81 Common Verbs In Amharic (With Audio And Pictures)

Verbs play a very important role in any language. They are the words that indicate the actions or states of being of the subject/object of a sentence. That’s why it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the most important among them.

Think of it this way: you could get the gist of what someone’s saying to you simply by understanding the verbs they use. That’s how important verbs are in a sentence.

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In Amharic, if you know the different forms verbs take, you can leave off the subject pronoun (I, he, she, etc.) altogether, as the verb will already show who is doing the action. This is known as verb conjugation, and it’s something we’ll break down below.

What is verb conjugation in Amharic?

Verb conjugation simply refers to the different ways a verb can be changed to show who is doing the action and when the action takes place. Though it exists in all languages, Amharic’s way of conjugating verbs is… interesting, let’s just say that.

Verb endings in Amharic change depending on tense, gender, seniority, and number of people.

Amharic verb tenses

We’ll focus on the 3 main tenses (present, past, and future), as these are the ones you’ll use most often.

Please note: the stem of a verb in Amharic is always in the past tense, third-person singular masculine form; this is the word on which you add the relevant endings.

Please also note: when you see an apostrophe between 2 letters, that’s to show that the previous letter has a click.

The present tense in Amharic

When forming the present tense in Amharic, there’s a specific formula you need to follow. We’ll use the verb “መምጣት (memt’at)” – “to come” in our example. This word is in its infinitive state (meaning it hasn’t been conjugated yet).

When we want to conjugate any infinitive verb, we first remove the መ (me) – “to”. In its general stem form (i.e. third-person masculine past tense) it becomes መጣ (mt’a).

For the present tense (or, more accurately, the present continuous = “-ing” words), you generally add the prefix “እያ (iye)” and then apply one of the following formulas to the end of the stem, finishing off with the suffix “ነው (naw)”:

• First-person singular (I): ‘ሁ/hu’. Also can become “ኩ/ku” depending on the last letter of the stem
• First-person plural (we): ‘ን/n’
• Second-person singular male (you): ‘ህ/h’
• Second-person singular female (you): ”ሽ/sh’
• Second-person plural (you all): ‘ችሁ/chihu’
• Third-person singular male (he): no change/stem
• Third-person singular female (she): ‘ች/ch’
• Third-person plural (they): ‘ኡ/u’ (though this is more a sound change. The letter will change to reflect the different vowel sound, you don’t add an extra letter)

Example sentence:

• I am coming = እያህመጣሁ ነው (iyemt’ahu naw)

The past tense in Amharic

You apply the same endings above to the stem word when making the Amharic past tense. The only difference here is that you don’t add the prefix “እያ (iye)” or the suffix “ነው (naw)”.

So, the past tense of the verb “to come” would be:

• I came = መጣሁ (mt’ahu)
• We came = መጣን (mt’an)

And so on.

The future tense in Amharic

The future tense in Amharic is a bit more complicated, but we’ll try to simplify things for you.

Once again, we’ll use the verb “to come” as our example, with the stem being “mt’a. We need to add a prefix to the stem first, according to the formula below:

• First-person plural (I): “እ/I”
• First-person plural (we): እን/In
• Second-person: ት/Ti
• Third-person singular male (he): ይ/Yi
• Third-person singular female (she): ት/Ti
• Third person plural (they): ይ/Yi

The stem remains the same in all of these except second-person female (you). This becomes different things depending on the verb, but here it becomes “መጫ (mch’)” as opposed to “መጣ (mt’)”.

The last part of this equation is the suffixes. The sound “al/ale” is added to the suffixes you already know so well:

• First-person singular: ኣለሁ/alehu
• First-person plural we add ኣለን/ alen
• Second-person singular male: ኣለን/aleh
• Second-person singular female: ኣለሽ/alesh
• Second-person plural: ኣላችሁ/alechihu
• Third-person singular male: ኣል/al
• Third-person singular female: ኣለች/alech
• Third-person plural: ኣሉ/alu

For example:

• He will come = ይመጣል (yimet’al)

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Wow, that was some heavy stuff! We know your brain must be frazzled right about now. We won’t bore you anymore, we think it’s time we introduced you to those wonderful verbs you came to see.

We’ve included both the phonetic Latin spellings of words together with audio for each set of verbs.

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List of 81 Verbs in Amharic

Amharic Verbs 1 – 16

Verbs 1 – 16	ግሶች ፩ – ፲፮	Gisoch 1 – 16
be	መሆን	mehon
have	አለው/አላት	alew/alat
do	ማድረግ	mad’reg
go	መሄድ	mehed
see	ማየት	mayet
know	ማወቅ	mawek’
like	መውደድ	mew’ded
want	መፈለግ	mefeleg
work	መስራት	mes’rat
come	መምጣት	memt’at
speak	መናገር	menager
eat	መብላት	meb’lat
drink	መጠጣት	metetat
sleep	መተኛት	metenyat
live	መኖር	menor
start	መጀመር	mejemer

Listen to Amharic verbs 1 – 16

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Amharic Verbs 17 – 32

Verbs 17 – 32	ግሶች ፲፯ – ፴፪	Gisoch 17 – 32
die	መሞት	memot
become	መሆን	mehon
leave	መሄድ	mehed
stay	መቆየት	mek’oyet
return	መመለስ	memeles
give	መስጠት	mest’et
take	መውሰድ	mew’sed
send	መላክ	melak
make	መስራት	mes’rat
find	መፈለግ	mefeleg
learn	መማር	memar
tell	መናገር	menager
think	ማሰብ	maseb
believe	ማመን	mamen
understand	ማወቅ	mawek’
choose	መምረጥ	mem’ret

Listen to Amharic verbs 17 – 32

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Amharic Verbs 33 – 48

Verbs 33 – 48	ግሶች ፴፫ – ፵፰	Gisoch 33 – 48
remember	ማስታወስ	mas’tawes
forget	መርሳት	mersat
have to	አለበት/አለባት	alebet/alebat
use	መጠቀም	met’ek’em
need	መፈለግ	mefeleg
be able to (can)	መቻል	mechal
smile	ፈገግ ማለት	fegeg malet
look	መመልከት	memel’ket
listen	ማዳመጥ	madamet’
cost	ዋጋ ማስወጣት	waga maswet’at
help	መርዳት	merdat
cook	ማብሰል	mabsel
love	መውደድ	mew’ded
hope	ተስፋ ማድረግ	tesfa madreg
fear	መፍራት	mef’rat
stop	ማቆም	mak’om

Listen to Amharic verbs 33 – 48

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Amharic Verbs 49 – 64

Verbs 49 – 64	ግሶች ፵፱ – ፷፬	Gisoch 49 – 64
walk	በእግር መሄድ	birgir mehed
drive	መንዳት	mendat
laugh	መሳቅ	mesak’
cry	ማልቀስ	malkes
run	መሮጥ	merot’
play	መጫወት	mech’awet
sing	መዝፈን	mezfen
dance	መዳነስ	medanes
swim	መዋኘት	mewanyet
get	ማግኘት	mag’nyet
read	ማንበብ	manbeb
open	መክፈት	mekfet
close	መዝጋት	mezgat
dream	ማለም	malem
ask	መጠየቅ	met’eyek’
touch	መንካት	menkat

Listen to Amharic verbs 49 – 64

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Amharic Verbs 65 – 81

Verbs 65 – 81	ግሶች ፷፭ – ፹፩	Gisoch 65 – 81
answer	መመለስ	memeles
visit	መጎብኘት	megobenyet
feel	መሰማት	mesemat
wash	ማጠብ	mat’eb
shower	ገላ መታጠብ	gela metat’eb
wear	መልበስ	melbes
take off	ማውለቅ	mawlek’
buy	መግዛት	megzat
put	ማስቀመጥ	mask’emet’
say	መናገር	menager
hear	መስማት	mesmat
sit	መቀመጥ	mek’emet’
stand	መቆም	mek’om
turn	መዞር	mezor
shout	መጮህ	mech’oh
write	መፃፍ	metsaf
try	መሞከር	memokar

Listen to Amharic verbs 65 – 81

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Want some more Amharic vocabulary? Why not learn about the time in Amharic or learn some food words in Amharic. Or maybe check out some of the best Amharic YouTube channels for learning Amharic.