Saturday, July 23, 2011

101 Amharic verbs

A few days into our Amharic lessons, we realized that learning verbs was going to be very, very complicated. I was able to get pieces of the puzzle from our various books and iPad apps, from our wonderful tutor, and from a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia. Still, what we needed more than anything were multiple examples of conjugated verbs - in English letters since we haven't learned fidel yet - categorized by how they're conjugated. Like this book of Spanish verbs but in Amharic. I couldn't find anything like that. So for the last few weeks I've been working on making my own verb chart. I tried to check every infinitive against two different sources, and our tutor looked over the whole list, so I think it's fairly accurate. Any mistakes in it are entirely my fault.

You can download the verb chart here.  The first page has a pronunciation key, a few definitions, and a key to the kinds of verbs organized by color. The next thirty-four pages contain 101 verbs, listed alphabetically by English word. I hope people who are starting out in Amharic find it useful.
Posted by K at 12:14 AM
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11 comments:

  1. TabbJuly 23, 2011 at 7:55 AM

    Very useful, thanks for putting in all that work to make it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KJuly 23, 2011 at 9:05 AM

    You're welcome, honey.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MegJuly 23, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    Wow. You are amazing. So impressive. I hope all is going well with your wait. How long has it been for you guys?

    ReplyDelete
  4. TealWrenJuly 25, 2011 at 2:29 PM

    Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. martynbackMarch 23, 2012 at 8:49 AM

    Thanks, great tool.

    NB schwa is like "a" in "about" not "e" in "well".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KMarch 25, 2012 at 8:37 AM

      I made this for myself and didn't realize anyone else would use it (glad it's been helpful for you!) and this was an inside joke between me and me of how I sound when I say "well." I tend to mumble that word, for some reason, so it sounds like a schwa.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousJune 10, 2013 at 5:59 AM

    Dear Kyra,

    Thanks alot for making this available!!!! Great work!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownJune 26, 2013 at 12:06 PM

    Hi Kyra
    Can you provide these tables with verbs written in amharic fidel ?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KJune 26, 2013 at 9:08 PM

      Hi Erik,
      I wrote this in English letters to circumvent the need to master fidel. Check the book "Let's Speak Amharic" from the National African Language Resource Center. It has lots of verb tables in fidel.

      Delete
  8. garalnabiJune 29, 2014 at 8:15 PM

    Hi Kyra
    I'm trying to access your document but I get an error that it is not a valid PDF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KJuly 4, 2014 at 4:44 PM

      Hmm, I'm not sure why. It's working for me.

      Delete

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