Where To Start Learning Tamil
3 years ago, I couldn’t speak a full sentence in Tamil.
Today, I can hold 45 minute conversations with native speakers.
If I hadn’t found The Tamil Channel (Sabtha) on Youtube, my mother tongue would have died with me.
A question I often get is “Janahan, where do you recommend I start?”
Tamil is a diglossic language. This means it has both a colloquial flavor, used in everyday speech, and a formal flavor, used in books, news, and speeches.
So here are the resources that turned me from a total beginner to an intermediate level, formal-leaning speaker.
625 Most Common Words in Tamil
Learning the 625 most common words in Tamil gave me a solid linguistic foundation.
It gave me enough confidence to dive deeper into vocabulary and grammar.
The words are all visual - so I could learn them with the help of images, instead of relying on translations.
This concept was popularized by Gabe Wagner, Founder of Fluent Forever. He used this as the basis to become fluent in German in 14 weeks, French in 5 months, and Russian in 10 months.
I asked Sabtha to create a deck for the 625 most common words (in thematic order, in alphabetical order) in Tamil. She did it!
Since I am focusing on speaking and listening, it’s critical that the cards in the deck contain images so I could skip reading English while I build Tamil vocab. The cards also need audio clips so I could improve my hearing and pronunciation.
Otherwise, if the card is text only - I would be practicing Reading English -> Reading Tamil.
The goal is to go from Seeing an Image -> Hearing Tamil.
And mimicking the Tamil back.
You can download the 625 Most Common Words in Tamil deck here.
Once you download it, load the file into the AnkiMobile App.
Get the app on your phone via the Play Store/App Store.
It's free for Android, not for iOS.
It's also free in the browser.
Simple Sentence Structure
While I was creating a vocabulary foundation, I started learning simple sentence structure.
Sentences in Tamil are Subject-Object-Verb (S-O-V). Contrast that with English, where sentences have a S-V-O order.
While Subject-Verb (S-V) sentences are valid grammar, the ideas I could convey were limited - like Mother sings, I sit, You speak. Without an object.
Here is Sabtha's video for sentence structure in Tamil on YouTube.
With this knowledge, when listening - I could deduce how things are interacting. When speaking, I could go beyond எனக்கு பசிகது (I’m hungry).
Colorful Sentence Structure
My next step was adding Adverbs/Adjectives. Without knowing this, I couldn’t describe the way the Subject or Object is Verbing.
The shape is A-S-A-O-A-V where the A’s are adverbs or adjectives.
Sabtha made a video for adding adverbs and adjectives.
When listening - it allowed me to visualize the imagery more vividly. When speaking - I was able to be more expressive. It gave my speech some flair.
This unlocked a new level for the maturity of my speech and listening.
Verb Conjugation
Depending on the timing and who is verbing, the verb’s middle and ending is modified to encapsulate that.
Just as English has roughly 12 tenses, Tamil does too - give or take. Instead, I focused on these 3 starter tenses:
- I sat (simple past)
- I am sitting (present continuous)
- I will sit (simple future)
Sabtha made a video for verb conjugation.
Many people focus on memorizing verb conjugation tables. I used to do that too. The problem with doing this is that it slows down your speech too much.
It breaks up the continuity of your speech. Continuity is important to making your speech sound smooth.
Instead, now I focus on speaking the high-frequency verb conjugations for high-frequency pronouns on the starter tenses.
In northern SL colloquial Tamil, I focus on these high-frequency pronouns
- நான் (I)
- அவர் (he - respectful)
- அவா (she - respectful)
- அவை (they - informal)
- நீங்கள் (you - respectful)
- நாங்கள் (we)
Speaking takes much more coordination of the tongue, lips, and breath than I realized years ago.
For example, I was struggling with the அவை (a-veh) future conjugations. This was because the verb conjugation is generally irregular. Also, in formal Tamil, which I focused on first, அவை is only for a group of non-humans.
Instead of complaining it’s irregular, I just practiced speaking அவை + high frequency verb conjugations dozens of times.
அவை அங்கேயிலெ இருக்கும்
They will be there.
In all languages, there will always be exceptions to the rule. Learning the rules is only a part of playing the game.
I had to play the game to get better at the game.
I had to practice speaking more to get better at speaking.
It sounds obvious in hindsight, but it’s not how I approached learning languages most of my life. I thought that reading and writing would translate to better speech.
It doesn’t.
While there are other pronouns, such as நீ/நீர், நாம், அவர்கள், அவன், அவள், etc. - these are less used in conversation. Therefore, I don’t focus on their conjugations.
Compound Sentences
Now that I could convey complete, colorful sentences, the next step was adding connector words. This allowed me to compare/contrast ideas to highlight my point.
Some examples of connector words: for example, even though, but, and, otherwise, until now, therefore, because, so, instead of, just as, even when, especially, since.
I like this more than that.
அது விட, இதை எனக்கு கூட விருப்பம் (Compared to that, I like this more)
So the shape of the sentence could be [C] S-A-O-A-V [C] S-O-V, where [C] is a connector.
In English, connectors usually come in the middle of the sentence. In Tamil, by default, they’ll come first.
English: The train was late because an elephant crossed the tracks
Tamil: Because an elephant crossed the tracks, the train was late.
The mouth coordination was difficult for me picking up Tamil as a third language. It was important to start interacting with the audio syllable by syllable.
I am working on a tool for you to practice speaking with audio, syllable by syllable, these types of sentences.
The same way I did with the Mimic Method and Spanish.
Sign up for my newsletter to be the first-to-know when it’s released.
Without a solid understanding of the compound sentence structure and grammar, I was not able to express exactly my thoughts as they were synthesized.
But a knowledge of how to compose compound sentences is only one part of speaking my thoughts smoothly.
Practicing coordinating my lips, tongue, and breath was another.
Vaetrumai (Cases)
Vaetrumai are suffixes on nouns that communicate relationships to other nouns or verbs in the sentence. In English, these are represented as separate words - like in, with, to, for, from, at, etc.
Kind of like prepositions.
“நான் கடை போனனான்"
I went store
vs.
“நான் கடைக்கு போனனான்"
I went to store
After learning Vaetrumai, I could speak in grammatically correct sentences.
Without Vaetrumai, it’s difficult for the listener to understand the direction of intent between the Subject/Object and Verb.
It will sound broken to a native speaker.
Accent Work
A great accent will help your conversation flow.
Otherwise, there will be a buffering period where the listener is guessing what you meant. Once I realized that you can’t read/write your way to speaking better, that’s when I started taking accent work seriously.
Especially if you’re not immersed, like me learning Tamil in New York City, it’s critical to get the reps in.
When I was working with Idahosa Ness, he pointed out that my lips are too flat when speaking in Spanish. This means my “e”s were flat because I needed to almost smile to get the sound right.
Same with my flat “o” because I wasn’t pursing my lips.
Among several other minor recalibrations.
He told me that it’s common for English speakers to do this. I never noticed. The same accent mistakes I made in Spanish, I was making in Tamil, too.
To sound trustworthy, I needed to practice coordination of my lips, tongue, and breath with audio that captured these different types of vocabulary and compound sentences.
To sound smooth, I couldn’t apply grammar rules I learned in real time that my mouth hadn’t practiced.
Picking the right exercise with high cadence was the key to getting better faster than I expected.
Putting It All Together: My Weekly Tamil Schedule
It’s been 3 years since I started on this journey to learn Tamil. At my peak, I was spending about an hour a day across these habits. Lately, it’s closer to 10 minutes.
- Vocab review on Anki (every day for 5 minutes)
- Listening to Hello Kekutho (3x/week)
- Watching Jaffna Suthan (3x/week)
- Calling Amma (Mother) (3-4 days a week - 5-10 minutes each)
- Calling Giri Mami (Aunt) (1x/week for 45 minutes)
- Texting Questions to Giri Mami (ad hoc)
- Doing Mimic Method exercises with Hello Kekutho or Jaffna Suthan (1x/week for 20 minutes)
- Speaking With Strangers (I joined the "What You Missed In Tamil Class" discord community that meets consistently, on a weekly basis to practice speaking)
- Studying new Tenses. These add texture to my speech (infrequently). I will add these to the speaking tool I am working on!
One thing I had to keep reminding myself when listening to “Hello Kekutho” and “Jaffna Suthan” at first - it’s ok to only understand bits of it. At first, I only understood like 20% of both of them.
I started after building a vocabulary foundation.
A helpful tip I use for Hello Kekutho is .8x speed so I can practice grabbing all the words with my ears. They use intricate words, have unique ways of speaking, and speak quickly. At 80% speed, I can catch 80% of what’s happening.
For Jaffna Suthan, when he’s speaking directly to the camera, 100% speed is fine.
I enjoy mimicking Kasthuri and Ram when I listen to "Hello Kekutho". Same for "Jaffna Suthan". Both are low friction ways to get mouth instrument repetition in.
In Closing
These resources were an excellent way to go from zero to intermediate-formal speaker.
But it’s only a map.
When combined with the accent work and speaking repetition, it became the journey I was looking for.
I love to document what I learned because it solidifies my own understanding.
I am currently working to break down actual footage of conversation in colloquial northern SL conversations with Sabtha that I’m finding on Youtube to level up my own colloquial Tamil.
As I solve that, be on the lookout for another guide.
When I level up my Tamil, so will you.
