Language/Amharic/Grammar/Time-Clauses

Time Clauses in Amharic

The formation of the clause ሲያድግ siadïg = ሲ si + አድግ adïg in example II above, ሲ Si- is a prefix and means “when”. አድግ adïg is a root of ማደግ madäg [አደገ adägä] and means to grows up. So ሲያድግ siadïg means “when he grows up”. Combining ሲያድግ siadïg with the past tense verb ሆነ honä makes the meaning past, as in, “when he grew up.”

ሲያድግ ታላቅ እግር ኳስ ተጫዋች ሆነ siadïg talak’ ïgïr kwas täč’awač honä. When he grew up, he became a great football player.

There are two verbs in this sentence and only the second one shows the tense. The first one is part of the time clause. The verb honä determines the tense; he became (past tense).

Time clauses can be used to express the present or future:

ከትምህርት ቤት ስመለስ ሳሙና እገዛለሁ kä tïmïhïrt bet sïmäläs, samuna ïgäzallähu. When I come back from school, I will buy soap.

ከትምህርት ቤት ስመለስ ሳሙና ገዛሁ kä tïmïhïrt bet sïmäläs, samuna gäzahu. When I came back from school, I bought soap.

ስመለስ sïmäläs = ስ sï + መለስ mäläs.

The full conjugation is given in the table below.

መመለስ mämäläs [ተመለሰ tämäläsä] “to return”

Notice that in addition to the changing prefixes, some forms add a gender or number marker at the end. In the “ anči” form, an “-i” is added to the end, OR the consonant doubles, as above. In the “እናንተ ïnantä” and “ ïnnäsu/ እርስዎ ïrswo/እሳቸው ïssačäw” forms, a “-u” is added.

Source

https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps/Amharic/Amharic%20Peace%20Corps%20Language%20Manual-2015.pdf