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The Definite Article & Demonstrative Pronouns
In this section we are going to look at the definite article (‘The’) in Amharic, as well as the demonstrative pronouns (‘This’, ‘That’, ‘These’, & ‘Those’). Before we start, it's important to note that Amharic has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Don't worry though: in Amharic the majority of nouns are masculine. All nouns denoting females, such as ገረድ ‘Maid’, as well as all countries and cities are feminine. Apart from those, there are only a few nouns that are feminine.
In Amharic, the definite article takes the form of a suffix - you add stuff to the end of the word. The two genders have different suffixes. These are:
Masculine nouns
After a consonant: -ኡ -u
After a vowel: -ው -w
ቤት ‘House’ becomes ቤቱ ‘The house’
ውሻ ‘Dog’ becomes ውሻው ‘The dog’
Feminine nouns
After a consonant or a vowel: -ዋ -ʷa
Note that it is more common to write the feminine definite article after a consonant using the ʷa form of the consonant than using the sixth order + ዋ.
መኪና ‘Car’ becomes መኪናዋ ‘The car’
ሀገር ‘Country’ becomes ሀገሯ ‘The country’
Plural nouns
All plural nouns, whether masculine or feminine, take the suffix -ኡ -u:
ቤቶች ‘Houses’ becomes ቤቶቹ ‘The houses’
መኪናዎች ‘Cars’ becomes መኪናዎቹ ‘The cars’
Nouns denoting can take either ending, depending on the gender of the noun. An example of this is the word ልጅ ‘Child’:
ልጁ ‘The boy’ (‘Child’ + masculine definite article)
ልጇ ‘The girl’ (‘Child’ + feminine definite article)
ልጆቹ ‘The boys’/‘The girls’/‘The children’ (‘Children’ + definite article)
There are a couple of nouns which change when made definite. The two most common are ‘Man’ (ሰው) and ‘Woman’ (ሴት), which become ሰውዬ and ሴትዮ respectively. The definite article is added to the modified noun:
ሰውዬው ትናንት ደረሰ።
↳ The man arrived yesterday.
ሴትዮዋ የት ናት?
↳ Where is the woman?
Here's some practice of what you've learnt above. Make the following nouns definite. Feminine nouns are marked with (f).
ምግብ ‘Food’
ክፍል ‘Room’
አፍንጫ ‘Nose’
ድመት (f) ‘Cat’
ተማሪዎች ‘Students’
ፀሐይ (f) ‘Sun’
ቦታ ‘Place’
ከተማ (f) ‘City’
Now let's look at the demonstrative pronouns in Amharic. A demonstrative pronoun is a word like ‘This’ or ‘Those’.
ይህ yïh - This (m)
ይች yïčč/ይቺ yïčči - This (f)
እነዚህ ïnnäzzih - These
ያ ya - That (m)
ያች yačč/ያቺ yačči - That (f)
እነዚያ ïnnäzziya - Those
You will have noticed that for ‘This’ and ‘That’ there are two forms - one for masculine nouns and one for feminine nouns. Let's see some examples of these:
ይህ ሰው
↳ This man/person
ያቺ ከተማ
↳ That city
እነዚህ በቶች
↳ These houses
እነዚያ ልጆች
↳ Those children
There is also another form for ይህ, ይች, ያ, and ያች that is used with prepositions like በ- bä- ‘In’, ከ- kä- ‘From’, and ወደ wädä ‘To’. They are added directly to the preposition:
-ዚህ -zzih - This (m)
-ዚች -zzičč/-ዚቺ -zzičči - This (f)
-ዚያ -zziya - That (m)
-ዚያች -zziyačč/-ዚያቺ -zziyačči - That (f)
እነዚህ and እነዚያ do not change.
We can now look at a few examples to see how these forms are used.
ወደዚህ ቤት
↳ To this house
ወደዚያች ሀገር
↳ To that country
ከነዚህ ሰዎች
↳ From these people
You might be wondering where the እ from እነዚህ went in ከነዚህ in the above example. In Amharic, there is a hierarchy system for vowels. This is because spoken Amharic does not like to have two vowels next to each other - that is, if two vowels are being joined together, the one higher up takes preference and the other one is dropped. This hierarchy system is also sometimes reflected in written Amharic. The hierarchy order is (from top to bottom):
a, e, i, o, u
ä
ï
As you can see, in the case of ከነዚህ, ä takes preference over ï. This means that in spoken Amharic, when you add ከ- kä- to እነዚህ ïnnäzzih, the ï is dropped and you are left with kännäzzih. In written Amharic, however, you can spell it either ከእነዚህ or ከነዚህ.
As always, here's some practice to help you learn these new words! See if you can work out the Amharic for the English below.
... ቤት - This house
... ሴቶች - Those women
... ከተማ - To this city
... ክፍል - From that room
... ሰዎች - These people
... መጽሐፍ እና ... ጋዜጣ - That book and this newspaper
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