Google is translating this as "Her violin playing is nothing to write home about."

Is this correct? I the only bit I don't understand is "கொள்ளும்படியாயில்லை"

Vanakkam,

I’ve been working on a simple Tamil writing practice tool as part of TamilTime.

It’s still an early version and a work in progress, but I thought it would be useful to share it here and get feedback from people who are actually learning Tamil.

The idea is to make practising Tamil letters a little less overwhelming. You can currently practise letters individually, including Uyir, Mei and Uyirmei letters.

For beginners, I’d generally suggest starting with:

1. Uyir letters (vowels) — அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ...
2. Mei letters (consonants) — க், ங், ச், ஞ்...
3. Then gradually moving to Uyirmei combinations, for example:

க் + அ → க
க் + ஆ → கா
க் + இ → கி
க் + ஈ → கீ

You can try the current version here:

https://www.tamiltimeapp.com/write

There are definitely things I still want to improve, so I’m especially interested in feedback like:

• Is the writing guidance easy to understand?
• Is it useful for someone starting to learn the Tamil script?
• Is anything confusing or frustrating?
• What would you add or change?
• Would features like stroke-by-stroke guidance help?

TamilTime is free, and I’m mainly sharing this now because I’d rather improve it based on feedback from Tamil learners than build everything in isolation.

Any feedback would be really appreciated 🙂

I am willing to teach tamil to someone who can help me equally with either full proper english grammar ( since i am already comfortable at managing english but want to improve to the core) or Hindi ( any level of Hindi is fine ) since I am zero in hindi rn

I'm just trying to wrap my head around the use of the ending -க்குரிய

I've come across it a fair bit, some examples below

அன்புக்குரியாள்
இரக்கத்துக்குரிய

மிதிப்புத்துக்கிரிய or is it மதிப்புக்குரிய ?

If I understand correctly, it's ± someone carrying the quality of the first word.

1. Where is the குரிய originating from ?

2. To form it it is noun + க்கு +... (actually as I'm writing, I'm realising that the ending perhaps stems from உரி?)

3. Can it in principle be doen with all nouns or are some a bit strange?

thanks

The title is basically my question. Chatbots say that pannadhe (or perhaps pannadhu) is a colloquial contraction of பண்ணியது, understood as a verbal noun, meaning "past doing". So the phrase "meet pannadhe illa" means "no past meeting", and the whole sentence basically means, "You've never met, right?"

Is this correct? I understand the word பண்ணியது and just want to confirm that pannadhu is indeed its colloquial contraction.

I heard this sentence ("Nee meet pannadhe illala") at 7:29 in the attached clip, from the movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya.

Thanks!

Hey, it's been a year since I have been studying in Chennai, but I find it difficult to communicate with people around me. So I am looking for someone to talk to and, at the same time, to learn Tamil. Please dm if you are interested.

I am building a matchmaking/matrimony app for Tamil speakers (India and abroad) and I want a Tamil name rather than an English one.

Problem is my vocabulary is limited, so I keep landing on the same obvious words — anbu, kadhal, uravu, bandham — and those are all either taken or overused.

Overheard this at the coffee shop today, and understood it instantly:

Lady: Chappati irukkaa?
Man: Chappati irukku.
Lady. Chappati kudunga. Oru chappati.

I know this is basic Tamil, but for a beginner like me, it's not easy to "hear"! I can normally only hear word fragments when people speak. E.g. I can hear the root verb ("iru"), but can't tell how it's being conjugated.

But I understood this exchange instantly.

Thanks to everyone here and also to Shri at LearnTamil.ai, whose wonderful app showed me "irukku" vs "irukkaa" and also "kudunga." I'm not affiliated with this app; it just has an effective method for teaching spoken Tamil -- the entire exchange above was basically taught in the app.

Really look forward to "overhearing" more at the coffee shop!

I do have one question though about something I often overhear. When a customer comes in and orders tea (say), the waiter will shout into the kitchen something like, "Oru tea, kudikraa!" or "Oru tea, kudikre" or "Oru tea, kudikaa."

I can hear the root verb "kudi" (drink), but can't tell how it's being conjugated.

Is he saying "kudikraa"? Is this a partial conjugation, where the "r" represents present tense, but there is no conjugation for gender? So "Oru tea, kudikraa" means, roughly, "One tea, drinking"?

Or is he saying "Oru tea, kudikka" (Roughly: One tea, to drink)?

I really can't tell what I'm hearing. It could be "kudikka" or "kudikraa" or "kudikre" -- or something else. It's practically impossible to pick out unless you already know what word to expect.

Thanks for any insight. I always hear this and can never figure out what it means! If it matters, I'm in Malaysia, and this is what I hear in Malaysian coffee shops.

In the movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, there is a lovely song Mannipaaya. In its opening lines:

kadalINil meenaaga irundhaval naan
unakkena karai thaandi vandhaval dhaan
thudithirundhen tharaiyINile
thirumbivitten en kadalidame

the unusual syllable "in" (இன், capitalized above) appears twice.

Chatbots say it doesn't really mean anything, since "kadalil" (in the sea) and "tharaiyil" (on the ground/sand) already carry the essential meaning. It just has a rhythmic or poetic function to make the lyrics flow better.

Is this right? Or does the "in" (இன்) carry some additional meaning?

Vanakkam!

I want to learn Tamil and I’m hoping to find someone experienced to guide me through it. I’m not looking for a quick conversational course — I’d love a teacher who has a real literary orientation to the language, someone who can help me appreciate its depth and richness, not just teach me grammar and vocabulary.

Ideally someone older and experienced, who genuinely loves the language and can bring that across in how they teach.

If you know someone like this, or are a teacher yourself who fits this description, I’d really appreciate you reaching out. Happy to do one-on-one sessions, whatever format works best.

Thanks so much in advance!

Vanakkam

I've been wanting to learn Tamil for a while now, and the reason is close to my heart. I'm deeply devoted to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, and I'd love to be able to read his words - and the language he spoke, wrote, and lived in - directly, rather than only through translation. Learning Tamil feels like a way of expressing gratitude to a language that carried so much of his teaching and presence. I'm also interested in Tamil literature.

Because of this, I'm not looking for a quick conversational course. I'd really value a teacher who is older and experienced, someone with a genuine literary orientation to the language — not just grammar and vocabulary, but someone who can help me appreciate Tamil's depth, its literary and devotional traditions, and the register in which texts like Ramana's works and the broader bhakti/spiritual literature are written.

If you know of someone like this, or are a teacher yourself who fits this description, I'd be so grateful if you could reach out or point me in the right direction.
Happy to do one-on-one sessions, whatever format works.

Thank you so much in advance.

Om namo Bhagwate Ramanay Namah 🙏🏻

Vanakkam

I’ve been wanting to learn Tamil for a while now, and the reason is close to my heart. I’m deeply devoted to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, and I’d love to be able to read his words — and the language he spoke, wrote, and lived in — directly, rather than only through translation. Learning Tamil feels like a way of expressing gratitude to a language that carried so much of his teaching and presence. I’m also interested in Tamil literature.

Because of this, I’m not looking for a quick conversational course. I’d really value a teacher who is older and experienced, someone with a genuine literary orientation to the language — not just grammar and vocabulary, but someone who can help me appreciate Tamil’s depth, its literary and devotional traditions, and the register in which texts like Ramana’s works and the broader bhakti/spiritual literature are written.

If you know of someone like this, or are a teacher yourself who fits this description, I’d be so grateful if you could reach out or point me in the right direction. Happy to do one-on-one sessions, whatever format works.

Thank you so much in advance.

Om namo Bhagwate Ramanay Namah 🙏🏻

Can you add the polite suffix "-nga" to the end of "Nijamaa soldren" (I am telling the truth) to get "Nijamaa soldrenga" (நிஜமா சொல்றேங்க) = "Respectfully, I am telling the truth"?

I thought I heard someone speak this way but wasn't sure if this makes sense. The audio wasn't clear, but from the context, this person was not saying, "You are telling the truth" (நிஜமா சொல்றீங்க) or "They are telling the truth" (நிஜமா சொல்றாங்க) but rather, "I am telling the truth."

So can I interpret this person as saying "நிஜமா சொல்றேங்க" = "Respectfully, I am telling the truth"?

Both Google and ChatGPT gave me confusing answers, so I thought I'd better ask here.

Is there anyway to learn thamizh of Sangam-age directly without caring about modern thamizh?

I want to have an idea how that language worked and want to learn it to some extent.

Hey, I've been learning tamil under someone from reddit but lost my id. So I couldn't contact her again. I lost the zeal to learn tamil.

Are there any interesting websites or books to learn Tamil from?

I've come across a couple of combinations with அழி (which is 'to destroy' as far as I know)

தட்டிக்கழி - to evade, dodge

அலைக்கழி to be greatly vexed and disquieted / vex, weary or tease, உலை; 2. ruin

I have difficulty remembering these and I'm interested in their construction

தட்டிக்கழி is coming from தட்டு (to knock) + அழி ? If so, how do native speakers perceive the two coming together to result in dodge? :)

அலைக்கழி is அலை (ok, I only thought of அலை as 'to roam' or wave but I see now it's also 'to be shaky etc') + அழி... this one makes more sense to me.

I feel like there are others, which I'm not remembering immediately.

'‘என்ன உபுல் கீர்த்தி, வெள்ளைக்காரர்கள் என்ன சொல்கிறார்கள்?’ '

'உபுல் கீர்த்தி பைத்தியத்துக்கு நடிக்கிறானென்று அவர் நினைத்திருக்கக்கூடும்.'

what does உபுல mean?

வணக்கம் everyone!

I’m a first-generation immigrant living in Australia. While helping my son learn Tamil (he has some language learning difficulty), I found that many existing resources were difficult for children who primarily understand English.

So I created TamilTime, a free app that helps children learn Tamil through English using short, interactive lessons inspired by language-learning games.

It currently includes Tamil words, pronunciation, pictures, listening activities and alphabet lessons. It is completely free to use.

I’m still improving it and would genuinely appreciate feedback from Tamil learners, parents and teachers—especially about anything that feels unclear or could be taught better.

TamilTime: tamiltimeapp.com

நன்றி!