Free short notes and revision cards
Grade 8 Amharic on Temari has 20 revision cards, arranged by the chapters of the Ethiopian national curriculum. Every card says when the rule applies, what each symbol in it stands for, and the mistake students most often make with it. They are free to read and need no account.
Show one kind of card
When you use it
Use this when writing a short letter to a family member or friend, or a short account of recent events, and you have a minute to check it.
Watch out
Check each sentence for its full stop and check every comma between list items. Marks are lost when a sentence runs on with no full stop, or when a comma is missing from a list. Also check that each word is spelled correctly.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 1-13, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when asked for the meaning of a word as it is used in a given sentence or passage, not its general dictionary meaning.
Watch out
Do not give only the dictionary meaning. The word አገልግል means a food container in 'እናቴ ከባህርዳር አገልግል ላከችልኝ' but means help or serve in 'ወታደሩ ሀገርህን አገልግል ተባለ'. Read the whole sentence and choose the meaning that fits it.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 1-13, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when a question asks for the meaning of a word such as ጓዳ, ሙልሙል or መጠለል as it is used in a reading passage. Read the whole sentence and the lines around it before answering.
Watch out
Do not give only the dictionary meaning. The chapter states that the true meaning is known only when the word is read inside its context, so the answer must fit the sentence where the word appears.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 14-28, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when you must interpret a ቅኔ and reveal its hidden meaning (ወርቁ). Check the history behind it, split a word into two places, stretch or shorten a word, join words together, pull out morphemes, and check whether a word has more than one meaning.
Watch out
Do not stop at the literal reading of the words. The chapter lists several methods because one reading seldom reveals the hidden meaning, so apply more than one method before deciding the answer.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 14-28, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a task asks you to identify or write a verb describing an action being done now, as in the chapter's exercise on present-tense sentences.
Watch out
A present-tense verb takes the prefix እየ- and usually the helper word ነው. A verb such as ይመረቃል (will graduate) describes a future action, so it is not present tense even when the sentence is about the present situation.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 14-28, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when you change a singular noun such as ልጅ or ተማሪ into its plural form in a sentence.
Watch out
Look at the last letter of the singular noun. Add -ኦች only when that letter is in the sixth order (ሳድስ), as in ልጅ. Otherwise add -ዎች, so ተማሪ becomes ተማሪዎች, not ተማሪኦች. Geez-origin nouns take -ኣት instead, so ቀን becomes ቀናት.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 29-46, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this before writing any essay, so that the main points are arranged in order before the paragraphs are written.
Watch out
A broad title such as የጎዳና ሕይወት must be narrowed first. Break it into numbered main points and then sub-points (for example 1, 1.1, 1.2.1). Without this the essay drifts away from its main idea.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 29-46, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a question asks you to identify, change or write a sentence as active (ገቢር) or passive (ተገብሮ). It decides how the verb is built and where the doer and the thing acted upon go.
Watch out
A passive verb is made by adding the prefix ተ- to the active verb stem, as in ሰበረ (broke) to ተሰበረ (was broken). When you rewrite an active sentence as passive, the doer moves after በ (for example በኤፍሬም) and the object becomes the subject. Do not just add ተ- and leave the sentence order unchanged.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 65-79, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when a question asks you to give the dictionary meaning of a word, or to state its hidden or figurative meaning. Both are asked side by side in the chapter's word tasks.
Watch out
Denotative meaning is the direct, dictionary or everyday meaning, the one that comes to mind first. Connotative meaning is the hidden extra meaning. For ቤት the denotative meaning is a human dwelling with roof and walls, and the connotative meaning is marriage or whole life. Do not write the figurative meaning where the question asks for the direct one.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 65-79, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when a task asks you to write about a past event, such as the life story of a famous person or of yourself. The narrative essay tells what happened in the order it happened.
Watch out
Keep the events in time order, as in እንዲህ ሆነ፣ እንዲህ ተደረገ, and write about a past action in the past tense. Do not turn the essay into an argument or a list of opinions. The narrator may be a participant or an observer of the events, but the story must follow one clear sequence.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 65-79, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when asked to give both the literal (እማሬያዊ) and the figurative (ፍካሬያዊ) meaning of a word, or to write a sentence showing each.
Watch out
The figurative sentence must use the hidden meaning, as in 'ቤተልሄም እርግብ ናት' (gentle or peaceful person). Writing a sentence about an actual dove only repeats the literal meaning and loses the marks for the figurative one.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 80-94, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when asked to classify a sentence as a question, command, statement or exclamation, or to write one sentence of each type.
Watch out
A negative statement such as 'ልጁ ትናንት ደብተር አልገዛም።' is still a statement (ሀተታዊ), not a question. The type depends on the job the sentence does, not on whether it is negative or on its final mark.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 80-94, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a reading question asks you to say whether a statement about the passage is true (እውነት) or false (ሐሰት).
Watch out
Decide only from what the passage says. If the question names a paragraph (for example 'አንቀጽ ሁለት'), check that paragraph first, because a claim that sounds reasonable may still contradict the text.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 95-110, then checked twice before it went up
| Word | Opposite meaning |
|---|---|
| ጉዳት | ጥቅም |
| የግል | የጋራ |
| ጥፋት | ልማት |
| እኩይ | ሰናይ |
| ቅንነት | ክፋት |
| ሙቅ | ቀዝቃዛ |
| ህቡዕ | ግልፅ |
| ሁከት | ሰላም |
| ቧልት | ቁምነገር |
| ኢምንት | ብዙ |
When you use it
Reach for this when an exercise asks you to replace an underlined word with its opposite, or to choose the antonym of a word from a list.
Watch out
Match the opposite of the word's meaning in that sentence, not just any word that looks related. For example, the opposite of ቅንነት is ክፋት, not ጥሩ.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 95-110, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a question asks you to classify a sentence as interrogative (ጥያቄያዊ), imperative (ትዕዛዛዊ), declarative (ሀተታዊ) or exclamatory (አጋናኝ).
Watch out
Classify by what the sentence does, not by its punctuation. 'ትምህርትህን አጥና!' ends with an exclamation mark but is a command, while 'ጎሽ! አንበሳ እኮ ነህ።' is exclamatory because it praises and exaggerates.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 95-110, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Use this when you punctuate direct speech followed by a reporting phrase such as አለ or ሲል, and when you choose the correct punctuation for a quoted question.
Watch out
Keep the question mark inside the closing quotation marks, as in “…?” አለው. Do not add a full stop after it.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 111-127, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a task asks you to classify a sentence as simple or complex, or to write an example of each.
Watch out
Count verbs, not nouns or objects. 'አልማዝ ጫማና ቦርሳ ገዛች' has two nouns joined by ና but only one verb, so it is simple.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 111-127, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when you must decide whether a given sentence is simple or complex, or check a sentence you have written for the task.
Watch out
Verbs hidden inside a relative clause count too. In ንግስት የገዛችው ቀሚስ ያምራል፡ the word የገዛችው contains the verb ገዛች, so the sentence has two verbs (ገዛች and ያምራል) and is complex, not simple. Students who miss the hidden verb mark it wrongly.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 128-143, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a question asks you to label a sentence as simple (ነጠላ) or complex (ውስብስብ), or to write examples of each.
Watch out
The number of verbs decides the type, not the length. A long sentence with only one verb is still simple.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, pages 128-143, then checked twice before it went up
When you use it
Reach for this when a play extract shows one character speaking alone and you must say whether it is a monologue or an aside.
Watch out
Ask first whether the other characters are on stage. If they are absent, it is a monologue (መነባንብ). If they are present but the speaker steps aside so they cannot hear, it is an aside (ጎንታ). Do not decide by the fact that the character speaks alone, because both are spoken alone.
Drafted from Grade 8 Amharic, page 144 onwards, then checked twice before it went up
The student textbook for the new curriculum, free as a PDF. The cards on this page follow its chapters.
Ministry of Education edition, Amharic
173 pages
Oromia Education Bureau edition, Amharic
153 pages
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