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Lessons and Learning Materials

All documents are in PDF Format. If you do not have the acrobat reader, you can download from www.adobe.com

All documents are bilingual. You should learn the Tamil alphabet and practice reading and writing Tamil. However, in order to help you learn Tamil faster, the material is also available in "transliterated" format so that you can read them even if you do not know Tamil script. Examples of spoken / colloquial form also are provided. However, there are numerous variations in the spoken Tamil. Only one or two variations are covered in the material. All documents contain vocabulary sections dealing with the words used in each section. The documents are grouped by topic (such as rhymes, verbs, etc). While they can be used more or less independently, it may help if you use in them in parallel - say, learn 1 rhyme, 1 prayer, some verb usage, etc. Part-0: The Tamil script:  Alphabet Chart            Learn to write:     Vowels    Consonants Similarities            Transliteration Scheme (includes info on Tamil poetry and Music)             Numbers Part-1 : Prayers (pAlum theLithEnum, kAdhalAgi kasindhu, piththA piRai sUdi, etc.) Part-2 : Pronunciation guidelines Part-3 : Rhymes (Aththi sUdi, kondRai vEndhan, etc.) Part-4 : Stories (Poet and the miser, Thotakacharya, etc.) Part-5 : Verbs (Tense, Gender, Number, etc.) Part-6 : Prepositions (vEtRumaigaL 1-8) Part-7 : Word Lists (Human body, House, etc.) Part-8 : Common Situations - Sample sentences (At home - weekend, etc) Part-9 : thirukkuRaL                Selection-1  (aRam - Virtue / Dharma)

Weavers Wisdom: Good English Translation of thirukkuRaL by Himalayan Academy:

Tamil Grammar

Grammar Basics - (a series of articles) val otRu migum idangaL - (When to double a strong consonant) sandhi ilakkaNam - (joining rules) Poetry Grammar - Basics Poetry Grammar - sandhap pA Introduction to vaNNam in poetry

Credit for the following documents goes to the www.thedmk.org/ilak site. These documents are useful only if you already have a good knowledge of Tamil. 01 - ezhuththu (letter / alphabet) 02 - sol            (word) 03 - sotRodar   (parts of a sentence) 04 - puNarcci   (rules for combining words, etc.) 05 - pizhaigaLum thiruththamum (Common mistakes) 07 - yAppu        (rules for poetry) 08 - aNi            (appreciating poetic beauty)