நட்சத்திரம்
“நட்சத்திரம்” (naṭcattiram) — star in Tamil. Noun, level A1. nat-chat-ti-ram; the tc sounds 'tch', the tti is a long t. In a live sentence: “வானத்தில நிறைய நட்சத்திரம்” — There are many stars in the sky. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ந, ட, ், ச, த, ், த, ி, ர, ம, ். A word from the everyday Tamil course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Tamil | நட்சத்திரம் |
| Read in Latin letters | naṭcattiram |
| Translation | star |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- நட்சத்திரம்naṭcattiramstar
How to pronounce it
nat-chat-ti-ram; the tc sounds 'tch', the tti is a long t
Why it looks that way
About the sky and about cinema alike: 'a cinema star'. The native 'fish of the sky' stayed in books
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- வானத்தில நிறைய நட்சத்திரம்vāṉattila niṟaiya naṭcattiramThere are many stars in the sky
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “star” in Tamil?
«நட்சத்திரம்», read “naṭcattiram”. nat-chat-ti-ram; the tc sounds 'tch', the tti is a long t. In a live sentence: “வானத்தில நிறைய நட்சத்திரம்” — There are many stars in the sky. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ந, ட, ், ச, த, ், த, ி, ர, ம, ்.
How is “நட்சத்திரம்” written in Latin letters?
naṭcattiram. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
About the sky and about cinema alike: 'a cinema star'. The native 'fish of the sky' stayed in books. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.