Learning

• 1). Copy and paste these basic Tamil words on a Notepad document, the way that they appear below:
  
  Tamil Nadu = (The Tamil country language)
  
  Yes = Amma
  
  No = Illai
  
  Hello = VaNakkam (vanakkum)
  
  See you later = Paakalaam (puckahllum)
  
  Thank you = Nandri (nandree)
  
  Water = Thanni
  
  Food = Saapadu
  
  Time = maNi
  
  Today = Innaikku
  
  Tomorrow = Naalaikku
  
  Yesterday = Nethu
  
  Every day = Dinamum (sounds like: dinamoom or dinnum)
  
  Sun = Sooriyan
  
  Moon = Nila
  
  What = Yennu
  
  Two = Rendu
  
  Twenty = Irvadhu
  
  
• 2). Listen to the various words spoken by native Tamil speakers by visiting the links provided in the references section. While you are listening to the spoken language, try to identify the Tamil words from the list on your Notepad document.
  
  
• 3). Make mental note of the tone and rhythm of the speech in the recordings. Spoken Tamil sounds somewhat like verbal music. Try to recognize various components of the Tamil language by the sound of Tamil spoken by native speakers. Let your ears get comfortable with listening to spoken Tamil by recognizing various mixtures of other languages within the Tamil language, such as hints of French, Arabic, and Khoisan. If you have some experience speaking foreign languages, you have an advantage to correctly pronounce some Tamil words and phrases.
  
  
• 4). Listen to the video and spoken Tamil-to-English conversations again. Repeat the spoken Tamil words out loud as closely as possible to the way the native Tamil speaker is pronouncing the words. Make notes on the Notepad document as to how the spoken Tamil words sound to you, in English. This will help you to remember how to pronounce the Tamil words. (Don't be concerned with spelling at this time.) Use mental tricks to associate the Tamil words with English words or phrases. For example, the Tamil word "MaNi" means "time." The word "MaNi" sounds almost like the word "money" in English. This reference to the phrase "Money is time" or "Time is money" is a mental trick that can help you remember that Tamil word later on.
  
  
• 5). Study how sentences are formed and where words are used. When learning time and number systems in Tamil, you may notice a similarity to how time and numbers are spoken or thought of in other languages, such as German. They are not spoken or thought of in the same order that English number systems are. In English, when we want to say the number "twenty-two," first "twenty" is designated, then "two." In Tamil, it is the other way around. "Rendu Iruvadhu" means, literally translated, "two twenty," or "two plus twenty." This is also how Tamil phrases are basically formed. In order to ask the question, "What's the time?" in Tamil, you would put the word for "what" first: "Yennu" and then the word for "time" after that, "MaNi." "Yennu MaNi?" literally means "What time?" Don't concern yourself yet with the interjection of the verb "is" or the proper placement of it in a spoken Tamil phrase. Concentrate on more specific and precise conversationally specific formalities later, after you have achieved a more advanced level of learning how to speak Tamil from English. You can now use the same word structure to ask "Where's water?" in Tamil, and "Where's food?"
  
  
• 6). Write down the following words on your Notepad document:
  
  Medicine =
  
  Doctor =
  
  Bathroom / toilet =
  
  Telephone =
  
  Help =
  
  Me =
  
  I =
  
  You =
  
  How =
  
  Who =
  
  Why =
  
  Stop =
  
  Go =
  
  Sorry =
  
  Wash =
  
  Look up the Tamil words for those words using the online dictionary in the References section. Practice using those words in basic two-word phrases, repeatedly.