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Amharic IME

  • Article

If you need to enter some text in Amharic, Windows includes an Input Method Editor that lets you enter text using the Amharic script while using a typical keyboard with 101-105 keys. Using the IME doesn't require changing your current Windows display language.

Add support for Amharic input

To add support for Amharic input to Windows:

  1. Open Settings and select Time & language > Language & region.
  2. Select Add a language. Select Amharic from the list and select Next.
  3. Consider if you need any of the Optional language features. If you want to enter Amharic text while keeping your current Windows display language, none of them are necessary. When you're happy with your choices, select Install.

Type Amharic text

The Windows system tray shows which keyboard layout is currently active, for example, ENG. You can switch between installed layouts (layouts in the Preferred languages list in Settings) by selecting the Windows logo key + Spacebar.

If you prefer, you can also change the layout by selecting the system tray icon and selecting the layout from the list. This method can be faster if you have more than two languages installed.

Windows 11 with several keyboard layouts installed.

If multiple IME/keyboards are installed for a given language, the list and the tray icon will show a combination of language and layout.

Amharic is an abugida, which means that each character (or fidäl) represents a consonant with an inherent vowel sound. The Amharic IME converts phonemes that you enter to the Amharic characters.

To write text in Amharic

  1. Select Amharic Input Method. The system tray now shows አ instead of ENG indicating that you can now use the Amharic Input Method to write in Amharic.
  2. Type the phonemes you want with the English keys.

Example

The Amharic word for winter is ክረምት, which can be transliterated as kremt or kiremiti.

To type the word, select the Amharic Input Method from the system tray. Then type using the corresponding English keys:

  • k - ክ
  • re – ረ
  • m – ም
  • t - ት

When you're finished typing, select Enter to select the Amharic word.