The reply, Exziabier Yimesgen (እግዚአብሄር ይመሰገን)፣ simply means “thanks be to God”, a commonly used reply for the question “how are you?”. Beta seb dehna nachew: ቤተሰብ ደህና ናቸው means “is your family well?”. Beta seb ቤተሰብ is family, and “nachew” ናቸው is the same verb “mehon” መሆን conjugated in the third person plural “they”, “inesu” እነሱ. For “she”, “isua” እሷ, the verb conjugates to “nat” ናት, Inate እናቴ (my mother), dehna nat ደህና ናት, “is well”. For “he” or “isu” እሱ the verb is “new”: Abate አባቴ (my father), dehna new ደህና ነው , “is well”.

In the last two lines of dialogue, T’ru new ጥሩ ነው : mean’s “it/that is good”. In Amharic when you refer to an object, or an “it”, you use the same conjugation as the male pronoun “isu”: so, for instance, “the food is good” translates to “megbu t’ru new” ምግቡ ጥሩ ነው. The “new” for the food is the same as “new” for “he/isu” እሱ. The last question, “Yanchi set ayat indet nachew” (የአንቺ ሴት አያት እንዴት ናቸው) means “your grandmother is well?” and the subsequent reply “Ayate dehna nachew” (አያቴ ደህና ናቸው) translates to: “my grandmother is well”. Notice here that the respect form for an elder person is used so that the conjugation, rather than being “isua nat” እሷ ናት (she is) as before, would be “isachew nachew” እሳቸው ናቸው (still “she is”, but in the respectful form).

Though not in this conversation clip, “Inante” እናንተ, you plural would be “nach’hu” ናችሁ. The respect form for you “irso” እርሶ would also be this same conjugation as you plural: “nach’hu” ናችሁ. (there’s a subtle difference between this and inesu እነሱ “they”: nachew ናቸው. Inante nach’hu እናንተ ናችሁ, inesu nachew እነሱ ናቸው). Lastly, “iña nen” እኛ ነን is “we are”. So, in review, we have:

To appreciate the importance of paying attention to the pronouns and their everyday use, let’s practice with another common verb: “To want or to search”, “mefeleg” መፈለግ in the present tense. We’ll go over verb conjugation more in detail farther along in the podcast, but for now just listen to how the conjugated verb implies the pronoun. As we get better at knowing the correct conjugations, we can drop the pronoun altogether.

Another important aspect of pronouns is indicating the possessive. One way to indicate possession is to use the preposition “ye” in front of a name or pronoun. For instance, “ye Luana inat” የ ሉአና እናት means “Luana’s mom”. Ye man inat nat? የማን እናት ናት, means “whose mother is she?”. Another way to indicate the possessive when using pronouns rather than the name of a person is to add “ye” as a prefix to the pronoun. Ine እኔ becomes yene የኔ , ante/yante አንተ/የአንተ, anchi/yanchi አንቺ/የአንቺ, inante/yinante እናንተ/የእናንተ, irso/yirso እርሶ/የእርሶ, isu/yisu እሱ/የእሱ, isua/yisua እሷ/የእሷ, iña/yiña እኛ/የእኛ, inesu/yinesu እነሱ/የእነሱ, and isachew/yisachew እሳቸው/የእሳቸው. In the dialogue example, for instance, “Yanchi set ayat” የአንቺ ሴት አያት, refers to “your grandmother” when addressing a woman or girl.

Another, and more common, way to indicate possession is to drop the pronoun but add a suffix to the end of the noun which implies the owner. The added suffix is unique to the pronoun of the owner. For instance, let’s use the noun “mother”: “Inat” እናት. My mother could be Yene inat የእኔ እናት, or inate እናቴ. Your mother (for male) is Yante inat የአንተ እናት, or inatih” እናትህ, Yanchi inat የአንቺ እናት or Inatish እናትሽ (for your, female), Yinante inat የእናቴ እናት or inatach’hu እናታችሁ (your, plural), yisu inat የእሱ እናትor Inatu እናቱ (for his mother), yisua inat የእሷ እናት or inatuwa እናትዋ (for her mother), yiña inat የእኛ እናት or inatachin እናታችን (for our mother), yinesu inat የእነሱ እናት or inatachew እናታቸው (for their mother).

Now let’s use another example as a mini quiz. I’ll list the possessive for the noun “work” or “job”, “sera” ስራ in Amharic. Try to guess who that job is being attributed to based on the possessive pronouns used: Yine sera የኔ ስራ, yante sera የአንተ ስራ, yanchi sera የአንቺ ስራ, yinante sera የእናንተ ስራ, yisu sera የእሱ ስራ, yisua sera የሷ ስራ, yiña sera የኛ ስራ, yinesu sera የእነሱ ስራ, yisachew sera የእሳቸው ስራ. Now, try to guess them using the possessive suffix: s’raye ስራዬ, s’rah ስራህ, s’rash ስራሽ, s’rach’hu ስራችሁ, s’rahu ስራሁ, s’rauwa ስራዋ, s’rachin ስራችን, s’rachew ስራቸው. If this was difficult, zoom back a couple minutes to listen again to the example using “mother”, “inat” እናት.

And that’s it for now, thanks for joining me on Yine የኔ podcast, Buna Break Amharic. I’ll leave you with a replay of our dialogue bit. Enjoy and until next time!

• Selam Luana, anchi indet nesh? ሰላም ሉአና አንቺ እንዴት ነሽ?
• Alehu, ine dehna neñ. Ante dehna neh? አለሁ እኔ ደህና ነኝ? አንተ እንዴት ነህ?
• Exziabier Yimesgen. Beta seb dehna nachew? እግዚአብሄር ይመሰገን. ቤተሰብ ደህና ናቸው?
• Inate, dehna nat, abatem dehna new. እናቴ ደህና ናት, አባቴም ደህና ነው
• T’ru new. Yanchi set ayat indet nachew? ጥሩ ነው, የአንቺ ሴት አያት እንዴት ናቸው
• Ayate dehna nachew. አያቴ ደህና ናቸው