-ዎች

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

-ዎች • (-woč) pl

1. -s (The regular plural suffix for most Amharic nouns.)

   ‎ምግብ (məgb, “food”) + ‎-ዎች (-woč) → ‎ምግቦች (məgboč, “foods”)

   ‎ድመት (dəmät, “cat”) + ‎-ዎች (-woč) → ‎ድመቶች (dəmätoč, “cats”)

   ‎በር (bär, “door”) + ‎-ዎች (-woč) → ‎በሮች (bäroč, “doors”)

• In native speech, this suffix is elided to -oč after consonants, with the previous letter taking on the vowel when its singular form would have none, in which case the w consonant is not necessary. However, non-natives speakers may simply append this suffix to the end of words to form plurals when learning the language.
• Certain irregular nouns do not use this suffix in formal speech; however, it may still be used informally for many of these nouns.

• “How to make plural words in Amharic”, in Amharic Teacher‎^[1] (overall work in English)