East Africa

Amharic

አማርኛ

The working language of Ethiopia, written in the Geʽez script — one of the very few writing systems developed in Africa and still in daily use.

Family: Afro-Asiatic (Semitic)
Script: Geʽez (Fidel) syllabary
Speakers: ~57 million speakers
Spoken in: Ethiopia

The course

Five units, one word at a time

0/5 mastered

Unit 1

Greetings

Start with Selam — it means both hello and peace.

ሰላም (Selam) — Hello / peace
endemin neh? — How are you? (to a man)
endemin nesh? — How are you? (to a woman)
dehna — Fine / well
አመሰግናለሁ (ameseginalehu) — Thank you
ደህና ሁን (dehna hun) — Goodbye

Unit 2

People and family

Who's who, in the words Ethiopians actually use.

እናት (enat) — Mother
አባት (abat) — Father
ልጅ (lij) — Child
ጓደኛ (gwadenya) — Friend
ሰው (sew) — Person
ወንድም (wendem) — Brother

Unit 3

Numbers one to ten

Geʽez also has its own numerals, but these are the spoken forms.

አንድ (and) — One
ሁለት (hulet) — Two
ሶስት (sost) — Three
አራት (arat) — Four
አምስት (amist) — Five
አስር (asir) — Ten

Unit 4

Food and the market

Enough to eat well in Addis.

ውሃ (wuha) — Water
ምግብ (migib) — Food
እንጀራ (injera) — Injera, the sourdough flatbread
ስንት ነው? (sint new?) — How much is it?
ገበያ (gebeya) — Market
ውድ ነው (wud new) — It is expensive

Unit 5

Everyday phrases

The phrases you will use on your first day.

እባክህ (ebakih) — Please (to a man)
አዎ (awo) — Yes
አይደለም (aydelem) — No / it is not
የት? (yet?) — Where?
አልገባኝም (algebanyim) — I don't understand
ይቅርታ (yiqirta) — Excuse me / sorry

How to sound right

Each Fidel character is a whole syllable: ሰ = se, ሱ = su, ሲ = si.
Amharic has ejective consonants (ጠ, ቀ, ጸ) made with a small pop of air — they are not the same as t, k, s.
Verbs go at the end of the sentence.

The audio button in lessons uses your device's speech engine, which rarely has a native African voice. Treat it as a rough guide and trust the written pronunciation hints and the coach instead.