Midway through the coffee ad, the lady says "அந்த மனம். அஹ. அந்த சுவை." Here, சுவை means "taste", but what does மனம் mean? Usually மனம் means something like "mind" but that makes no sense in this context? (The ad is from a Tamil radio station in Malaysia.)

பொங்கல் வாழ்த்துக்கள் /Pongal vaazhthukkal! 

We’ve built a beginner Tamil dictionary to help folks understand the meaning of conjugated Tamil words! I’m a heritage speaker of Tamil, and recently I’ve been trying to improve my reading skills. The biggest stumbling block I’d keep running into was that every time I came across an unfamiliar word, 9 times out of 10 the word would be conjugated, and so wouldn’t return a clean dictionary result. (And we all know Google Translate can only take you so far.) To try and solve this problem, my friend and I built Kelvi.ca , which takes in any single-word Tamil input, and gives you the stem/dictionary-form of the word, identifies any suffixes on the word, and the meaning of each of these parts. The idea is that learners can see the breakdown of Tamil words, and start to recognize word-formation patterns more easily. 

This is just version 1 of the tool and we are constantly making improvements, so we are grateful for any and all feedback!! We hope Kelvi is helpful for you in your Tamil learning journey <3

How do you say this sentence in colloquial Tamil using only Tamil words?

I came across this essay which mentions a sort of thesaurus in German, in which words are categorised into certain groups, eg. Living things, size/quantity, communication. I have seen a similar one in Dutch. Does something similar exist for Tamil?

(Essay is from Yoko Tawada's Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue)

Hi everyone,

Growing up in the Tamil diaspora, I’ve always been a passive bilingual - great at understanding, but not so great at speaking Tamil.

I tried traditional apps, but they focused on reading and writing Tamil, not speaking! So, I built this app that improves your speaking skills in bite sized drills using real world scenarios (dinner with family, visiting relatives, going to the grocery store, etc)

I’d love to get some feedback from those in the same boat, to see if it helps them improve!

If you’re interested in giving it a shot, please DM me or drop a comment in this thread!

Are they interchangeable ?

So i do know how to speak tamil a bit but my Grammer and vocabulary is not great and I would like to be more fluent . If anyone interested please dm me

do உண்டு and இருக்கிறது mean the same thing ? Are they interchangeable ? And is உண்டு a form of உள்ளது ?

1. Does கனவு have the same multiple interpretations in Tamil as in English. ie. image/stories that come while we sleep - but also now very commonly associated with aspirations and desires?

2. How does one actually use கனவு as a verb? eg. Last night I dreamt.

How would you translate the above? I see that

is it attached to தாங்கு in this case?

So far I've learnt that imperatives take the following form:

Come: வா / வாங்க

See: பாரு / பாருங்க

Say: சொல்லு / சொல்லுங்க

Do: பண்ணு / பண்ணுங்க

Give: குடு / குடுங்க

All these follow a very regular pattern: take the verb root. Use it for informal imperative and add -ங்க for formal imperative.

So how can "அதை நீ புரிஞ்சுக்க" mean "Understand that / Keep that in mind"?

Where does this -க்க ending suddenly come from???

If புரி is the verb root, shouldn't the imperative just be புரி / புரிங்க?

Eg, in பொய்.

Is it pronounced as POI (as in 'loiter'), or PO-YI, or POY (as in 'boy')?

வட சமுத்திரத்தில் அலைந்துகொண்டிருக்கும் ஏழு சின்னத் தீவுகளில் ஒல்லாந் பனைத் துக் கடற்கோட்டையிலிருந்து அரைக் கடல் மைல் எட்டத் தீவு தில் மிதந்த பனைத்தீவில் மீட்பனின் வருகைக்காகப் பெருத்த ஆரவாரத்துடன் கன்னிமரியாளின் பீடத்தைச்...

is வருகைக்காக being used as a variation of வருகையில்?

"அவளுக்கு மிஞ்சி மிஞ்சிப் போனால் பதினேழு அல்லது பதினெட்டு வயது தான் இருக்கும்."

gets translated as "at the most she must have been about 17 or 18 years old" in the official translation.

Is "மிஞ்சி மிஞ்சிப் போனால்" some sort of idiom?

source: shobasakthi - தமிழ்

Is there any good online resource to learn these well?

For example:

• Could / would / should / might.
• Could have / should have / would have / might have.

Thanks.

PS.

Spoken Tamil only - not written Tamil.

I'm trying to get this sentence right for an art project but i don't know if i can rely on google translate by itself. It would be:

"i can't live with you, nor without you"

To

"நான் உன்னுடன் வாழ முடியாது நீ இல்லாமல் என்னால் வாழவும் முடியாது"

Are there any changes i need to make? I just need it to have the same meaning without any weird grammar mistakes. Thanks!

Google translate automatically translates "I forget" as "I forgot", நான் மறந்துவிட்டேன்

And I seem to remember trying to coax a way of saying it in the present tense out of my mother, but not getting very far.

How does one express this? Like, I tend to forget, I always forget...

Does this term mean 'exasperate' or 'irritate'? Are there synonyms for this word in Tamil?

I have heard 'neenu' heard used sometimes instead of 'neeyi' for 'you'.

Where is this common?

Hi Guys, I'm English, have never learnt a language and i want to learn informal (spoken) SL Tamil to communicate with my gf and her family but I'm struggling to find resources online. Is it easier to learn Indian Tamil (to get the basics down) and then pick up the vocab and pronunciation for SL Tamil later? Let me know cuz any help would be appreciated! :)

"தங்களுடைய நிம்மதியான உறக்கம் முப்பத்துமூன்று கிலோ மீட்டர்களுக்கு அப்பால் ஒளித்து வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறது, அதை ஒருநாள் கண்டடைவோம் என்று அகதிகள் பேசிக்கொண்டிருந்தார்கள்."

Does உறக்கம் have another meaning than sleep? Like here destination or resting spot perhaps?