አንተ, አንቺ, እርስዎ or እናንተ?

• አንተ is used for singular, masculine subjects, for example if talking to your brother.

• አንቺ is used for singular, feminine subjects, for example if talking to your sister.

• እርስዎ is used for singular subjects when being polite. For example, if talking to your boss, you wouldn't use አንተ/አንቺ, rather you'd use እርስዎ - using አንተ/አንቺ could - and most likely would - be considered rude. The general rule for using እርስዎ is if the person is older than you, in a higher position than you (a teacher, for example), or not known (someone on the street).

• እናንተ is used for plural subjects, whether the situation requires politeness or not. So you'd use እናንተ if you were talking either to your brother and sister (impolite situation) or two of your teachers (polite situation).

 

እሱ, እሷ, እሳቸው, or እነሱ?

• እሱ is used for singular, masculine subjects, for example if talking about your brother.

• እሷ is used for singular, feminine subjects, for example if talking about your sister.

• እሳቸው is a pronoun in Amharic which doesn't exist in many other languages. It is a polite form for ‘He/She’, which is used in the same situations as you'd use እርስዎ, except that እሳቸው is used to talk about someone, not to them. So for example, when talking about your boss, you would refer to them as እሳቸው and not እሱ/እሷ. Note that it is used for both ‘He’ and ‘She’.

• እነሱ, the same as እናንተ, is used for plural subjects, whether being polite or not. So you'd use እነሱ if you were talking either about your brother and sister (impolite situation) or about two of your teachers (polite situation).

​

As well as እሱ, እሷ, እሳቸው and እነሱ, you may also come across እርሱ, እርሷ, እርሳቸው, and እነርሱ, which are simply another form of ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘He/She’ (polite) and ‘They’. These forms are used more in written Amharic than in spoken Amharic.

​

Here is some practice. Below are the pronouns in Amharic - try and remember what they are in English.