The Accusative
Now that we've looked at how to conjugate verbs, we can now look at the accusative case in Amharic.
What is the accusative?
For those who haven't encountered the accusative before, or don't know what it is, the accusative is a grammatical case (a change to a noun) which shows that a noun is the direct object of a verb. For example, in the sentence "The child sees the dog", "the dog" is the direct object (the thing that is being seen by the child), and is therefore in the accusative. This can be tricky to grasp at first for an English speaker, as the accusative doesn't appear differently to the nominative (the simple subject, in the above sentence the child), and so is indistinguishable. If you're struggling to work out whether or not a noun is in the accusative case, remember that the noun is affected by the verb, not doing it, and if there is a preposition before the noun, the noun is never in the accusative.
Here's some practice to help consolidate the use of the accusative. For the sentences below, decide whether or not the sentences below have a noun in the accusative.
The dog eats meat.
I spoke to the man.
He saw them.
I went to school.
You wrote on paper.
You wrote the essay.
The accusative case in Amharic is indicated by the suffix -እን -ïn. The accusative is used in six cases in Amharic:
1. Noun + Definite Article (e.g. the). For example, "The boy sees the dog" is ልጁ ውሻውን ያያል lïjju wïššawïn yayal. If the noun is indefinite (a/an), the accusative is not used - "The boy sees a dog" is ልጁ ውሻ ያያል lïjju wïšša yayal. Note that the suffix can either be definite or
indefinite - this doesn’t affect the object. So "A boy sees the dog" is ልጅ ውሻውን ያያል lïjj wïššawïn yayal, and "A boy sees a dog" is ልጅ ውሻ ያያል lïjj wïšša yayal.
2. Noun + Possessive Pronoun* (e.g. my/their). For example, "He stole my phone" is ስልኬን ሠረቀ sïlken särräQä. If there is no possessive pronoun, the accusative isn't used – "He stole a phone" is ስልክ ሠረቀ sïlk särräQä.
3. Demonstrative Pronoun (e.g. this/that). For example, "They wanted this" is ይህን ፈለጉ yïhïn fällägu.
4. Demonstrative Pronoun + Noun** (e.g. that person). For example, "She visited that city" is ያቺን ከተማ ጎበኘች yaččin kätäma gobäñäčč. Note how the accusative -ን is placed on the demonstrative pronoun (ያቺ), and not the noun (ከተማ).
5. Independent Pronoun (e.g. it). For example, "We knew it" is እሱን አወቅን ïssun awäQïn. This sentence could also mean "We knew him", due to እሱ meaning both "him" and "it".
6. Proper Name (e.g. John). For example, "You took Kebbede home" (pl) is ከበደን ወደ ቤት ወሰዳችሁ käbbädän wädä bet wässädaččuh.
*If a noun with the የ- prefix is used, the accusative -ን is used. So "We saw Ethiopia's capital city" is የኢትዮጵያን ዋና ከተማ አየን yä-ityoPPyan wanna kätäma ayyän.
**Like with a demonstrative pronoun, if there is a definite adjective before a noun like ትንሿ ከተማ tïnnïšʷa kätäma "The small city", this adjective takes the accusative -ን as well. So "She visited the small city" is ትንሿን ከተማ ጎበኘች tïnnišʷan kätäma gobäñäčč.
If there is more than one qualifier before a noun, such as "She visited that small city", often only the first qualifier tends to take the accusative -ን, and so this phrase would be ያቺን ትንሽ ከተማ ጎበኘች yaččin tïnnïš kätäma gobäñäčč.
Heres some practice. Translate the following sentences into Amharic, remembering the accusative -ን when needed:
They saw the boy.
The dogs ate their food.
We didn't see him/her. (frm)
I bought this phone.
He broke Selam's new car. (To break = መሰበር mäsäbbär)