What is the Amharic word for “wallet”?
In Ethiopia, some words are called in their original country language. Here are some examples,
Television; Television have literally no translated word in Amharic language. We just call it tv or television. Refrigerator, wallet, and some other words can be common examples.
So, a wallet can be called a “wallet” because we understand that a wallet is used to store money, ID, Visa cards, and so on.
Also, the exact Amharic Word for Wallet is የገንዘብ ቦርሳ or የኪስ ቦርሳ.
Refrigerator = ፍሪጅ
ID = መታወቂያ
How can you order a drink of water in Amharic?
Let’s see, “Can you bring me the bottle of water?” When this request is translated in Amharic, “አንድ ጠርሙስ ውሃ ልታመጡልኝ ትችላላችሁ?” To elaborate, “ānidi t’erimusi wiha litamet’ulinyi tichilalachihu?”
If you are talking to a single man, then the request will be “አንድ ጠርሙስ ውሃ ልታመጣልኝ ትችላለህ?” (ānidi t’erimusi wiha litametalign tichilaleh?)
If you are talking to a single lady or women, then the request will be “አንድ ጠርሙስ ውሃ ልታመÜልኝ ትችያለሽ?” (ānidi t’erimusi wiha litamechilgn tichiyalesh?)
How do you say ‘how are you’ in Amharic?
- how many people
- The sex of the person
- The respect shown).
As several have answered,
እንዴት ነህ (indét nehh)
እንዴት ነሽ (indét nesh for a female singular).
እንደምን ነህ (indemin nehh, for a male singular) and
እንደምን ነሽ (indemin nesh, for a female singular)
Another variation would be
እንዴት አለህ (indét ahllehh, for a male singular)
እንዴት አለሽ (indét ahllesh, for a female singular).
The plural does not distinguish between the sexes but is still different:
እንዴት ናችሁ (indét nachihu) or
እንደምን ናችሁ (indemin nachihu).
Then you have the respectful way of addressing someone (but does not distinguish between the sexes):
እንዴት ነዎት (indét nehwot)
እንደምን ነዎት (indemin nehwot)
እንዴት አሉ (indét allu)
እንደምን አሉ (indemin allu).
However, in regular Amharic conversation, nobody simply says, how are you. Usually, a variation of “are you well?” is added after how are you, and conjugated thus:
እንዴት ነህ፥ ደህና ነህ? (ደህና = dehhna)
እንዴት ነሽ፥ ደህና ነሽ?
እንደምን ነህ፥ ደህና ነህ?
እንደምን ነሽ፥ ደህና ነሽ?
እንዴት ናችሁ፥ ደህና ናችሁ?
እንደምን ናችሁ፥ ደህና ናችሁ?
እንዴት ነዎት፥ ደህና ነዎት?
እንደምን ነዎት፥ ደህና ነዎት?
Then you have the expression using ወይ (woy), an approximation of “are you”.
ደህና ነህ ወይ። (dehhna nehh woy, male singular)
ደህና ነሽ ወይ። (dehhna nesh woy, female singular)
ደህና ነዎት ወይ። (dehhna newot woy, respectful)
ደህና ናችሁ ወይ። (dehhna nachihu woy, addressing many)
How hard is Amharic?
I would say it depends on your situation, your level of resources and free time.
The main thing in learning any language is to practice for at least 15 minutes a day. Considering English and other languages like Spanish, Amharic is the easiest because each letter stays the same in any type of situation, even when you are spelling any words. There is no such thing as rules for a letter and vowels:’a, , e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.’ every letter doesn’t change sounds or anything overall.
The only difficult part is the writing the words in the correct way and sounding it out but after you know and memorize all the letter you are going to go and learn the word of objects or basically any subject of words that you want to focus on. Then once you know the words you are able to speak small sentences like ‘ My name is _____ or I like to eat injera (Ethiopian flat bread with stew sauce)’. Then with a little more practice you will be able to write in amharic by sounding out the words and using the letters.
Well good luck in you journey learning amharic if you pursuit your goal. Hope this helps