Lingoflyம — ma
«ma» is a consonant of the Tamil script, read as “ma”. The usual 'm'. For example, in the word “மீன்” (mīṉ) — fish. The Tamil alphabet has 31 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “வணக்கம்” (vaṇakkam) — hello.
In short
| Character | ம |
| Name | ma |
| Sound | ma |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 23rd of 49: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ந and ன, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type ம
- 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+0BAE 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 0BAE.
- Unicode code point: U+0BAE. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The usual 'm'
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 “mellinam — the six nasals” group
One nasal for each hard one: ங with க, ஞ with ச, ண with ட, ந with த, ம with ப, ன with ற. The pair always goes together, and the nasal lets one guess which consonant will come next.
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 «ma» it is “ma”, as in the word “மீன்” (mīṉ)), 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 ம read?
As “ma” — it is a consonant of the Tamil script. The usual 'm'. For example, in the word “மீன்” (mīṉ) — fish.