Terri's Basic Amharic
The national language of Ethiopia is Amharic. There are about 80 different languages spoken in Ethiopia, but Amharic is the national language, which all children learn in school. Other major languages include Tigrinia, Oromo, Afarigna and Somali.
Higher education is supposed to be conducted in English. Most children have a few words of English - they'll greet you with 'are you fine?' (a direct translation of the common greeting of 'dehina nesh' to a female or 'dehina neh' to a male). If you ask them the same question, they'll invariably respond with 'I am fine thank you'. They'll have a few more stock phrases in English - try asking them how old they are and what grade they are in in school.
Most restaurants will have a menu in English.
The Lonely Planet publish a pocket-sized Amharic phrase book which is very handy.
The words and phrases below are divided into Essential Phrases, Eating & Drinking and Numbers.
Numbers
| 1 | and | 20 | haya |
| 2 | hulet | 25 | haya-amist |
| 3 | sost | 30 | silassa |
| 4 | arat | 40 | arba |
| 5 | amist | 50 | hamsa |
| 6 | sedist | 60 | silsa |
| 7 | sabat | 70 | saba |
| 8 | simint | 80 | simanya |
| 9 | zeten | 90 | zetena |
| 10 | asir | 100 | moto |
| 1000 | and she |