← All guides

The Amharic Alphabet Chart for Kids: How to Read the Fidel Chart

2026-10-14 · Fidel Friends

If you've ever looked at an Amharic alphabet chart and felt a little lost, you're not alone. A full fidel chart (ፊደል) has hundreds of little characters packed into rows and columns. The good news: once you know how the chart is organised, it becomes one of the most helpful tools you can put on your wall. This guide shows you how to read it, and how to use it with a young child.

What is an Amharic alphabet chart?

An Amharic alphabet chart is a grid that shows every letter family of the fidel. Each row is one family, built on one consonant sound. Each column is one vowel sound. Where a row and a column meet, you find the character for that consonant plus that vowel.

That's because the fidel is an abugida: every character is a consonant and a vowel together. So instead of writing "b" and "a" separately, you write one character, ባ (ba). If you want the background, we explain it in why the fidel is easier than it looks.

The 7 columns: the seven "orders"

Every family has seven forms, traditionally called the seven orders. On almost every fidel chart they appear in the same order, left to right:

1. 1st order: "e" (the base form), as in ለ (le)
2. 2nd order: "u", as in ሉ (lu)
3. 3rd order: "i", as in ሊ (li)
4. 4th order: "a", as in ላ (la)
5. 5th order: "é" (like the "ay" in "say"), as in ሌ (lé)
6. 6th order: "ə" (a short "uh", or sometimes no vowel at all), as in ል (lə)
7. 7th order: "o", as in ሎ (lo)

Kids don't need the word "order". In our videos, Fikir simply sings all seven sounds of a family in a row, the same way every time. The order itself becomes the song.

How to read the fidel chart: three families

Here are the first rows of a typical chart. Read each row left to right and say the sounds out loud:

Now read down a column instead. In the "u" column you get ሁ ሉ ሙ (hu, lu, mu). Notice that each one has a little extra mark on its right side. In the "a" column (ሃ ላ ማ), the shapes change in a similar way too. This is the secret of the chart: the columns follow patterns. The marks are not perfectly identical in every family, but they're consistent enough that children start to "see" the vowel after a while.

Why the chart order matters

Most Amharic speakers learned the fidel by chanting it in chart order: ሀ ሁ ሂ ሃ ሄ ህ ሆ, then ለ ሉ ሊ ላ ሌ ል ሎ, and so on. If you grew up in Ethiopia, you may still hear that chant in your head. Keeping the same order at home means:

• Your child can practise with grandparents, church school or community classes and hear the same sequence.
• Every new family feels familiar, because the vowel rhythm never changes.
• Your child can "find" a sound by counting across the row.

How to use a fidel chart with a young child

A chart is not a worksheet to finish in one sitting. Think of it as a map you return to every day for a few minutes. Some ideas that work well for ages 2 to 7:

• Put it at their eye level. On the fridge, by the dinner table, or next to the bed. Familiar things become learnable things.
• Point and sing. Run your finger along one row while you sing the seven sounds together.
• Play "find it". Say a sound, like "mo", and let your child hunt for ሞ. Start inside one row, then widen to two or three rows.
• Colour as you go. When your child knows a family well, let them colour that row or add a sticker. A chart that fills up over weeks is a great motivator.
• Connect to names. Find the letters in your child's name, or in እማ and አባ. Personal words stick.

Don't try to learn the whole chart at once

A full Amharic alphabet chart has 34 families in our teaching (more on that in how many letters are in the Amharic alphabet). That's a lot for a preschooler. We recommend one family every few days, reviewing old rows as you go. Our routine in how to teach the Amharic alphabet at home fits nicely around the chart.

Get a free printable fidel chart

We made a clean, kid-friendly fidel chart you can print at home. Download the free printable chart, stick it somewhere your child sees every day, and pair it with the episode for each family.

Ready for the first row? Meet the ሀ family, or browse all the letter families with Fikir, the friendly Alphabetter.