Lingoflyஐ — ai
«ai» is a vowel of the Tamil script, read as “ai”. The diphthong 'ai' as in 'ice'. For example, in the word “கடை” (kaḍai) — shop. The Tamil alphabet has 31 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “ஐம்பது” (aimbadu) — fifty.
In short
| Character | ஐ |
| Name | ai |
| Sound | ai |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 9th of 49: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ஏ and ஒ, appears in 5 words of this site.
How to type ஐ
- On a phone: add the Tamil keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0B90 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0B90.
- Unicode code point: U+0B90. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The diphthong 'ai' as in 'ice'
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
The character in the “uyir — the twelve vowels” group
'Uyir' means 'soul': Tamil grammar counts the vowel the soul of the syllable and the consonant its body. A vowel is written as a separate letter only at the beginning of a word.
Words with this character
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 (for «ai» it is “ai”, as in the word “கடை” (kaḍai)), 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 — 31 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 timesAdesope, 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 timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Tamil character ஐ read?
As “ai” — it is a vowel of the Tamil script. The diphthong 'ai' as in 'ice'. For example, in the word “கடை” (kaḍai) — shop.