Tigrinya Grammar - Adjectives

Adjectives

Tigrinya adjectives may have separate masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural forms, and adjectives usually agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. The plural forms follow the same patterns as noun plurals; that is, they may be formed by suffixes or internal changes or a combination of the two. Some common patterns relating masculine, feminine and plural forms of adjectives are the following. Note that ä in the patterns becomes a after pharyngeal or glottal consonants (as elsewhere in Tigrinya).

masculine CǝC(C)uC, feminine CǝC(C)ǝCti, plural CǝC(C)uCat

• ሕሙም ḥǝmum ሕምምቲ ḥǝmǝmti ሕሙማት ḥǝmumat 'sick'

masculine CäCCiC, feminine CäCCaC, plural CäCCäCti or CäCCaCti

• ጸሊም s'ällim ጸላም s'ällam ጸለምቲ s'ällämti 'black'
• ነዊሕ näwwiḥ ነዋሕ näwwaḥ ነዋሕቲ näwwaḥti 'long'

masculine and feminine the same, plural -(t)at. In the following case, the adjective is formed from adding -"am" to a noun, a feature shared with Amharic

• ሃብቲ habti, 'wealth', ሃብታም habtam ሁብታማት habtamat 'rich'

Adjectives modifying plural animate nouns must be plural, but adjectives modifying plural inanimate nouns may be singular: ጻዕዳ ክዳውንቲ s'a‘da kǝdawǝnti 'white clothes' ('white' singular, 'clothes' plural). However, nouns referring to multiple entities may be singular when the context makes the plurality clear, and these singular nouns may be modified by plural adjectives: ክልተ ሃብታማት ሰበይቲ kǝlǝttä habtamat säbäyti 'two rich women' (lit. 'two rich (pl.) woman').

Adjectives are used less often in Tigrinya than in English. Most adjectives have a corresponding verb that is derived from the same consonantal root, and this verb often appears where English would have an adjective. For example, ከቢድ käbbid 'heavy' ከበደ käbädä 'be, become heavy', ሕማቕ ḥǝmmax' 'bad', ሓመቐ ḥammäx'ä 'be, become bad'. In particular, an adjective may be replaced by the relative perfect form of the corresponding verb: ሕማቕ ሰብኣይ ḥǝmmax' säb’ay 'a bad man, ዝሓመቐ ሰብኣይ zǝḥammäx'ä säb’ay 'a bad man' (lit. 'man who became bad').