Amharic Keyboard

How to type Amharic with this keyboard

Amharic is written in the fidel (the Ge'ez script), where each letter is a consonant plus a vowel. You type it the way you would spell it out loud:

1. Type the consonant. It appears at once in its bare form: b gives ብ, s gives ስ.
2. Type the vowel. The letter changes to the right form: b a gives ባ, b u gives ቡ, b e gives በ.
3. Leave a consonant alone where the word has no vowel: s e l a m gives ሰላም, with the ም bare.

Sounds English writes with two letters work the same way: sh gives ሸ, ch ቸ, ny ኘ. Capitals give the ejective letters: T ጠ, C ጨ, P ጰ, S ጸ. A full stop typed after a letter becomes the Ethiopic ።, and a comma ፣.

Prefer to click? Open the Fidel chart tab: every letter is there, one row per consonant, in the traditional order. Backspace takes the vowel off a letter (ባ → ብ) before removing it, so you can fix a syllable without retyping it. When you're done, press Copy and paste the text into a chat, an email or a document.

The seven orders: one consonant, seven vowels

Every consonant has seven forms, called orders, one for each vowel. The shape changes a little each time, usually with a small mark added to the base letter. Here is በ (b) in all seven, with what to type for each:

The sixth order is the odd one out: it is the consonant with a very short vowel or none at all, so it is also what you get at the end of a word. Because the vowel is built into the letter, Amharic has no separate vowel letters, except when a vowel starts a syllable (see below).

Which key types each consonant

The consonants in the traditional order of the fidel, each shown in its sixth (bare) form with what to type. Add the vowel after it to get the other orders.

Several letters share a sound in modern Amharic (ሀ ሐ ኀ are all h, ሰ ሠ both s, አ ዐ both a glottal stop, ጸ ፀ both ts). Which one a word uses is a matter of spelling, as with c and k in English; dictionaries and school books show the right one.

The Ge'ez fidel chart: the whole Ethiopian alphabet

The complete Amharic alphabet, one consonant per row and one order per column, plus the wa form in the last column where it exists. The Fidel chart tab on the keyboard has the same letters as buttons.

Download the fidel chart (PNG)

Vowels on their own

When a syllable starts with a vowel, Amharic uses the አ series, whose consonant is a glottal stop you don't hear. Type the vowel on its own, spelled the way Ethiopians write Amharic in Latin letters:

So a alone is አ but b a is ባ, the fourth order. This follows everyday spelling (አማርኛ is typed amarnya, አዲስ አበባ is adis abeba) rather than the strict transliteration, where a would be the fourth order. If you want the fourth-order ኣ, type aa.

The wa letters (ኳ ጓ ቋ)

Most consonants have an eighth form with a w sound built in, used in words like ኳስ (kwas, ball), ጓደኛ (gwadenya, friend) and ቋንቋ (qwanqwa, language). Type the consonant, then wa: kwa → ኳ. kua and kaa give the same letter. These are the last column of the chart above.

Ethiopic punctuation and numerals

Amharic has its own punctuation, all on the buttons above the keyboard. The full stop and comma also come from the . and , keys when they follow a letter:

Ethiopic numerals are used in dates, church calendars and for decoration; everyday Amharic uses ordinary 1 2 3. There is no zero: numbers are written by combining these, so 12 is ፲፪ and 2016 is ፳፻፲፮. Open Ethiopic numerals above the keyboard to type them.

Common Amharic words and how to type them

Each word with its meaning and exactly what to type on this page:

Tigrinya, Ge'ez and the other Ethiopic languages

The fidel is also used for Tigrinya (Eritrea and Tigray), for Ge'ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches, and for several other languages of Ethiopia. They share the letters on this page and add a few of their own. Tigrinya's extra sounds are here too: qh gives ቐ and kh gives ኸ, each with its seven orders, and the fourth-order vowel ኣ (aa) is common in Tigrinya words. So you can type Tigrinya with this keyboard as well.

How to add an Amharic keyboard to your device

For a few words, this page is enough. For everyday Amharic, add a keyboard to your device. Most of them work like this page: you type in Latin letters and pick the fidel.

Frequently asked questions