Example
A sample passage in Tamil script with an ITRANS-like transliteration.
aasiriyar vakuppukkuL nuzhainthaar. avar uLLE nuzhainthavudan maaNavarkaL ezhunthanar. vaLavan mattum than arukil ninRu kondiruntha maaNavi kanimozhiyudan pEsik kondirunthaan. naan avanai echarithEn.
English translation of the passage given above: The teacher entered the classroom. As soon as he entered, the students got up. Only Valavan was talking to Kanimozhi who was standing next to him. I warned him.
| Word (romanised) | Translation | Morphemes | Part of speech | Person, Gender, Tense | Case | Number | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aasiriyar | teacher | aasiriyar | noun | n/a, gender-neutral, n/a | nominative | honorific plural indicated by suffix ar | The feminine gender aasiriyai can be used here too; the masculine gender aasiriyan is rarely used, considering the honored position of the teacher |
| vakuppaRaiyuL | inside the class room | vakuppu+aRai +uL |
adverb | n/a | locative | n/a | Sandhi (called puṇarci in Tamil) rules in Tamil require euphonic changes during agglutination (such as the introduction of y in this case) |
| nuzhainthaar | entered | nuzhainthaar | verb | third, gender-neutral, past | honorific plural | In an honorific context, the masculine and feminine equivalents nuzhainthaan and nuzhainthaaL are replaced by the collective nuzhainthaar | |
| avar | He | avar | pronoun | third, gender-neutral, n/a | nominative | honorific plural indicated by suffix ar | In honorific contexts, the masculine and feminine forms avan and avaL are not used |
| uLLE | inside | uLLE | adverb | n/a | n/a | ||
| nuzhainthavudan | upon entering | nuzhaintha + udan |
adverb | n/a | n/a | Sandhi rules require a v to be inserted between an end-vowel and a beginning-u during agglutination. | |
| maaNavarkaL | students | maaNavarkaL | collective noun | n/a, masculine, often used with gender-neutral connotation, n/a | nominative | plural indicated by suffix kaL | |
| ezhunthanar | got up | ezhunthanar | verb | third, gender-neutral, past | plural | ||
| VaLavan | VaLavan (name) | VaLavan | proper noun | n/a, masculine, usually indicated by suffix an, n/a | nominative | singular | |
| mattum | only | mattum | adjective | n/a | n/a | ||
| than | his (self) own | than | pronoun | n/a, gender-neutral, n/a | singular | ||
| arukil | near (lit. "in nearness") | aruku + il | adverb | n/a | locative | n/a | The postposition il indicates the locative case |
| ninRu kondiruntha | standing | ninRu + kondu + iruntha | adverb | n/a | n/a | The verb has been morphed into an adverb by the incompleteness due to the terminal a | |
| maaNavi | student | maaNavi | pronoun | n/a, feminine, n/a | singular | ||
| kanimozhiyudan | with Kanimozhi (name of a person) | kanimozhi + udan | adverb | n/a | comitative | n/a | The name Kanimozhi literally means sweet language |
| pEsik kondirunthaan | was talking | pEsi + kondu +irunthaan | verb | third, masculine, past continuous | singular | Continuousness indicated by the incompleteness brought by kondu | |
| naan | I | naan | pronoun | first person, gender-neutral, n/a | nominative | singular | |
| avanai | him | avanai | pronoun | third, masculine, n/a | accusative | singular | The postposition ai indicates accusative case |
| echarithEn | cautioned | echarithEn | verb | first, indicated by suffix En, gender-neutral, past | singular, plural would be indicated by substituting En with Om |
Read more about this topic: Tamil Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word example:
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)