አማርኛ (Amharic): Simple Past Tense (Positive)

Ready for the simple past? No stress, it’s quite straightforward (and arguably easier than the present/future tense). You take the verb root, and add a suffix (depending on who the subject of the sentence is).

That’s it! Here’s a conjugation table, using the verbs መብላት/mäblat (eat) and መኖር/mänor (live), so the roots are በላ/bäla and ኖር/nor.

እኔ/ïne/I _____ሁ/_____ኩ _____hu/_____ku በላሁ/bälahu ኖርኩ/norku		እኛ/ïña/we _____ን/_____n በላን/bälan ኖርን/norn
አንተ/antä/you _____ህ/_____ክ _____h/_____k በላህ/bälah ኖርክ/nork	አንቺ/anči/you _____ሽ/_____š በላሽ/bälaš ኖርሽ/norš	እናንተ/ïnantä/ya’ll _____አችሁ/_____ačhu በላችሁ/bälačhu ኖራችሁ/noračhu
እሱ/ïsu/he _____አ/_____ä በላ/bäla ኖረ/norä	እሷ/ïswa/she _____አች/_____äč በላች/bälač ኖረች/noräč	እነሱ/ïnäsu/they _____ኡ/_____u በሉ/bälu ኖሩ/noru

Exercise: Complete the following table.

ENGLISH	INFINITIVE	ROOT	ÏNE/እኔ: PAST
to sleep		ተኛ täña
to give permission			ፈቀደሁ fäk’ädähu
to change	መቀየር mäk’äyär
to adapt	መለመድ mälämäd
to buy		ገዛ gäza
to find	መግኘት mägñät
to arrive		ደረሰ däräsä

Once you’ve got the past simple down in the positive, changing it to the negative is also quite easy.