We tracked down 4 of the best YouTube channels for learning Amharic, including 3 you can use for free. Our top picks right now are How to Speak Amharic, Amharic Academy and Kids learn with Ms Tigest — Amharic and English. Every entry below is hand-checked, and the ones that teach you come first — with free options ahead of paid ones wherever they are as good.
4 resources · 3 free
Amharic taught in themed sets — kitchen words, verbs, sentences you can use.
About this tool →Lessons grouped by situation and by verb, with sentence-building rather than word lists. Amharic verbs are built on consonant roots and change shape a great deal, so material organised around a verb at a time is more useful here than in most languages. Made for the diaspora.
The fidäl syllabary taught from the beginning.
About this tool →Amharic is written in a syllabary of over two hundred characters, each a consonant plus a vowel, and there is no way round learning it. This channel takes it in order. Small, but it covers the one thing that stops people before they start.
Amharic for children — and therefore slow, concrete and heavily repeated.
About this tool →Made for Ethiopian diaspora children learning the language at home: letters, numbers, colours, songs. Not aimed at adults, which is why it works for adult beginners — everything is repeated, spoken slowly and paired with a picture. The most comfortable listening at the very start.
Street interviews with dual subtitles, produced in dozens of languages.
About this tool →A franchise of local producers filming unscripted street interviews, each episode subtitled in the target language and English, which is the closest free thing to hearing how people genuinely speak. All YouTube episodes are free; membership adds transcripts, vocabulary lists and exercises. Real-speed unscripted speech is hard early on — start with the slower 'Super Easy' episodes if you are below B1.
Hi! Tell me what you want to learn and your situation — I'll suggest where to start.
AI advice — check details on the linked pages. Chats are stored anonymously to improve recommendations.