Who you are
🎯 Introduce yourself and say where you live.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- நான் மாணவன் — naan maanavan 🔊 naan MAA-na-van I am a student. (male) மாணவி maanavi for a female. Notice again: no word for 'am'.
- நான் சென்னையில் இருக்கேன் — naan Chennaiyil irukken 🔊 naan chen-nai-YIL i-rook-KAYN I live in Chennai. -இல் -il = in, stuck to the end of the word. Tamil adds endings rather than using separate words.
- எனக்கு தமிழ் தெரியும் — enakku Tamil teriyum 🔊 e-NAK-koo TA-mizh te-ree-YUM I know Tamil. Literally 'to me Tamil is known'. எனக்கு = to me.
- கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சம் — konjam konjam 🔊 KON-jam KON-jam a little, a little எனக்கு கொஞ்சம் தமிழ் தெரியும் — the sentence that makes everyone helpful.
- நீங்க எங்கே இருந்து வர்றீங்க? — neenga enge irundhu varreenga? 🔊 NEENG-ga ENG-gay i-roon-dhu var-REENG-ga Where do you come from? எங்கே enge = where.
- புரியலை — puriyalai 🔊 poo-ree-ya-LAY I don't understand. One word, complete sentence. Tamil packs a lot into single words.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Tamil glues, it does not arrange
Tamil is agglutinative: it builds long words by sticking endings together, each adding one piece of meaning. Where English needs five words, Tamil often needs one.
- வீடு veedu = house
- வீட்டில் veettil = in the house
- வீட்டிலிருந்து veettilirundhu = from in the house
- வீட்டிலிருந்துதான் = from in the house (emphatically)
- Read such words from the inside out: root first, then each ending.
🌍 Among the people
Tamil has a formal written form (செந்தமிழ்) and a spoken one (கொடுந்தமிழ்), and they differ enough that a learner of book Tamil can struggle in a Chennai market. This course teaches the spoken form.
🔁 Practise today
- Build up வீடு → வீட்டில் → வீட்டிலிருந்து and say each aloud.
- Introduce yourself in four sentences.
- Learn எனக்கு, உனக்கு, உங்களுக்கு — to me, to you, to you (respectful).
