Who you are
🎯 Introduce yourself and say where you live.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- ನಾನು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ — naanu vidyaarthi 🔊 NAA-nu vid-YAAR-thi I am a student. Another Sanskrit borrowing a Hindi speaker will recognise.
- ನಾನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದೀನಿ — naanu Bengalurinalli iddeeni 🔊 NAA-nu ben-ga-LOO-ri-nal-li id-DEE-ni I live in Bengaluru. -ಅಲ್ಲಿ -alli = in, glued to the end.
- ನನಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಗೊತ್ತು — nanage Kannada gottu 🔊 na-na-GAY KAN-na-da GOT-tu I know Kannada. ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ gottilla = I don't know — probably the most useful sentence in Bengaluru.
- ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ — svalpa svalpa 🔊 SVAL-pa SVAL-pa a little, a little ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ is used for everything: a little sugar, a little time, a little patience.
- ನೀವು ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀರಾ? — neevu ellinda bandiddeeraa? 🔊 NEE-vu EL-lin-da ban-did-DEE-raa Where have you come from? ಎಲ್ಲಿ elli = where; -ಇಂದ = from.
- ಅರ್ಥ ಆಗಲಿಲ್ಲ — artha aagalilla 🔊 AR-tha AA-ga-lil-la I did not understand. -ಇಲ್ಲ illa is the negative ending, and it comes at the end.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 The negative is an ending, not a separate word
Hindi places नहीं before the verb. Kannada folds the negative into the verb itself, at the very end of the word.
- ಗೊತ್ತು gottu = known → ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ gottilla = not known
- ಬಂದೆ bande = I came → ಬರಲಿಲ್ಲ baralilla = I did not come
- ಇದೆ ide = it is → ಇಲ್ಲ illa = it is not
- ಇಲ್ಲ on its own simply means 'no'.
🌍 Among the people
Karnataka has two Kannadas in daily life: the Mysuru-Bengaluru speech of the south and the Dharwad-Hubballi speech of the north, which differ enough to notice. Both are proudly Kannada.
🔁 Practise today
- Introduce yourself in four sentences.
- Make five verbs negative with -ಇಲ್ಲ.
- Learn ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ and use it three times today.
