Two-Year-Old Amharic

Before travelling to Ethiopia, to prepare ourselves to communicate with our toddler son, we acquired two books to help us learn some Amharic words.  The first was somewhat disappointing,  while the second was very helpful but limited.  We learned the most once we set foot on Ethiopian soil and my persistent hubby began questioning every person we met on how to say and properly pronounce all the words we thought would be helpful with an almost three year old.  My hubby walked around with a crumpled up piece of notebook paper and a pen in his pocket and would whip it out to scribble down a new word (and I do mean scribble!  We still have the paper.)  Every driver, guesthouse staff, waiter, or Ethiopian person who lingered in our presence was subject to his questioning.  It was quite remarkable to watch and (admittedly) I teased him at first, but in the end, I was amazed at how much he learned in our short time in-country.  As a family, we have benefited from his diligence.

Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook by Tilahun Kebebe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This pocket-reference was not very helpful. A straight Amharic-English dictionary would be better.


Our First Amharic Words by Stacy Bellward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fabulous introduction to Amharic. Colorful with great pictures. Highly recommended for adoptive families.


View all my reviews

Below are the words we have used the most in the past two months.  Many of these words are becoming part of our permanent "family vocabulary," too... not something we planned for, but something we think is really fun.  It is amazing to watch our child learn English so quickly, but also a bit sad to see him lose his native tongue in the process.  Somehow, by retaining a few Amharic words, it feels like we're saving a small piece of his past for him, as well as his little sis'.  (Please note: these words are written phonetically as we learned them on the fly [some we learned from our almost 3-year-old boy via the point and talk method]... and our boy understands them, which is really our only goal... so no snickering out there!)

So, if you're adopting a toddler, here's a head start for you.  Enjoy some "Two-Year-Old Amharic!"

gobas = good
gobas lej = good boy
wetas = milk
doba = bread
mousse = banana
ishi = okay
amasayganalo = thank you
koy = wait
nah = come
baka = stop
abutahin tazas = obey your mother
abutahin kazas = obey your father
tolo = quickly
tekafelu = share
lahsai-ay = show me/you
keenish koitana = a little while longer
algubunyim = I don’t understand
zim = quiet
ewedehalo = I love you (to boy)
ewedeshalo = I love you (to girl)
betam konjo = very beautiful/handsome
mukeeina = car/vehicle
kai = red
semaiyawee = blue
beecha = yellow
tikoor = black
kwas = ball
watahala = backwards
watafeet = forward