ஶ — soft sha

In short

In our course the character comes 36th of 49: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ஹ and க்ஷ.

How it sounds

Soft 'sh'; it occurs almost only in the word ஶ்ரீ — 'shri'

The character in the “grantha — letters for foreign sounds” group

Six signs taken from the grantha script for Sanskrit and English words. The Tamil classification does not count them: thirty-one letters means 12 vowels, 18 consonants and the aytham.

• ஜjaja▶
• ஷshasha▶
• ஸsasa▶
• ஹhaha▶
• க்ஷkshaksha▶

How to remember this character

A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound, see the right answer.

And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 49 letters — at once.

• It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many times
  Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
• Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.

Next

• The whole Tamil alphabet49 letters in a single table
• Letter க்ஷ — kshasound “ksha”
• Letter ாsound “-aa”
• Letter ிsound “-i”
• Letter ீsound “-ii”