உங்க பெயர் என்ன?
“உங்க பெயர் என்ன?” (uṅga peyar eṉṉa?) — what is your name? in Tamil. Phrase, level A0. Literally 'your name what?' — eṉṉa is 'what', the workhorse question word of the language. In a live sentence: “வணக்கம், உங்க பெயர் என்ன?” — Hello, what is your name? You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters உ, ங, ், க, ப, ெ, ய, ர, ், எ, ன, ். A word from the everyday Tamil course, level A0.
In short
| Written in Tamil | உங்க பெயர் என்ன? |
| Read in Latin letters | uṅga peyar eṉṉa? |
| Translation | what is your name? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
- உங்க பெயர் என்ன?uṅga peyar eṉṉa?what is your name?
Why it looks that way
Literally 'your name what?' — eṉṉa is 'what', the workhorse question word of the language
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.
- வணக்கம், உங்க பெயர் என்ன?vaṇakkam, uṅga peyar eṉṉa?Hello, what is your name?
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 “what is your name?” in Tamil?
«உங்க பெயர் என்ன?», read “uṅga peyar eṉṉa?”. In a live sentence: “வணக்கம், உங்க பெயர் என்ன?” — Hello, what is your name? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A0; written with the characters உ, ங, ், க, ப, ெ, ய, ர, ், எ, ன, ்.
How is “உங்க பெயர் என்ன?” written in Latin letters?
uṅga peyar eṉṉa?. 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?
Literally 'your name what?' — eṉṉa is 'what', the workhorse question word of the language. 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.