Chapter 1.5 Reading in Tamil: Easy Words

Reading in Tamil

The goal of this chapter is to help the student read and pronounce simple Tamil words. The meaning of the words are given along with the audio for the students to listen to. This is just a basic step to building our vocabulary. Students do not have to remember the meaning of every word given here. This is just to build the reading skill of the students.

Once you learn the Tamil alphabets, it is quite easy to read in Tamil. There are no silent letters and each of the letters are pronounced in the exact duration of the vowels that they end with.

There are many schools of thought when it comes to teaching how to read in Tamil. What you see in this book is the method I have used in my classrooms. We will start with single alphabet words and make our way up to multi syllable words.

Some Rules in Tamil Pronunciation

“க” is pronounces as “gh” when in-between vowels and after ய் and ர்.

“ச” is pronounced as “ja” after nasal consonants.

“ட” is pronounced “da” after nasal consonants and between vowels.

“ப” is pronounced “ba” after nasal consonants and between vowels.

This video shows you examples of how this pronunciation difference is used in Tamil.

Given below is the pdf of the slides in the video for reference. You may also reference the Appendix.

க,ச,ட,த,ப pronunciation in Tamil words (PDF)

Single Letter Words in Tamil

Audio of words given above:

Two Letter Words in Tamil

In this set it is important to pronounce the ட் and த், ல்,ள் and ழ் sounds correctly as well as the short and long sounds. The length of the vowel added to the consonant is also important. The meaning of the word will change if these rules are not followed.