சப்பாத்து
“சப்பாத்து” (sappāttu) — dress shoes in Tamil. Noun, level A1. Portuguese, settled long ago. The 'shoes' of the course are footwear in general; these are a closed pair for going out. In a live sentence: “பாடசாலைக்கு கறுப்பு சப்பாத்து வேணும்” — For school black dress shoes are needed. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ச, ப, ், ப, ா, த, ், த, ு. A word from the everyday Tamil course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Tamil | சப்பாத்து |
| Read in Latin letters | sappāttu |
| Translation | dress shoes |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- சப்பாத்துsappāttudress shoes
Why it looks that way
Portuguese, settled long ago. The 'shoes' of the course are footwear in general; these are a closed pair for going out
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.
- பாடசாலைக்கு கறுப்பு சப்பாத்து வேணும்pāḍasālaikku kaṟuppu sappāttu vēṇumFor school black dress shoes are needed
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 “dress shoes” in Tamil?
«சப்பாத்து», read “sappāttu”. In a live sentence: “பாடசாலைக்கு கறுப்பு சப்பாத்து வேணும்” — For school black dress shoes are needed. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ச, ப, ், ப, ா, த, ், த, ு.
How is “சப்பாத்து” written in Latin letters?
sappāttu. 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?
Portuguese, settled long ago. The 'shoes' of the course are footwear in general; these are a closed pair for going out. 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.