Verb Roots - Pt. 2: Past Tense

Now that we know how to conjugate present-future tense verbs in both the positive and negative form, we can now look at the same using the past tense. Unfortunately, past tense verbs use a different method of obtaining the root from the infinitive, however it is simpler than for the present-future tense. A reminder of the seven vowel orders: ə, u, i, a, e, ɪ, o.

 

1. All infinitives start with either መ- mə or ማ- ma. If the infinitive starts with መ-, remove this; if it starts with ማ-, remove the ም-.

• መናገር mənagər 'To speak' > Remove the መ- > ናገር

• መውደድ məwdəd 'To like' > Remove the መ- > ውደድ

• ማንበብ manbəb 'To read' > Remove the ማ- > አንበብ

• መዝጋት məzgat 'To close' > Remove the መ- > ዝጋት

2. For all verbs that don't keep the final -ት, remove it.

• ዝጋት > Remove the -ት > ዝጋ

3. Verbs which are intransitive* are treated as passive** verbs in the past tense. These verbs have a ተ- prefix added.

• ናገር > Add ተ- > ተናገር

4. For verbs which aren't intransitive, all 6th order consonants apart from the last consonant change to the 1st order (unless the verb starts with አስ-***).

• ውደድ > ው changes to 1st order > ወደድ

• አንበብ > ን changes to 1st order > አነበብ

• ዝጋ > ዝ changes to 1st order > ዘጋ

 

That’s all you need to know to form the past root in Amharic! In the examples above, መናገር mənagər 'to speak' becomes ተናገር tənagər, መውደድ məwdəd 'to like' becomes ወደድ wədəd, ማንበብ manbəb 'to read' becomes አነበብ anəbəb, and መዝጋት məzgat 'to close' becomes ዘጋ zəgga. You will notice that for a lot of verbs the past root and present-future root are the same, for example መምጣት məmTat 'to come' – the past root and present-future root are both መጣ məTTa.

 

*Intransitive verbs are verbs which don't take an object. For instance, the verb ‘to sit’ is intransitive – you can't sit something. By contrast, the verb 'to like' is transitive – you can like something. Unfortunately, whether or not the verb can take an object doesn’t correlate completely to whether the verb takes the ተ- prefix. For example, verbs like 'to learn', 'to carry', and 'to meet' all take this ተ- suffix, even though they can take an object (for example, you can learn a language, or carry a book). Also, some verbs which can be either transitive or intransitive in English will only use the ተ- prefix, like 'to speak' - in English you can speak a language (transitive) or speak loudly (intransitive).

 

**The passive form of a verb shows indirect action. For example, when you say 'The house is built', this is passive, as there’s no direct indication of who is building the house – just that it is built. An example of how Amharic sees intransitive verbs as passive in the past tense can be seen with the verb መዝናናት məzɪnanat 'to relax' – in the past tense, this verb takes the ተ- prefix, so in the past tense its meaning is closer to 'I was relaxed' than 'I relaxed'. However, it's not always wise to think of it like this, as not all verbs work in this way: መናገር mənagər 'to speak' takes the ተ- prefix, however thinking of it as 'I was spoken' sounds odd.

 

***When a verb starts with አስ- as-, the ስ (sɪ) doesn't change to ሰ (sə) because the prefix አስ- is a function of the verb which shows that it causes something. This will be shown in more detail later on, but an example is ማስገባት masgəbbat 'to enter (text)', 'to admit'. The verb መግባት məgbat (past root ገባ gəbba) means 'to enter', 'to go in', so with the addition of the አስ-, the verb means 'to make enter', 'to make go in'. The ም- at the beginning is just there because of the infinitive.

 

As always, here's some practice to help you learn the rules for getting the past tense root for verbs! Try and work out the past root from the infinitives below (verbs which take the ተ- prefix will be indicated).

መብላት məblat 'to eat'

ማድረግ madrəg 'to do'

መመለስ məmələs 'to return (go back)' (ተ-)

መሮጥ məroT 'to run'

መቀመጥ məQəməT 'to sit' (ተ-)