Grammar book

⏳ Tenses

All twelve tenses, side by side and one by one, and how to choose between them.

• The 12 tenses at a glance12ቱ ጊዜያት በአንድ እይታ (tenses)English has three times (past, present, future) and four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous): 3 × 4 = 12 tenses. This page puts them all in one table, so you can see how they are built and when each one is used.
• Present simpleየአሁን ቀላል ጊዜ (present simple)I work, she works. For facts, habits and routines: things that are generally true, not only now.
• Present continuousየአሁን ቀጣይ ጊዜ (present continuous)I am working. For things happening now, temporary situations, changes, and arranged future plans.
• Present perfectየአሁን ፍጹም ጊዜ (present perfect)I have worked. It connects the past with now: experiences, things that started in the past and are still true, and past actions with a result now.
• Present perfect continuousየአሁን ፍጹም ቀጣይ ጊዜ (present perfect continuous)I have been working. For an activity that started in the past and is still going on, or has just stopped, with the focus on how long or on the activity itself.
• Past simpleያለፈ ቀላል ጊዜ (past simple)I worked, I went. For finished actions at a finished time in the past: yesterday, last year, in 2019, two days ago.
• Past continuousያለፈ ቀጣይ ጊዜ (past continuous)I was working. For an action in progress at a moment in the past, often interrupted by a shorter action in the past simple.
• Past perfectያለፈ ፍጹም ጊዜ (past perfect)I had worked. The past before the past: an action that happened before another action or time in the past.
• Past perfect continuousያለፈ ፍጹም ቀጣይ ጊዜ (past perfect continuous)I had been working. For an activity that went on for some time up to a moment in the past, often to explain a result then.
• Future with willየወደፊት ጊዜ በ will (future simple)I will work. For decisions made at the moment of speaking, offers, promises, requests and predictions based on opinion.
• Future with going to (and the present continuous)የወደፊት ጊዜ በ going to (እና የአሁን ቀጣይ)I'm going to work. For plans and intentions already decided, and predictions from evidence. The present continuous is used for fixed arrangements: I'm meeting her at six.
• Future continuousየወደፊት ቀጣይ ጊዜ (future continuous)I will be working. For an action that will be in progress at a moment in the future, and for polite questions about someone's plans.
• Future perfectየወደፊት ፍጹም ጊዜ (future perfect)I will have finished. For an action that will be complete before a certain time in the future.
• Future perfect continuousየወደፊት ፍጹም ቀጣይ ጊዜ (future perfect continuous)I will have been working. For how long an activity will have continued by a certain time in the future.
• Stative verbs (verbs not used in the continuous)የሁኔታ ግሦች (stative verbs)፦ በቀጣይ ጊዜ የማይገቡ ግሦችVerbs like know, like, want, own and seem describe states, not actions, so they are not normally used in continuous (-ing) tenses: I know (not I'm knowing).
• used to and would; be used to and get used toused to እና would፤ be used to እና get used toused to + verb (and would) for past habits and states that are not true now: I used to live in Addis. be / get used to + noun or -ing means be / become familiar with something: I'm used to working nights.

⚙ Verbs

Modals, conditionals, the passive, reported speech, -ing or to, phrasal and irregular verbs, questions.

• Modal verbsሞዳል ግሦች (modal verbs)Can, could, may, might, must, have to, should, ought to, will, would and shall: small verbs that go before a main verb to add ability, permission, advice, obligation or possibility.
• Conditionals (if sentences)ሁኔታዊ ዓረፍተ ነገሮች (conditionals)Sentences with if: facts that are always true, real future possibilities, imagined situations now, and imagined pasts, plus unless, provided, if only and I wish.
• The passive voiceተገብሮ ድምፅ (passive voice)be + past participle: the sentence starts with the thing that receives the action, not the person who does it. Used when the doer is unknown, unimportant or obvious, and in formal notices.
• Reported speechየተዘዋዋሪ ንግግር (reported speech)Telling someone what another person said or asked: the tense moves back, pronouns and time words change, and questions go into statement order.
• -ing or to? Gerunds and infinitives-ing ወይስ to? (gerunds and infinitives)When one verb follows another, the second is either -ing (enjoy cooking) or to + verb (want to cook). Some verbs take both with a change of meaning, and after a preposition it is always -ing.
• Phrasal verbsሐረጋዊ ግሦች (phrasal verbs)A verb plus a small word (up, out, on, off, down, back) that together make a new meaning: pick up, fill out, look for. Everyday spoken English is full of them.
• Irregular verbsኢመደበኛ ግሦች (irregular verbs)About 100 common verbs that don't add -ed in the past: base form, past simple and past participle, grouped by pattern so they are easier to learn.
• Making questionsጥያቄ መሥራት (questions)Yes/no questions, wh- questions, subject and object questions, polite indirect questions and question tags: in English the helper verb usually comes before the subject.
• Imperatives: commands, requests and let'sየትእዛዝ ግሦች (imperatives)፦ ትእዛዝ፣ ጥያቄና let'sThe base verb on its own (Turn left. Don't park here.) gives commands, instructions and warnings; let's makes suggestions. Knowing how to soften it is just as important.
• Subject–verb agreementየባለቤትና የግሥ ስምምነት (subject–verb agreement)The verb must match its subject: she works, they work; there is one, there are two; everyone is. Most mistakes come from he/she/it -s and from tricky subjects.
• Auxiliary verbs: be, do, haveረዳት ግሦች (auxiliary verbs)፦ be, do, havebe, do and have work as helpers: they build tenses, questions, negatives and the passive, and they give short answers and replies like So do I and Neither can I.

🔤 Words and sentences

Parts of speech, nouns, articles, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, linking words and word order.

• Parts of speechየንግግር ክፍሎች (parts of speech)Every English word has a job in the sentence: it names, acts, describes, joins or points. Knowing the job tells you where the word goes and what form it takes.
• Nouns and pluralsስሞችና ብዙ ቁጥር (nouns and plurals)Nouns name people, places and things. Most add -s for more than one, but the spelling changes with some endings, and a few common nouns are irregular.
• Countable and uncountable nounsየሚቆጠሩና የማይቆጠሩ ስሞች (countable and uncountable)Some nouns can be counted (one apple, two apples); others cannot (rice, money, advice). The difference decides a/an, the plural, and words like much, many, a few and a little.
• Articles: a, an, the and no articleመስተአምር፦ a, an, the እና ያለ መስተአምር (articles)a/an means one of many; the means the one we both know. Sometimes no article is right. Amharic marks “the” with an ending (-ው, -ዋ) and has no word for “a”, so this is one of the hardest areas for Amharic speakers.
• Pronounsተውላጠ ስሞች (pronouns)Pronouns stand in place of nouns: I, me, my, mine, myself. English uses a different form for subject, object and owner, and a sentence always needs its subject pronoun, even when Amharic leaves it out.
• Possessives: 's, s', of and whoseባለቤትነት፦ 's, s', of እና whose (possessives)To say who something belongs to, English puts the owner first with 's (Selam's car), or uses of for things (the end of the street). Ask with Whose…?
• Adjectivesቅጽሎች (adjectives)Adjectives describe nouns. In English they never change for plural or gender, they come before the noun or after be, and they follow a fixed order when there are several. They also make comparatives (cheaper, more expensive) and superlatives (the cheapest).
• Adverbsተውሳከ ግሦች (adverbs)Adverbs tell how, how often, how much, when and where. Most adverbs of manner end in -ly; adverbs of frequency go before the main verb; very, too and enough change how strong an adjective is.
• Prepositions of timeየጊዜ መስተዋድዶች (prepositions of time)at for clock times, on for days and dates, in for months, years and parts of the day. for, since, during, by and until say how long, when, and up to when.
• Prepositions of place and movementየቦታና የእንቅስቃሴ መስተዋድዶች (prepositions of place)in, on and at say where something is; under, between, next to and across from give its position; to, into, through and others show movement. In English they come before the noun.
• Conjunctions and linking wordsመስተጻምሮችና ማያያዣ ቃላት (conjunctions and linking words)Conjunctions join words and sentences: and, but, or, so, because, although, while. Linking words like however and therefore connect one sentence to the next. Each has its own punctuation.
• Relative clauses: who, which, that, where, whose, whenአንጻራዊ ሐረጎች፦ who, which, that, where, whose, when (relative clauses)A relative clause adds information about a noun, right after it: the man who lives next door. Defining clauses say which one and have no commas; non-defining clauses add extra information between commas.
• There is and there areThere is እና there areUse there is / there are to say that something exists or is in a place. Amharic says አለ at the end; English starts with there + be.
• Word orderየቃላት ቅደም ተከተል (word order)English sentences follow subject – verb – object, then place and time. Adjectives go before nouns, adverbs have fixed places, and questions put the helping verb before the subject. Amharic puts the verb last, so this needs practice.
• Determiners and quantifiersወሳኞችና የመጠን ቃላት (determiners and quantifiers)Determiners come before a noun to say which one or how many: this, those, each, every, all, both, either, neither, no, none, enough. Each one goes with a certain kind of noun.

✍ Writing

Punctuation, apostrophes, capital letters, spelling rules, numbers and dates, words people mix up, and writing a good email.

• Punctuationሥርዓተ ነጥብ (punctuation)The marks that show where a sentence stops, pauses or asks a question. Every English mark with its job, the comma rules in detail, and how English marks compare with Ethiopic ones.
• Apostrophesአፖስትሮፊ (apostrophe)The apostrophe (') does two jobs: it shows that something belongs to someone (Meron's phone) and it marks letters left out (don't). It never makes a plural.
• Capital lettersትልልቅ ፊደላት (capital letters)English has capital (big) and small letters; Ethiopic does not. Capitals mark the start of a sentence, the word I, and the names of particular people, places and things.
• Spelling rulesየፊደል አጻጻፍ ደንቦች (spelling rules)English spelling does not always match the sound, but most endings follow a few rules: -s or -es, y to i, doubling a consonant, dropping a silent e. Plus American vs British spelling and the words everyone misspells.
• Numbers, dates and timeቁጥሮች፣ ቀኖችና ሰዓትWhen to write numbers in words or figures, ordinals, the American date order (month/day/year), times, money, phone numbers and addresses. Many forms in the US are filled in wrongly because the date order is different.
• Commonly confused wordsበብዛት የሚምታቱ ቃላትWords that sound the same or almost the same but mean different things: their/there/they're, your/you're, then/than, affect/effect and more. Spell-check will not catch them, because each one is a real word.
• Sentence structureየዓረፍተ ነገር አወቃቀር (sentence structure)How English sentences are built: clauses, simple, compound and complex sentences, and how to fix the two most common problems, fragments and run-ons.
• Formal and informal writingመደበኛና መደበኛ ያልሆነ ጽሑፍHow to write to a landlord, a school, an employer or a government office, and how that differs from a text to a friend: contractions, word choice, greetings and sign-offs, with a full model email.
• Paragraphsአንቀጾች (paragraphs)A paragraph is a group of sentences about one main idea: a topic sentence, supporting sentences, linking words, and a concluding sentence. Used in emails, school writing, job applications and reports.

📚 In the 90 days

Every grammar section the course teaches (180), by level and day. Opening a lesson asks you to sign in.