Cases are often the most difficult part of grammar for non-native speakers, because they don’t exactly line up one-to-one with the grammar from any other language. For this lesson, it’d help if you’re familiar with the basic concept of a case, as well as the fancy linguistic names for all the cases, but everything will be explained either way. In Tamil, cases are notated as suffixes.
In order to understand this lesson, you need to know the basics of the Tamil script. If you’re completely new, start here!
This is the easiest case. It’s used when the noun in question is the subject of the sentence. There’s no suffix involved in this one, you just write the noun as it is.
ACCUSATIVE (+ BONUS CASE ENDINGS)
Before we start getting into the actually hard cases, though, we need to cover some spelling rules, and what better way to do that than to learn another case in the process?? :3c
This case is used when referring to the direct object of a verb, or the thing that receives the action of the verb. English doesn’t have an accusative case, but in the sentence “the cat drinks the milk”, the object of the verb would be “the milk”, which takes the accusative case if you translated this sentence into Tamil.
The only case ending used here is -ai, or -ஐ. However, Tamil has a rule against adding vowels anywhere that isn’t the beginning of the word, so the way you add the suffix changes based on the word in question, because this goddamn hell language can’t be regular for once.
These rules are the same for pretty much every case. Remember them.
If a word ends in a bare (dotted) consonant other than ம், simply combine the last letter of the word with ஐ (or whatever the case ending happens to be). For example, the word மனிதன் (manithan) means person, so in the accusative case, it would be written as மனிதனை (manithanai).
If a word ends in a consonant combined with a vowel other than ஆ, இ, or ஐ, take that consonant and combine it with ஐ, or whatever other suffix. For example, பாட்டு (paattu which ends with ட் + உ), or song, becomes பாட்டை (paattai) in the accusative case.
If a word ends in ம், drop that letter and replace it with -த்த, then add the correct suffix. The word கடிகாரம் (kadikaaram), which means clock, becomes கடிகாரத்தை (kadikaaratthai) in the accusative case.
If a word ends in a consonant combined with ஆ or ஐ, add on வ and the suffix at the end. அம்மா (amma), or mother, becomes அம்மாவை (ammaavai) in the accusative.
If a word ends in a consonant combined with இ, add ய and the suffix. புலி (puli), or tiger, becomes புலியை (puliyai) in the accusative.
This case is used when calling out to someone or something, basically. It’s the Tamil equivalent of “oh, hey, you, over there!” (or if you’re the heroine whose only friend is the local bird) The suffix for this case is ஏ (-e), and the rules work exactly as outlined above.
Write these words in the accusative and vocative cases!
கதவு (door)
பூனை (cat)
மாணவன் (student-male)
கடவுள் (god)
Answers:
கதவை / கதவே
பூனையை / பூனையே
மாணவனை / மாணவனே
கடவுளை/கடவுளே
Examples:
அவர் கதவை மூடினார். He shut the door.
கதவே! எனக்கு வேறு நண்பர்கள் இல்லை! Oh door! I have no other friends!
அவள் பூனையை தடவினாள். She stroked the cat.
“பூனையே! கதிரை மேல் ஏற வேண்டாம்!” “Oh cat! Don’t climb on the chair!”
ஆசிரியர் மாணவனை கண்டித்தார்: The teacher reprimanded the student:
“மாணவனே! வாயை சற்று மூடி விடுங்கள்!” “Oh student! Please close your mouth!”
அவன் கடவுளை வணங்கினான். He prayed to god.
“கடவுளே! நீங்கள் தான் என்னை காப்பாற்ற வேண்டும்!” Oh god! Only you can save me!” (aka me after writing these examples)
Thank you for reading this lesson! If you have any questions, please ask them here or at our other blogs @forestpenguin and @asspiratedconsonant. Part 2 and 3 will be out later!!
