What is the meaning of will in Amharic?
‘Will’ has no equivalent meaning in Amharic.
So, how do we say ‘I will go’ if there is no equivalent Amharic word for ‘will’?
Alright, it’s a good question. To say ‘I will go’ we say “እሄዳለሁ” The root word is መሄድ {to go}.
We change the root word and we add prefixes and suffixes on the Amharic verb to make future tense.
We put the following prefixes first to form a positive future sentence. They’re: እ, እን, ት and ይ.
| እ | for እኔ | እሄዳ |
| እን | for እኛ | እንሄዳ |
| ት | for አንተ, አንች, እናንተ, እሷ | ትሄዳትሄዳትሄጃ |
| ይ | for እሱ, እነሱ | ይሄዳይሄዳ |
We also need to add some suffixes to complete the verb. They’re ለሁ, ለን, ለህ, ለሽ, ላችሁ, ል, ለች and ሉ.
| ለሁ | for እኔ | እሄዳለሁ |
| ለን | for እኛ | እንሄዳለን |
| ለህ | for አንተ | ትሄዳለህ |
| ለሽ | for አንች | ትሄጃለሽ |
| ላችሁ | for እናንተ | ትሄዳላችሁ |
| ል | for እሱ | ይሄዳል |
| ለች | for እሷ | ትሄዳለች |
| ሉ | for እነሱ | ይሄዳሉ |
This whole process will produce phrases that look like these. 👇👇
እሄዳለሁ / I will go.
እንሄዳለን / We will go.
ትሄዳለህ / You will go. Male
ትሄጃለሽ / You will go. Female
ትሄዳላችሁ / You will go. Plural
ይሄዳል / He will go.
ትሄዳለች / She will go.
ይሄዳሉ / They will go.
The root word is መሄድ {to go}.
When we add first እ on ሄድ and change ድ to ዳ and then add ለ and ሁ, it will become ‘እሄዳለሁ‘ which means ‘I will go.’ It is for first singular person.
As we already see, we change the prefixes and suffixes of all pronoun. For example: For 1 person plural: We say: እንሄዳለን
For 2-person male: ትሄዳለህ (You will go), we start with ት and finish with ህ.
For female: ትሄጃለሽ (You will go.) We start with ት, and after ሄ, We add ጃ & ለ, and finish with ሽ. We always change ዳ to ጃ for female. The exception remains differential for other Amharic pronouns too.
The formula goes like this:
- እኔ {I} + እ + ለሁ
- እኛ {We} + እን + ለን
- አንተ {You} + ት + ለህ
- አንች {You} + ት + ጃለሽ
- እናንተ {You} + ት + ላችሁ
- እሱ {He} + ይ + ል
- እሷ {She} + ት + ለች
- እነሱ {They} + ይ + ሉ
But in English, we only need to change the pronouns, not the verb, to form a simple future tense.
Exercise: 1.
Now, based on what we have learned in the previous two pages, form a future tense phrase using the following words for all the personal pronouns in Amharic (e.g., I, you, he/she, etc.):
- መስራት
- መብላት
- መጠጣት
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