Conjunctions & Question Words

Let's look at conjunctions now. A conjunction is a word which is used to join two sentences, such as ‘And’.

 

እና ïnna - And

ወይም wäym - Or (Statement)

ወይስ wäys - Or (Question

(ነገር) ግን (nägär) gïn - But

ምክንያቱም mïkïnyatum - Because*

 

There are two words for ‘Or’, because one is used in a statement, and the other is used ina question. For example:

 

እሱ ወይም ወንድሙ ይመጣል። ‘He or his brother will come’

ቀላል ወይስ ከባድ ነው? ‘Is it easy or difficult?’

 

For ‘And’, you can either use the word እና, or you can attach the suffix -እና -ïnna to the first noun if it starts with a consonant, or -ና -nna if it starts with a vowel.

 

ልጁ እና ልጇ or ልጁና ልጇ ‘The boy and the girl’

ጥቁር እና ነጭ or ጥቁርና ነጭ ‘Black and white’

 

*As well as ምክንያቱም there is another way of saying ‘Because’, however this requires a more advanced knowledge of verbs and will be introduced later.

 

Let's now look at the question words in Amharic:

 

ምን? mïn?/ምንድን? mïndïn? - What?

ማን? man? - Who?

የት? yät?/ዬት? yet? - Where?

ወዴት? wädet? - Where (to)?

መቼ? mäče? - When?

ለምን? lämïn?/ለምንድን? lämïndïn? - Why?

እንደምን? ïndämïn?/እንዴት? ïndet? - How?

ስንት? sïnt? - How much/many?*

ምን ያህል? mïn yahïl? - How many?

 

There is also the suffix -ስ -ïs, which can be added onto the end of any word, and is translated as ‘What about...?’ or ‘How about...?’. For example, if someone says ዓሣ አልበላም ‘I don't eat fish’, someone else might say ሥጋስ? ‘What about meat?’.

 

ስንት or ምን ያህል?

ስንት is used for countable things, whereas ምን ያህል is used for uncountable things. For example, you would say ስንት ሰዓታት? ‘How many hours?’ but ምን ያህል ጊዜ? ‘How much time?’. The word ያህል also means ‘Approximately’ when used with a number:

 

ሦስት ሳምንታት ያህል ይወስዳል። ‘It takes approximately three weeks.’

 

*The word ስንት (as well as numbers) can either use the singular or plural form for the noun following. For example, to say ‘How many bananas?’, you can say either ስንት ሙዝ? or ስንት ሙዞች? - likewise, to say ‘Three bananas’, you can say either ሦስት ሙዝ or ሦስት ሙዞች.

 

Since this part is all about questions, it's worth noting that the Ge'ez script does have its own question mark, which is ፧, however this is rarely used.

 

There is also a question particle in Amharic - this is the word ወይ. This can be added after the verb to stress that what you're saying is a question. So, to say ‘Do you like tea?’, you could either say ሻይ ትወዳለህ? or ሻይ ትወዳለህ ወይ? - just make sure not to confuse this with ውይ, meaning ‘Oops’!