Language/Amharic/Grammar/Adjectives

Amharic Grammar - Adjectives

Hi Amharic learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will dive deep into understanding Amharic adjectives. Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns. They are the words that give color, shape or size to nouns.

After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: “to be” and “to have”, Direct and Indirect Object Affixes, Asking If and Saying Whether It Is “Suitable” or Not & The Present Perfect Tense.

What are adjectives

You have probably come across adjectives before. In English, adjectives usually come before a noun. For instance, "big house," "red car," "tall tree." That's the same in Amharic. Adjectives in Amharic also come before the noun. However, the classification of adjectives that describe living and non-living things is different.

Living things are described with adjectives that ends with "w" or "wotat." For instance, "abiyot wotat" (beautiful girl) and "astawesalew wotat" (kind man).

Non-living-things are described with adjectives that end with "ye" or "it." For instance, "muket ye quncho" (red shirt) and "degmo it 'jemer" (big city).

Comparison of adjectives in Amharic

In Amharic, comparative and superlative forms are usually formed from the simple positive form by adding suffixes to adjectives. The comparative form (more, less) of adjective is formed by adding the suffix "n" to the end of the adjective.

Here are a few examples:

Amharic	Pronunciation	English
mikinaw	/mi-kɨ'na-w/	smaller
mikinan	/mi-kɨ'na-n/	more small
qomidinaw	/k'om-i-di-na-w/	uglier
qomidiqinan	/k'om-i-di-qi-na-n/	more ugly
zimharian	/zɨ'mha-rɨ-a-n/	richer
zimharianun	/zɨ'mha-rɨ-a-nun/	more rich

The superlative degree is expressed by adding the suffix "w" at the end of the comparative form of the adjective. For instance:

Amharic	Pronunciation	English
mikinan	/mi-kɨ'na-n/	smaller
mikinanw	/mi-kɨ'na-nu/	the smallest
qomidiqinan	/k'om-i-di-qi-na-n/	more ugly
qomidiqinanw	/k'om-i-di-qi-na-nu/	the most ugly
zimharianun	/zɨ'mha-rɨ-a-nun/	more rich
zimharianunw	/zɨ'mha-rɨ-a-nu-w/	the richest

Now that you know how to compare adjectives in Amharic, let's move on to understand how to use adjectives in sentences.

Using Adjectives in Amharic

In Amharic, the adjective follows the noun it modifies. The adjective agrees with the noun in terms of gender, number, and definiteness.

Let's take an example:

"የተለይኑ መሏል በሙያቱ ላይ ያለው ነገር ተገዛው።" (The big mango on the tree has ripened.)

In the sentence above, the adjective "ተመለሰ" (big) follows the noun "መሏል" (mango) it modifies.

Here is another example:

"ሹመታዊ ምግብ የሆኑ ማህደር አየት እንደሚሆን ናቸው።" (Beautiful women have masculine attitude towards faith.)

Again, the adjective "ሹመታዊ" (beautiful) follows the noun "ማህደር" (women).

When the adjective describes a plural noun or consists of many singular nouns, the adjective takes the plural form. Here is a dialogue to help illustrate this:

• Person 1: "ሳሻውያን እንደሆንኩ እኔም ወደ ምስራቅ መሆን አይቻልም።" (I also intend to leave for Mesrak like the sisters.)
• Person 2: "እያዘረጋቸው ተስፋ ያለው ነው።" (Their excitement is obvious.)

In the dialogue above, the adjective "ተስፋ" (excitement) takes the plural form as it refers to multiple "sisters."

Summary

In this lesson, you have learned that adjectives in Amharic describe and modify nouns or pronouns. We discussed how to form comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives, and how to use adjectives in a sentence. Remember, if you want to improve your Amharic Grammar, you can use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions!

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➡ If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
➡ Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎

Other Lessons

• The Past Perfect Tense
• Direct and Indirect Object Affixes
• Negative Imperatives
• The Present Future Tense
• Making Suggestions Using “Let”
• Conjugation of mäwdäd (to like) present tense
• Asking If and Saying Whether It Is “Suitable” or Not
• Expressing Obligation or Necessity
• Simple Past Tense Forms of Other Verbs (Negative)
• Simple Sentence

Sources

• Amharic Adjectives: Everything You Need To Know - avagu press
• Amharic - Wikipedia
• Secondary Amharic resources: adjectives and adverbs