We have now seen all the consonants in the Amharic script. Some things to note:

• The ejective consonants ጸ and ፀ are pronounced the same.

• In this section we have seen the second vowel carrier, ዐ. This is pronounced exactly the same as the other vowel carrier, አ. Because of this, in the same way as with ሀ/ሐ/ኀ, ሰ/ሠ and ጸ/ፀ, a word can be spelt with either variant. An example of this is the word ዐይን ‘Eye’, which you may also see spelt አይን. Just like አ, ሀ, ሐ, and ኀ, ዐ is pronounced the same in both the first and fourth orders.

• The two letters for ‘p’ (ፐ and ጰ), unlike the other pairs of non-ejective and ejective consonants (such as ተ and ጠ), have specific uses. The non-ejective variant, ፐ, is used for foreign loanwords - for example አውሮፕላን ‘airplane’. The ejective variant ጰ, on the other hand, is used for words of Ethiopic origin - that is, Ge'ez or Amharic - for example ጳጉሜ ‘Pagume’ (the thirteenth month of the Ethiopic calendar).

• Since this may be your first time learning the Amharic script, it might be difficult to learn at first. One thing which helps is grouping similar letter pairs together, and learning one of them in the seven orders, then applying this to other letter once learned. For example, the difference between the letters ደ and ጀ is only a bar on the top - if you learn ደ in all 7 orders, you've effectively also learnt ጀ in all 7 orders, since they change in the same way. This technique could also be used for ጠ and ጨ, ጰ and ጸ, ከ and ኸ, and others.

​

Here are some more Amharic words to practice reading, incorporating the letters from both this lesson and the last one.​