Chapter 2.1 Tamil Conversation: Introduction and Greeting

In the Tamil conversation lessons, we will learn how to speak in Tamil. We will use the most popular dialect that is used in Tamil Nadu for this. This is the dialect you will hear on TV and in the movies.

It is important to note that the sentence structure of Tamil is “subject-object verb + tense + gender/number”.

Tamil Honorifics

Tamil honorifics usually are suffixes, although prefixes are not uncommon. Tamil honorifics govern daily speech and register of both written and spoken communication. The word choice plays an important role in Tamil culture and has different colloquial, low, standard and high equivalents. Not all words have these differences. The following table shows an example of the English word to eat in different honorific levels in Tamil.

Vocabulary

“Vanakkam” is used to greet any one at any time in any occasion be it formal or informal. When addressing older people usually the word “sir” or “Mam” is used. Their Tamil equivalents are “Aiyya” (ஐயா) and “Amma” (அம்மா). The “nga” the request suffix is added to any verb to make it a polite form of the word. We will see this system in detail in the next chapter on Tamil pronouns.

Situation: Two people are meeting each other for the first time. One is named Mala and the other is named Selvi. We will see three ways that they can introduce themselves. All the three conversations are the different kinds of ways people can introduce themselves when they first meet. These are all in spoken Tamil.

Conversation 1:

Mala: Vanakkam en peru Mala, unge peru enna?

Selvi: Vanakkam, en peru Selvi, eppadi irukeenga Mala?

Mala: Naan, nalla irrukkeen, neenga eppadi irkeenga?

Selvi: Naan nalla irrukeen.

Conversation 1 © Vidya Mohan and Samyukta Iyer, 2024, CC BY-NC 4.0

Conversation 2:

Mala: Vanakkam, naan Mala, neenga Selvi ya?

Selvi: Vanakkam Mala, naan Selvi. Neenja eppadi irrukeenga?

Mala: Naan nalla irruken, neenga eppadi irukeenga Selvi?

Selvi: Naan nalla irruken Mala.

Audio for conversation 2:

Conversation 2 © Vidya Mohan and Samyukta Iyer, 2024, CC BY-NC 4.0

Conversation 3:

Mala: Vanakkam, En peru Mala, neenga Yaaru?

Selvi: En peru Selvi

Mala: Eppadi irrukeenga Selvi?

Selvi: Naan nalla irruken Mala, Neenga eppadi Irukeenga?

Mala: Naan nalla iruken Selvi!

Audio for conversation 3:

Conversation 3 © Vidya Mohan and Samyukta Iyer, 2024, CC BY-NC 4.0