There are no prepositions — there are endings
Tamil is agglutinative: what an English preposition does is done here by a suffix glued to the end of the word, and the gluing can happen several times in a row. For example: “எனக்கு டீ வேணும்” — I need tea. A rule from the Tamil course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Tamil is agglutinative: what an English preposition does is done here by a suffix glued to the end of the word, and the gluing can happen several times in a row.
- -க்கு (-kku) — 'to, for': வீட்டுக்கு (home, to the house), எனக்கு (to me, for me), வேலைக்கு (to work);
- -ல (-la) — 'in, on, at': கடையில (at the shop), காலையில (in the morning);
- -ஓட (-ōḍa) — 'of, whose': என்னோட (my, of me), உங்களோட (your).
The stem sometimes changes before the suffix: வீடு (vīḍu) → வீட்டு- (vīṭṭu). This is not an exception but a rule for words in -டு, and recognizing it is enough — you never have to derive it.
By example
- எனக்கு டீ வேணும்eṉakku ṭī vēṇumI need tea
- நாங்க சந்தைக்கு போறோம்nāṅga sandaikku pōṟōmWe are going to the market
- காலையில நான் டீ குடிக்கிறேன்kālaiyila nāṉ ṭī kuḍikkiṟēṉIn the morning I drink tea
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
There are no prepositions — there are endings: how does it work in Tamil?
Tamil is agglutinative: what an English preposition does is done here by a suffix glued to the end of the word, and the gluing can happen several times in a row.
What does it look like in an example sentence Tamil?
“எனக்கு டீ வேணும்” (eṉakku ṭī vēṇum) — I need tea. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.