We were able to be a bit lazy about learning Tamil in Chennai, since most everything in the big city was in English—street signs, menu’s, advertisements—and most people recognized and/or spoke a little, but now that we are in Lisbon, we realize that our hours of watching YouTube videos and reviewing conjugation tables of European Portuguese did very little to help us understand the spoken word out on the streets and in the shops! We’ll share some thoughts and other resources we’ve discovered, but here are some of our favorite Tamil words from India:
- vanakkam: greetings
- kalai vanakkam: good morning
- malai vanakkam: good evening
- iravu vanakkam: good night
- nandri: thanks
- am: yes
- illai: no
- dayavu seidu: please
- idu: this
- anda: that
- inge: here
- ange: there
- miga: very
- mikka nandri: thanks very much
- nalladhu: good
- kettadu: bad
- Idu suvaiyanadu: this is delicious
- arumai: awesome
- hai: hi
- halo: hello
- varugiren: bye
- mannikkavum: excuse me
- ennai mannikkavum: I’m sorry
- nan: I
- nan nalam: I’m fine
- yeppadi irukkirirgal: how are you doing?
- ni: you (informal)
- ondru: one
- irandu: two
- mundru: three
- anbu: love
