📌 Start here. Hover over any character to see its sound. Each character is unique — no two look alike. The shape itself is the sound.
All 34 Base Characters (1st vowel order — "ä")
Pronunciation Guide
🔊 Familiar Sounds
b — boyd — dogf — fun
g — goh — hotj — jump
k — keyl — lovem — mom
n — nowp — patr — run
s — sunt — topw — wet
y — yesz — zoosh — shop
ch — churchny — canyon
⚡ Unique Amharic Sounds
q — deep uvular k
ṭ — emphatic t
ḍ — emphatic d
ṣ — emphatic ts
č — emphatic ch
ḥ — pharyngeal h
ʕ — voiced pharyngeal
ə — neutral "uh"
kh — velar friction
zh — like "measure"
Key Things to Remember
📖 How the Script Works
• Amharic writes left to right — same direction as English.
• Each symbol is a complete syllable (consonant + vowel), not just a letter.
• There are 34 base characters × 7 vowel forms = 238 total symbols.
• Once you learn the 7-vowel pattern for one row, it applies to ALL rows.
• Words are separated by spaces. Sentences end with ። (like a period).