Grammatical Notes
Note 5.1 Verb: Perfective
| ındəmın addəru. | 'How have you spent the night?' |
| mın alu ↑ | What did you say? |
| wədə kətəmá hedhu. | I went to town. |
| abbatun məTrát fəlləgə. | He wanted to call his father. |
| ınnatwan ayyəc. | She saw her mother. |
| səTTən. | We gave. |
| mıgıbbetun ayyu. | They saw the dining room. |
In Amharic as in other Semitic languages the verbs are listed in the dictionaries in the 3rf person masculine singular Perfective form and not in the 'Infinitive' as in so many other languages.
Thus the verb 'to want' is listed under /fəlləgə/ 'he wanted', the verb 'to see' under /ayyə/ 'he saw', etc.
The great majority of Amharic verbs have three basic consonants (traditionally known as 'radical' or 'root' consonants) the second of which is almost always doubled.
There are, however, a great number of verbs with two, four, or even five radicals. Some of the two-radical verbs, such as /ayyə/ 'he saw' /hədə/ 'he went', etc. are among the most common ones.
The classification of Amharic verbs will be gradually introduced in the later units.
Following is a list of various verb forms which have occurred in Units 1 through 5 together with the corresponding Perfective form in the right hand column.
| Forms in the Units | Perfective Forms | ||
| addəru | they spent the night | addərə | he spent the night |
| yadrısuñ | they said | adərrəsə | he took (caused to arrive) |
| alu | they said | alə | he said |
| ınnırəf | let us rest | arrəfə | he rested |
| yasayyuñ | show me | asayyə | he showed |
| yasgəbbullıñ | have them bring for me | asgəbba | he had (someone) bring (something) |
| awKalləhu | I know | awwəKə | he knew |
| mayət | to see | ayyə | he saw |
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