence.

Grammar + Rules - Amharic + Pronunciation
do you have milk? [verb + noun] ወተት አለህ? [wätätə ʾälähə?]
I have milk and coffee [preposition + noun] ወተት እና ቡና አለኝ [wätätə ʾəna buna ʾäläñə]
he has three apples [number + plural noun] ሶስት ፖሞች አለው [sosətə pomočə ʾäläwə]
she only has one apple [number + singular noun] አንድ ፖም ብቻ ነው ያላት [ʾänədə pomə bəča näwə yalatə]
we live in a small house [adjective + noun] ትንሽ ቤት ውስጥ እንኖራለን [tənəšə betə wəsət'ə ʾənənoralänə]
I like our breakfast [pronoun + noun] ቁርሳችንን ወድጄዋለው [qurəsačənənə wädəǧewaläwə]

The following are nouns of food items that you might be interested in learning and memorizing.

bread ዳቦ [dabo]

milk ወተት [wätätə]

butter ቅቤ [qəbe]

cheese አይብ [ʾäyəbə]

coffee ቡና [buna]

sandwich ሳንድዊች [sanədəwičə]

meat ስጋ [səga]

chicken ዶሮ [doro]

fish አሳ [ʾäsa]

breakfast ቁርስ [qurəsə]

lunch ምሣ [məsa]

dinner እራት [ʾəratə]

Conversation in Amharic

Now we finally reach the fun part, the practice of the daily conversations. These phrases are used to get to know new people, and break the ice.

English - Amharic - Pronunciation
Do you speak (English/ Amharic)? አማርኛ ትናገራለህ? [ʾämarəña tənagäralähə? ]
Just a little በመጠኑ [bämät'änu]
I like Amharic አማርኛን እወዳለሁ [ʾämarəñanə ʾəwädalähu]
Can I practice with you? ከአንተ ጋር መለማመድ እችላለሁ? [käʾänətä garə mälämamädə ʾəčəlalähu?]
How old are you? ስንት ዓመትህ ነው? [sənətə ʾamätəhə näwə?]
I'm thirty three years old ሰላሣ ሶስት ዓመቴ ነው [sälasa sosətə ʾamäte näwə]
It was nice talking to you ከአንተ ጋር በማውራቴ ደስ ብሎኛል [käʾänətä garə bämawərate däsə bəloñalə]

I hope you enjoyed this lesson about the nouns in Amharic. Please check out our main menu here for more lessons: homepage. Now check the next lesson below.