Types of Amharic nouns

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. In Amharic, nouns are central to sentence construction and often come before verbs (S+O+V).

How many noun types are there in Amharic?

Amharic nouns can be categorized into 6 types. Here are the types of nouns in Amharic:

1. 1. Common and proper nouns (የወል ስሞች)
   2. Singular Plural Nouns (ነጠላ እና ብዙ ስሞች)
   3. Abstract and Concrete Nouns (ረቂቅና የሚዳሰሱ ስሞች)
   4. Countable & Uncountable Nouns (የሚቆጠሩና የማይቆጠሩ ስሞች)
   5. Definite and Indefinite nouns (የተወሰኑና ያልተወሰኑ ስሞች)
   6. Possessive Nouns (አጋናዛቢ ስሞች)

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1. Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

Common Nouns: These refer to general people, places, things, or ideas. Examples: ሰው (sew) = person, ቤት (bet) = house, ከተማ (ketema) = city.

• Proper Nouns: These refer to specific names of people, places, or things.
  • Examples: አዲስ አበባ = Addis Ababa, አለሙ (Alemu) – a person’s name.

Common Nouns	Proper Noun
ተማሪ (Student)	ሙሐመድ (Muhammed)
አገር (Country)	አሜሪካ (America)
ቋንቋ (Language)	አማርኛ (Amharic)
መፅሀፍ (Book)	ቁርአን (Quran)

The nouns on the left are common nouns that everyone or everything is called by. On the right, however, are specific nouns. For instance, ተማሪ (student) is a common noun for all students, whereas ‘ሙሐመድ (Muhammad)’ is a specifically known personal name.

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2. Amharic Singular and Plural Nouns

• Singular Nouns: Refer to one person, place, thing, or idea. Example:

• • ልጅ (lj) child.
  • ቤት (Biet) House
  • አገር (Ager) Country

Plural Nouns: Refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. Example:

• ልጆች (ljoch) children.
• ቤቶች (Bietoch) Houses
• አገሮች (Ageroch) Countries
• ተማሪዎች (Temariwoch) Students
• ተጠቃሚዎች (Teteqamiwoch) Consumers
• ባለሞያዎች (Balemoyawoch) Experts

In Amharic, pluralization is often done by adding suffixes like –och (ኦች) or woch (ዎች). When we want to change a word from singular to plural, we change the last letter to the seventh letter and then add ች.

For example, the last letter in the word ልጅ is ጅ; it is the sixth letter according to the Amharic fidel order. To change the word to plural, we need to make the last letter a seventh letter. So we will change ጅ to ጆ  and we will add ች → ልጆች   boys. So, you can change other words in this way too. Remember that the letter ኦ is a vowel letter that changes the consonant letters into the seventh letter. For example:

Singular Noun	+ኦች	Plural Noun
ቤት	+ኦች	ቤቶች
ሰው	+ኦች	ሰዎች
ሴት	+ኦች	ሴቶች
ወንድ	+ኦች	ወንዶች
ልጅ	+ኦች	ልጆች

Don’t forget, also, in some words, you need to add ዎች ate the end. For example:

• ሥራዎች = Works
• ቋንቋዎች = Languages
• አዋቂዎች = Adults, or knowledgeable persons
• ለተጎጂዎች (letegojiwoch) For the victims
• አካባቢዎች (Akababiwoch) Areas
• ማስረጃዎች (Masrejawoch) Evidences
• ታጣቂዎች (Tataqiwoch) Armed Forces

You see, if we don’t add ዎች at the end, the nouns remain singular. When learning Amharic nouns, the key takeaway is understanding the singular and plural forms. This is essential because you need to use singular nouns in singular contexts and plural nouns in plural contexts.

Of course, you can learn lots of things like vocabulary and rules in other types of nouns also, but singulars and plurals are more repetitive and applicable throughout your entire life.

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3. Abstract and Concrete Nouns

• Abstract Nouns: Refer to ideas, qualities, or states that cannot be seen or touched.
  • Examples: ፍቅር (fikir) – love, ሰላም (selam) – peace.

Additional examples:

Abstract nouns	Concrete Nouns
እምነት (belife)	መፅሀፍ (book)
ሀይማኖቶች (Religions)	አስተማሪ (Teacher)
Disease	ውሃ (Water)
ብርሃን (Light)	ድንጋይ (stone)
ጨለማ (Dark)	ወረቀት (Paper)
ሙቀት (heat)	ሙቀት መለኪያ (Thermometer)

• Concrete Nouns: Refer to physical objects that can be seen or touched.
  • Examples: መጽሐፍ (meṣḥaf) – book, ቤት (bet) – house.

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4. Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Countable Nouns: These can be counted and have singular and plural forms.
  • Examples: በር (ber) = door → በሮች (beroch) = doors.
• Uncountable Nouns: These cannot be counted and usually do not have a plural form.
  • Examples: ውሃ (wha) = water, ዱቄት (duqet) = flour.

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
ወተት (Milk)	ላሞች (Cows)
ውሃ (Water)	ብርጭቆዎች (Glasses)
ጨው (Salt)	በሮች (Doors)
ንፋስ (wind)	ልብሶች (clothes)

We can add numbers to change nouns measured in liters and kilos to plurals. We can also express the quantity of something by adding the words ብዙ (many) or በጣም ብዙ (very much). example:

• ሁለት ሊትር ዘይት (Two liters of oil)
• ብዙ ኪሎ ጨው (Many kilos of salt)
• በጣም ብዙ ማር (Too much honey)

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5. Indefinite and Definite Nouns

• Indefinite Nouns: Refer to non-specific people, places, or things.
  • Example: ቤት (bet) = a house.
• Definite Nouns: Refer to specific people, places, or things. In Amharic, definiteness is indicated by adding suffixes like -u (ኡ) or -wa (ዋ).
  • Example: ቤት (bet) → ቤቱ (betu) – the house.

Indefinite Nouns	Definite Nouns
ሴት (woman)	ሴቲቱ (the woman)
ሚስት (Wife)	ሚስቱ (his wife)
ሰው (Man)	ሰውየው(the man)
ባል (Husband)	ባሏ (Her husband)
ወንድም (Brother)	ወንድሙ (His brother)
መኪና (Car)	መኪናው A Masculine car, meaning ‘The car’ or His Car (የሱ መኪና.) መኪናዋ is a feminine car; it means the car or Her car (የሷ መኪና)
ቤት (House)	ቤቲቱ (A Feminine house) The house ቤቷ (her house)

The adjectives make nouns definite and specific. The Amharic adjectives that are added above to the defenite nouns are not independent words and cannot stand on their own; they are suffixes. The Amharic and English adjectives are the following:

• ቱ <=> The
• ቱ <=> The
• ው <=> The
• ሏ <=> her
• ሙ <=> His
• ው / ዋ <=> The or her
• ቱ / ቷ <=> The Her

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6. Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns show ownership or relationship. In Amharic, possession is indicated by adding possessive suffixes to the noun, like we did with the defenite nouns, and we also add the የ letter, which means “of.”.

• Examples:
  • ቤቴ (biete) = my house
  • ቤቱ (bietu) = his house
  • ቤቷ (bietwa) = her house
  • የሙሐመድ ልጅ = Muhammed’s child
  • የካሳ ዘመድ = Kasa’s relative

The letetr የ is a preposition; we use it before the noun to denote someone’s belonging. ‘የ’ means of or ‘s. I think, this is a big takaway too.