Plurals
You'll be happy to know that this section won't be very long as plurals are very simple in Amharic. Here's how to form the plural of a noun:
If the noun ends in a consonant, add -ኦች -očč:
If the noun ends in a vowel, you can either add -ዎች -wočč, or remove the final vowel and add -ኦች -očč:
There are, however, a few words which are pluralised differently. This is because these words have retained their plural form from Ge'ez, the extinct predecessor of Amharic. The plural of these words is formed by the addition of -አት -at:
While the addition of -አት is the correct way to form the plural of these words, you may see them with the regular Amharic plural suffix. For example, some people may say ቃሎች instead of ቃላት, where the Amharic plural suffix -očč has been used instead of the Ge'ez plural suffix -at.
That's it - that's all you need to know about forming plurals in Amharic! Here is some practice - put each of the words below into its plural form (they all take the Amharic plural suffix).
ቋንቋ (Language)
ቋንቋዎች (Languages)
ዛፎች (Trees)
ዛፍ (Tree)
በር (Door)
በሮች (Doors)
ህግ (Law)
ህጎች (Laws)
ጓደኛ (Friend)
ጓደኛዎች/ጓደኞች (Friends)
ስሜት (Feeling)
ስሜቶች (Feelings)