Language/Amharic/Grammar/bästä-prefix

Vocabulary > Directions in Amharic: bästä- Prefix

bästä- is a prefix attached to compass points or any object used to indicate relative location and means ‘of’ or ‘towards’.

Observe the following examples:

ኬንያ ከኢትዮጵያ በስተደቡብ ትገኛለች Kenya käItyop’ya bästädäbub tïgäňalläč. (Kenya is located south of Ethiopia. tïgäňalläč = is located)

በስተ bästä can also be added to ‘ ግራ gïra’ = left and ‘ቀኝ k’äň = right. Thus we can say: ከትምህርት ቤቱ በስተ ቀኝ ክሊኒክ አለ kätïmïhïrt betu በስተቀኝ bästäk’äñ’ clinic allä. “There is a clinic to the right of the school.” Note: here በስተ bästä means ‘to the’ as in ‘to the left’

Note

It is common to give the direction of a place in relation to other places/notable landmarks. Some of the common landmarks you may use are:

1. ትምህርት ቤት tïmhïrt bet school

2. ቤተክርስትያን betäkïrïstian church

3. መስጊድ mäsgid mosque

4. ዋና መንገድ wanna mängäd main road

5. ድልድይ dïldïy bridge

6. ፖሊስ ጣቢያ polis t’abiya police station

7. ፖስታ ቤት posta bet post office

8. ገበያ gäbäya market

9. ባንክ ቤት bank bet bank

10. ህንጻ/ ፎቅ hïns’a /fok’ building/ storey

11. መድኃኒት ቤት mädhanit bet pharmacy

12. ሆስፒታል hospital hospital

Examples

Look at the following example:

• Passerby ጤና ይስጥልኝ t’ena yïst’ïlïň
• Tigist ጤና ይስጥልኝ t’ena yïst’ïlïň
• Passerby ትምህርት ቤቱ የት ነው? tïmhïrt betu yät näw?
• Tigist ከፖሊስ ጣቢያው በስተቀኝ ነው käpolis ta’biyaw bästäk’äň näw.
• Passerby አመሰግናለሁ amäsägïnalähu
• Tigist ምንም አይደል mïnïm aydäläm

Vocabulary: Asking for Directions

• የት ነው?የት ጋር ነው? yät näw? yät garnäw? Where is it?
• በየት በኩል ነው? bäyät bäkul näw? In which direction is it?
• የት ይገኛል? yät yïgäñal? Where is it located?
• በዚህ ያስኬዳል? bäzih yaskedal? Does this way take to …?

Directions

https://polyglotclub.com/wiki/Language/Amharic/Vocabulary/Directions

Source

See: https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps/Amharic/Amharic%20Peace%20Corps%20Language%20Manual-2015.pdf

Other Lessons

• The Past and Present Continuous Tenses
• Comparing and Contrasting
• Expressing Obligation or Necessity
• Questions
• Pronouns
• Simple Past Tense Forms of Other Verbs (Negative)
• 2 sequential actions in the present
• The Simple Past
• Stem verbs