To Have & To Not Have

Earlier in the Beginner section we looked at how to express 'My', 'Your', 'His' and so on, and now in this section we will be looking at how to express the verb 'To have' in Amharic. In Amharic, the verb 'To have' doesn’t actually exist. That means that there isn’t an infinitive of it, and you can’t conjugate it (like you can with መፈለግ 'To want' - እፈልጋለሁ 'I want', ትፈልጋለህ 'You want' etc.). The verb 'To have' is built off of the verb አለ allä, which was also shown in the Beginner section when we looked at how to express 'To be' and 'Not to be'. It uses this verb, plus the object particles which will be shown later in the Advanced section. This means that learning the way of expressing 'To have' in Amharic will also help you to remember the particles for verb objects, and as such, I will be showing the particle that is added on to the verb. If you’d like, you can study these particles a bit while learning the following words, and a full table for them will be shown in a later lesson.

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As an example of the above, to say 'I have a dog' in Amharic you say ውሻ አለኝ wïšša alläñ, which is literally 'There exists a dog to me'. Here the verb አለ allä has taken the particle -ኧኝ -äñ, which expresses 'Me'/'To me', and the two vowels merge, becoming አለኝ alläñ. Here is the full list with አለ, used to say 'To have' in the singular:

 

እኔ: አለኝ alläñ (allä + -äñ) 'I have'

አንተ: አለህ alläh (allä + -ïh) 'You have' (m)

አንቺ: አለሽ alläš (allä + -ïš) 'You have' (f)

እርስዎ: አለዎ(ት) alläwo(t) (allä + -wo(t)) 'You have' (frm)

እሱ: አለው alläw (allä + -äw) 'He has'

እሷ: አላት allat (allä + -at) 'She has'

እሳቸው: አላቸው allaččäw (allä + -aččäw) 'He/She has' (frm)

እኛ: አለን allän (allä + -än) 'We have'

እናንተ: አላችሁ allaččuh (allä + -aččuh) 'You have' (pl)

እነሱ: አላቸው allaččäw (allä + -aččäw) 'They have'

 

You will have noticed that for እርስዎ, there is an optional -ት at the end. Using it or not using it is both correct. Here are some example phrases with these words:

 

እህቴ የፍቅር ጓደኛ አላት። ïhïte yäfïQïr gʷadäñña allat 'My sister has a boyfriend.'

ማውራት አልችልም፣ ብዙ ሥራ አለኝ። mawrat alčïlïm bïzu sïrra alläñ 'I can’t chat, I have a lot of work.'

ምን ዓይነት ስልክ አለዎት? mïn aynät sïlk alläwot 'What kind of phone do you have?'

ነገ ፈተና አላቸው። nägä fätäna allaččäw 'They have a test tomorrow.'

 

When the object possessed is plural, then the construction uses አሉ:

 

እኔ: አሉኝ alluñ (allu + -ñ) I have

አንተ: አሉህ alluh (allu + -h) You have (m)

አንቺ: አሉሽ alluš (allu + -š) You have (f)

እርስዎ: አሉዎ(ት) alluwo(t) (allu + -wo(t)) You have (frm)

እሱ: አሉት allut (allu + -t) He has

እሷ: አሏት allʷat (allu + -wat) She has

እሳቸው: አሏቸው allʷaččäw (allu + -waččäw) He/She has (frm)

እኛ: አሉን allun (allu + -n) We have

እናንተ: አሏችሁ allʷaččuh (allu + -waččuh) You have (pl)

እነሱ: አሏቸው allʷaččäw (allu + -waččäw) They have

 

Here are some example sentences for these forms:

 

መምህራችን ሦስት ልጆች አሏቸው። mämïhïraččïn sost lïjjočč allʷaččäw 'Our teacher has three children.'

ኢትዮጵያ ከ80 በላይ ቋንቋዎች አሏት። ityoPPya käsämanya bälay QʷanQʷawočč allʷat 'Ethiopia has more than 80 languages.'

ብዙ አማራጮች አሉን። bïzu amaraČočč allun 'We have many options.'

ስንት ክፍሎች አሏችሁ? sïnt kïfločč allʷaččuh 'How many rooms do you have?'

 

In the negative aspect, this builds off the negative form of አለ, which is የለም yälläm. As the -ም (-ïm) is always the last part on the verb, the personal particles are added after የለ- yällä- and before -ም -ïm. Here is the form with የለም, used to say 'To not have' in the singular:

 

እኔ: የለኝም yälläñïm (yällä + -äñ + ïm) I don’t have

አንተ: የለህም yällähïm (yällä + -ïh + ïm) You don’t have (m)

አንቺ: የለሽም yälläšïm (yällä + -ïš + ïm) You don’t have (f)

እርስዎ: የለዎ(ት)ም yälläwo(tï)m (yällä + -wo(t) + ïm) You don’t have (frm)

እሱ: የለውም yälläwïm (yällä + -äw + ïm) He doesn’t have

እሷ: የላትም yällatïm (yällä + -at + ïm) She doesn’t have

እሳቸው: የላቸውም yällaččäwïm (yällä + -aččäw + ïm) He/She doesn’t have (frm)

እኛ: የለንም yällänïm (yällä + -än + ïm) We don’t have

እናንተ: የላችሁም yällaččïhum (yällä + -aččïhu + ïm) You don’t have (pl)

እነሱ: የላቸውም yällaččäwïm (yällä + -aččäw + ïm) They have

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Here are some practice phrases for this construction:

 

ምግብ የለንም። mïgïb yällänïm 'We don’t have food.'

ለመኪናቸው ነዳጅ የላቸውም። lämäkinaččäw nädaj yällaččäwïm 'They don’t have fuel for their car.'

ምንም ዕድል የለኝም። mïnïm ïdïl yälläñïm 'I don’t have any luck.'

ካሜራ የላችሁም? kamera yällaččïhum 'Do you not have a camera?'

 

And here is the negative plural:

 

እኔ: የሉኝም yälluñïm (yällu + -ñ + ïm) I don’t have

አንተ: የሉህም yälluhïm (yällu + -h + ïm) You don’t have (m)

አንቺ: የሉሽም yällušïm (yällu + -š + ïm) You don’t have (f)

እርስዎ: የሉዎ(ት)ም yälluwo(tï)m (yällu + wo(t) + ïm) You don’t have (frm)

እሱ: የሉትም yällutïm (yällu + -t + ïm) He doesn’t have

እሷ: የሏትም yällʷatïm (yällu + -wat + ïm) She doesn’t have

እሳቸው: የሏቸውም yällʷaččäwïm (yällu + -waččäw + ïm) He/She doesn’t have (frm)

እኛ: የሉንም yällunïm (yällu + -n + ïm) We don’t have

እናንተ: የሏችሁም yällʷaččïhum (yällu + -waččïhu + ïm) You don’t have (pl)

እነሱ: የሏቸውም yällʷaččäwïm (yällu + -waččäw + ïm) They don’t have

 

የሚያገለግሉ ፓስፖርቶች የሉንም። yämmiyagälägïlu passportočč yällunïm 'We don’t have any valid passports.'

ቁልፎች የሏትም። Qulfočč yällʷatïm 'She doesn’t have keys.'

መጽሐፎች የሏቸውም። mäSïhafočč yällʷaččäwïm 'They don’t have books.'

መጠጦች የሉኝም። mäTäTočč yälluñïm 'I don’t have drinks.'

 

In the past tense, that is, to express 'I had' or 'I didn’t have', the past tense verb ነበረ näbbärä is used for a singular noun, and the plural form ነበሩ näbbäru for a plural noun. For example:

 

ብዙ ዳቦ ነበረኝ። bïzu dabbo näbbäräñ 'I had a lot of bread.'

ሻይ ነበራቸው? šay näbbäraččäw 'Did they have tea?'

ምግብ ቤቱ አሥር ጠረጴዛዎች ብቻ ነበሩት። mïgïb betu asïr TäräPezawočč bïčča näbbärut 'The restaurant only had ten tables.'

ጓደኛዬ ብዙ ጫማዎች ነበሯት። gʷadäññaye bïzu Čamawočč näbbärʷat 'My friend had a lot of shoes.'

 

Like all past tense verbs, the normal አል- -ም is added on to negate it:

 

እንስሳው ባለቤት አልነበረውም። ïnsïsaw balläbet alnäbbäräwïm 'The animal didn’t have an owner.'

አዳዲስ ልብሶች አልነበሩንም። addaddis lïbsočč alnäbbärunïm 'We didn’t have new clothes.'

 

There is also a feminine form, used for talking about a feminine noun, such as መኪና. This is the same as the masculine form, except that it ends in -ች - the base form in the positive aspect is አለች and in the negative aspect is የለች (remembering the final -ም). These follow the same rules as for the masculine form apart from for እሱ, where the ending is -እው, not -ኧው (so it is አለችው and not አለቸው). In the past tense, the base form is ነበረች, and this works the same as for the masculine form, with the same exception as for the present tense for እሱ. Remember that nouns don’t take a gender in the plural form, so whether you’re talking about ሁለት ወንድ ልጆች or ሁለት ሴት ልጆች you will use አሉ/የሉም/ነበሩ/አልነበሩም.

 

As a recap, in English, the verb 'To have' reflects on who owns what. In Amharic, this verb doesn’t exist, and instead you say that something exists to someone or something - therefore, it reflects on what is owned by who. Consider the following:

 

'I have one dog. He has two dogs.' - Here, in English, the part of the sentence showing possession changes based on the subject.

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ውሻ አለኝ። ሁለት ውሾች አሉኝ። - In the Amharic example, the part of the sentence showing possession changes based on the noun being possessed (in this case whether it’s one dog or more).