പച്ച.PacchaPūccha.പൂച്ച

So in Malayalam it is important to learn how to place stress on different words in order to spice up your sentence structures! Also if you’re like me, and you are watching lots of Malayalam media etc, you will hear malayalis use the ആണ് dotted about everywhere like it’s some amazing sentence seasoning 😂 I have included a couple of pictures from the book I am using to give some explanation to it. In English we usually just change the emphasis in the speech to stress words e.g. ‘this pen is MINE’ vs ‘this PEN is mine’ emphasising the ‘pen’ by changing the pitch, suffices in English as a marker for highlighting a word, in Malayalam adding ആണ് has a similar function. For example:

അവൻ മൈക്ക് ആണ് - he is Mike

അവൻ ആണ് മൈക്ക് - HE is Mike (it is HE, and no one else, that is Mike)

മൈക്ക് ആണ് ആവൻ - MIKE is he (MIKE is he, and not another)

EXERCISE ANSWERS

Here are the answers to the last lesson

This is a table - ഇത് ഒരു മേശയാണ്‌

That is book - അത് ഒരു പുസ്തകമാണ്

What is that? - അത് എന്താണ്

What is your name? - നിങ്ങളുടെ പെര് എന്താണ്‌

This pen is mine - ഈ പേന എന്റേതാണ് (ഇത് becomes ഈ if it directly precedes a named object)

This notebook is mine - ഈ ബുക്ക് എന്റേതാണ്

She is Sara - അവൾ സാറയാണ്

He is Paul - അവൻ പോൾ ആണ്

VOCABULARY

ഞാൻ - I

എന്റെ - my (possessive case)

നിങ്ങൾ - you (polite)

നിങ്ങളുടെ - your (possessive case)

നീ - you (casual)

അവൻ - he (casual)

അയാൾ - he (polite)

അദ്ദേഹം - he (honorific)

അവൾ -she (casual)

അവർ - she (honorific) AND they

ഞങ്ങൾ - we (excluding listener)

നമ്മൾ - we (including listener)

ആണോ - is/are? Question for if ആണ്

അതെ - yes

ഇല്ല - no

-ഇൽ - locative case marker (in/among/at)

-ലേക്ക് - towards

വീട് - house/home

ജോലി - job/work

ഒരു -a/one

-ഉം - also/too

ഈ - this

ററീച്ചൻ - teacher

ചെയ്യുക - (verb) to do - ചെയ്തു - did - ചെയ്യും - will do

-ഓ - question marker

ADVERBS

ഇവിടെ - here

അവിടെ - there

എവിടെ - where?

ഇങ്ങോട്ട് - in this direction/over here

അങ്ങോട്ട് - in that direction/over there

എങ്ങോട്ട് - in which direction?

ഇപ്പോൾ - now

അപ്പോൾ - then

എപ്പോൾ - when?

ഇന്ന് - today

അന്ന് - that day

എന്ന് - which day?

ഇങ്ങനെ - like this

അങ്ങനെ - like that

എങ്ങനെ - how?

CONVERSATION

Bill: നിങ്ങളുടെ വീട് എവിടെ ആണ്

James: എന്റെ വീട് London-ഇൽ ആണ്‌

Bill: എന്റെ ജോലി എന്താണ്‌?

James: ഞാൻ ഒരു ററീച്ചൻ ആണ്‌. നിങ്ങളോ?

Bill: ഞാനും ഒരു ററീച്ചൻ ആണ്‌.

James: എന്ന് നിങ്ങൾ ജോലി ചെയ്യും.

Bill: ഇന്ന് ഞാൻ ജോലി ചെയ്യും.

GRAMMAR

Locative case marker are joined to nouns as outlined here and here

Adding -ഉം to words follows similar conjugation rules to -ഇൽ in the table linked above however if the word ends in -ം have a -വ added eg അദ്ദേഹം becomes അദ്ദേവും

EXERCISE

Translate the following into Malayalam

He is here today

Is he here today?

How do you do this?

Where is she?

When did you do this?

I am in London

My house is in Kerala

She is in her house

Answers in the next lesson

So I have decided to organise some of my posts into lessons and link them all to each other, kinda like a one stop shop for Malayalam. I will also be posting the random stuff I post now about specific subjects, but I want to make these lesson posts substantive enough to teach Malayalam gradually. These are all based on Moag’s university course book, but I will vary it up a little with some modern examples. I wont be teaching the Malayalam script on here, unfortunately the script, like any other non-latin script, will just have to be learned by wrote learning, just writing and exposing yourself to them as much as possible. if you need to remind yourself of Malayalam cases then go here, and to remind yourself of how to conjugate verbs into past tenses go here. Here we go. 

VOCABULARY

പറയുക - to say/tell (verb)

പറയൂ - please say/tell

എല്ലാരും - everyone (nominative)

ഒന്നിച്ച് - together

മനസ്സിലാക്കുക - to understand (verb)

ശരി - ok/fine

നിങ്ങളുടെ - your (possessive)

പേര് - name

എന്ത് - what?

ആണ് - is

എന്താന്ന് - what is?

ആര് - who?

ഇത് - this 

ഇത് എന്താണ് - what is this?

അത് - that

അത് എന്താണ് - what is that?

ഒരു - a/one

എന്റെ - my (possessive)

എന്ന് - quotative particle

അവൻ - he (impolite)

അദ്ദേഹം - he (polite)

അവൾ - she

മാങ്ങ - mango

പഴം - banana

പുസ്‌തകം - book

ബുക്ക് - notebook

പേന - pen

മേശ - table

കസേര - chair

CONVERSATION

Tara : നിങ്ങളുടെ പെര് എന്താണ്

Sara: എന്റെ പെര് Sara എന്നാണ്, നിങ്ങളുടെ പെര് എന്താണ്

Tara: എന്റെ പെര് Tara. അവൻ ആരാണ്

Sara: അവൻ Paul ആണ്

Tara: ഇത് എന്താണ്

Sara: ഇത് മാങ്ങയാണ്

Tara: അത് എന്താണ്

Tara: അത് കസേരയാണ്

GRAMMAR

Remember Malayalam is a SOV (subject-object-verb) language. This means that the verb is put last in a sentence unlike English where the sentence order is subject-verb-object. In English we would say 'I drove the car' in Malayalam the correct structure would be 'I the car drove'.

എന്ന് is the quotative particle in Malayalam. This particle is used when saying what someone says (we will cover this use in later lessons), in this lesson we are using എന്ന് to highlight a name in the sentence. എന്റെ പെര് Sara എന്നാണ് - my name is Sara, here എന്ന് is joined to ആണ് so form the complete sentence.

EXERCISE

Translate the following

This is a table

That is book

What is that?

What is your name?

This pen is mine

This notebook is mine

She is Sara

He is Paul

So we are now getting to the part in grammar studies where we start to distinguish between moods in a language. We are starting with the imperative mood. In English the imperative mood allows us to give commands or to make requests, kind of like when we type in capitals with lots of exclamation marks to tell people we are giving them a command, or how we elongate vowels when stressing the word PLEEEEEASE, to really emphasise this mood. In Malayalam there are multiple methods to form imperative moods, some more elegant and easy to comprehend than others!

One of the first methods we will encounter is asking for permission. The simplest way to change a verb to make it permissive in Malayalam, is to remove the -ഉന്നു from the present tense of the verb and add -ട്ടെ

ഞാൻ സംസാരിക്കട്ടെ - may I speak?

ഞാൻ കഴിക്കട്ടെ - may I eat?

അവൾ വരട്ടെ - may she come?

To command someone to do something there are different levels of formalities we must consider. This system of formality will be familiar to those of us who have studied Japanese at any point. The examples below will rank from least polite to most polite for each verb. Also please notice how the most polite uses the past participle form of the verb instead of the present tense.

നീ വാ - you come!

നിങ്ങൾ വരൂ - you may come.

താങ്കൾ വന്നലും - you are welcome to come.

നീ പോ - you go!

നിങ്ങൾ പോകൂ - you may go.

താങ്കൾ പോയാലും - you are welcome to go.

Adding -നാം to a verb is a soft commitive way of saying you will do something. Kind of like giving a light promise. In English cultures the whole, 'we should meet for coffee sometime' comes to mind. It's like you saying you want to do something but you're not fully committed to doing it. Since only you can express promises and desires, this -നാം ending is used with first person pronouns, so any that include you as the speaker.

ഞാൻ നിന്നെ നാളെ കാണാം - I'll see you tomorrow

നമുക്ക് കോഫി കഴിക്കാം - let's have coffee

ഞാൻ നാളെ പോകാം - I'll go tomorrow

So I covered how you'd talk about needing or wanting (to do) something in the present tense - (remove -ഉക and add ണം e.g. പോകുക = പോകണം the difference between need and want is changed by the case used nominative or dative if this sounds confusing refer to my earlier posts on the dative case) What about when we wanted something in the past? Well, 'wanted' or 'needed' in Malayalam is വേണമായിരുന്നു (so basically, 'want/need' വേണം + 'was' ആയിരുന്നു). So, you can say പോകണമായിരുന്നു for 'should go'. Also, I thought I'd talk about how to talk about not wanting or needing things, because we already know that വേണം is the verb you use for talking about when someone does need or want something. The negative form is വേണ്ട.

So എനിക്ക് പോകണമായിരുണു - 'I wanted to go',

but ഞാൻ പോകണമായിരുന്നു - 'I should go'.

So എനിക്ക് പോകണ്ട. 'I don't want to go.'

but ഞാൻ പോകണ്ട - 'I shouldn't go'.

If you're talking about how you will may want/need something in the future, you have to add -ഏണ്ടി വരും. In this case the case doesn't matter as much as the suffix is sufficient for context.

ഞാൻ പോകേണ്ടി വരും - 'I have to go'

ഞാൻ പോകേണ്ടി വരുമായിരുന്നു - 'I had to go'

To make commitive statement (that you will definitely do something) you add ഇരിക്കും to the past particle form of the verb. Same as the previous example this conjugation is not as dependent on the case as the earlier examples.

ണാൻ അവിടെ പോയിരിക്കും - 'I WILL go there'

I love pattern in linguistics and I came across a book this week that was written in the mid 19th century. The author tries to list and categorise some Malayalam words based on particles, if you've ever studied Japanese you will be VERY familiar with particles and how useful they can be. A lot of Malayalam particles come directly from Sanskrit. I'm going to summarise what Reverend Joseph Peet said in his book. Some of these will be covered in more detail in other posts, this is an introduction, and a lot will come in handy when we cover conditional sentences.

എന്നു (that) - used to show that the subject referred to is contained in the preceding sentence. It is also used as a quotative marker in sentences where someone says something.

അവൻ വരും എന്നു അവർ പറഞ്ഞു - they said that he would come

അവൾ അത് ചെയ്യും എന്ന് രാമ പറഞ്ഞു - Rama said she would do it

ഉം (and, even, also) - used in listing multiple objects in a sentence.

അരിയും അപ്പവും പച്ചക്കറികളും - rice, bread and vegetables

പൂച്ചകളും പട്ടികളും - cats and dogs

അവനും അത് ഇഷ്ടപ്പെടുന്നു - he also liked it

മാത്രം (only) - this is attached to nouns in all cases to give the meaning of only, alone. When used by itself it gives the meaning of entire.

മലയാളത്തിൽ മാത്രം - only in Malayalam

എനിക്ക് ഇത് മാത്രമേയുള്ളൂ - I only have this

എനിക്ക് ഒരു തവണ മാത്രമേ ചെയ്യാൻ കഴിയൂ - I can only do it once

എനിക്ക് ഒരു കാർ ഓടിക്കാൻ മാത്രമേ കഴിയൂ - I can only drive a car

എങ്കിൽ (if) - attached to any conjugation of the verb to give a sense of conditional behaviours.

അവൻ നാളെ വരുമെങ്കിൽ - if he comes tomorrow

അവൻ ഇന്നലെ വന്നെങ്കിൽ - if he came yesterday

അവൻ ഇന്ന് വരുന്നെങ്കിൽ - if he comes today

Pay special attention to the way in which എങ്കിൽ fits into each tense of the verb 'to come' in the examples above. So neat and tidy but can be confusing.

ആൽ (if) - this is a good time to mention this participle too it's use is similar to എങ്കിൽ BUT it can only be used with the past tense of the verb.

അവൻ വന്നാൽ - if he came

അവൾ വിളിച്ചാൽ - if she called

അവർ നടന്നാൽ - if they walked

എങ്കിലും (but/nevertheless) - good for expressing conditionals.

ഒരെണ്ണം ഞാൻ ഇഷ്ടപ്പെട്ടില്ല, എങ്കിലും ഞാൻ മറ്റൊന്ന് ശ്രമിക്കും - I did not like one, but/nevertheless I will try another.

എനിക്ക് അവളെ കേൾക്കാനായില്ലെങ്കിലും ഞാൻ കേൾക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചു - I couldn’t hear her, nevertheless I still tried to listen.

എന്നിട്ടും (and yet) - good for expressing outcomes in conditional sentences.

അവൻ എല്ലാം ചെയ്തു, എന്നിട്ടും അവൻ വിജയിച്ചില്ല - he did all that and yet he didn’t win.

ഞാൻ വളരെ കഠിനമായി പഠിച്ചു, എന്നിട്ടും ഞാൻ വിജയിച്ചില്ല - I studied so hard and yet I didn’t pass .

വേണ്ടി (for) - usually added to dative case subjects .

ഇത് അവൾക്ക് വേണ്ടി ആണ് - this is for her

ആ പുസ്തകം കുട്ടികൾക്ക് വേണ്ടി ആണ് - that book is for kids

ഈ പേന എഴുതുന്നതിന് വേണ്ടി ആണ് - this pen is for writing

Making nouns plural in Malayalam is fairly easy, however pluralisation takes some practice to get right. One thing to remember is that Malayalam verbs do not change for numbers no genders, however nouns can, this is why we will also touch briefly on the noun gender too, in order to make successful use of pluralisation rules. I will now list the different ways to form noun plurals in Malayalam.

Inanimate Nouns

Inanimate nouns can refer to objects or to concepts. Objects such as book, cup etc will take an ending based on the way in which the noun ends. Nouns ending in complete vowels or complete consonants often take a -കൾ ending. Nouns ending in an incomplete vowel or consonant, such as those ending with ് or chillu will often add a ു sound before the -ക

ഇല (leaf ) = ഇലകൾ

തലയണ (cushion) = തലയണകൾ

സാരി (saree) = സാരികൾ

തൊപ്പി (hat) = തൊപ്പികൾ

Now let's see some examples where the preceding letter is a ് or chillu.

കപ്പ് (cup) = കപ്പുകൾ

ഷർട്ട് (shirt) = ഷർട്ടുകൾ

കാർ (car) = കാറുകൾ

കമ്പ്യൂട്ടർ (computer) = കമ്പ്യൂട്ടറുകൾ

If the inanimate noun ends in an -അം sound then the plural will change the ക to a ങ്ങ sound (still in the guttural sound family)

പുസ്തകം (book) = പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ

സത്യം (truth) = സത്യങ്ങൾ

കുറ്റകൃത്യം (crime) = കുറ്റകൃത്യങ്ങൾ

Animate Nouns

So this is a little more complex as you have to first distinguish the gender of the noun. In Malayalam there is male and female, there is no neuter. Is a noun ends in an ൻ it is likely to be a male noun, if it ends with an ി it is likely to be female. Of course sometimes the gender of the noun doesn't follow these endings because the gender may be clear from the word itself e.g mother is female noun because it refers to a female however it does not end in the ി sound, as other female gender nouns do (be mindful a word like വിദ്യാർത്ഥി which you will come across a lot in Malayalam is genderless despite ending in ി sound, there are exceptions to every rule). You eventually add -മാർ to a large number of these nouns in order to pluralise them.

അമ്മ (mother) = അമ്മമാർ

സഹോദരി (sister) = സഹോദരിമാർ

സഹോദരൻ (brother) = സഹോദരന്മാർ

ദേവൻ (god) = ദേവന്മാർ

ദേവി (goddess) = ദേവിമാർ

-കൾ can be used for animate genderless nouns

കുട്ടി (child) = കുട്ടികൾ

പൂച്ച (cat) = പൂച്ചകൾ

കോഴി (chicken) = കോഴികൾ

Some genderless nouns take the -അർ ending. We will just to memorise these as we come across them in daily use.

അധ്യാപകൻ (teacher) = അധ്യാപകർ

കൗമാരക്കാരൻ (teenager) = കൗമാരക്കാർ

Addendum

Plural suffixes are instantly removed if a numeral adjective precedes the word. So in English we say four coins, in Malayalam it's more correct to say നാല് നാണയം (four coin). One final thing to mention about gendered nouns. Be sure to pay attention to use of pronouns in sentences which use gendered nouns, so don't say

അവൾ മിടുക്കനാണ് - which would mean something like 'she is a smart guy' because മിടുക്കൻ is used instead of മിടുക്കി so the pronoun and the gendered noun need to match - അവൾ മിടുക്കിയാണ് - she is a smart (girl)

Once you've pluralised a noun you can add the cases to them as follows for 'children'

Nominative - കുട്ടികൾ

Accusative - കുട്ടികളെ

Genitive/Possessive - കുട്ടികളുടെ

Sociative - കുട്ടികളോട്

Dative - കുട്ടികൾക്ക്

As mentioned previously the instrumental case is mostly used marking the object used by the subject to perform a verb. It is not as complicated as the other cases in Malayalam so this post won't be as long.

1. As a marker denoting use of objects

By direct use of the instrumental maker -ആൽ

ആ വടിയാൽ അവൻ പാമ്പിനെ കെന്നു - 'with that stick he killed the snake'

2. To mark cause

Probably one of the more useful uses of the case. When added to word it gives a sense of cause to the sentence. I love these types of sentences in any language I learn, I think because I like to be able to teach people things, in teaching you do a lot of explaining, and so you end up using 'because' a lot.

ഈകാരണത്താൽ സീട പെട്ടിച്ചുപോയി - 'because of this reason Sita became frightened'

മഴ പെയ്യുന്നതിനാൽ അവർ പോയില്ല - ‘because it was raining they didn’t go’

ചൂടായതിനാൽ ഇത് സ്പർശിക്കാൻ കഴിയില്ല - 'because it was hot it couldn’t be touched'

അത് വലുതായതിനാൽ അത് നീക്കാൻ കഴിയില്ല - ‘because it was big it couldn’t be moved’

ചെളിനിറഞ്ഞതിനാൽ എനിക്ക് ചുവടെ കാണാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല - ‘because it was muddy I couldn’t see the bottom’

3. Passive subject marker

Instrumental case can mark the subject in a passive sentence. Notice how in the following sentences the subjects are in their nominative cases and not the accusative as they would be in an active sentence structure - but you can't use the instrumental case with active subjects.

കോഴികൾ കൃഷിക്കാരനാൽ പിന്തുടർന്നു - 'the chickens were chased by the farmer'

പൂച്ച ഉടമാൽ ഭക്ഷണം നൽകി - 'the cat was fed by the owner'

ചിത്രം കലാകാരനാൽ വിമർശിച്ചു - 'the picture was criticised by the artist'

Addendum:

In daily spoken Malayalam it is more common to hear postpositions such as കൊണ്ട്, കാരണം, and മൂലം to mark cause such as those outlined in number 2 above. Endings such as -വെച്ചു and -ഇട്ടു to denote locative sense is also commonplace.

തന്റെ തലയിട്ടു അടിച്ചു - 'he hit his (own) head'

പേനവെച്ചു കുത്തി - 'poked with a pen'

കൈവെച്ചു തള്ളി - 'pushed with the hand'

Take several seats for this one, because I think this will be a long post. The locative case has many used in Malayalam and I will try to explain the grammar here, as best I can. It may be a bumpy ride, but think of the bigger picture, how well you will learn this language at the end of all this!!!

1. Spatial and temporal meaning

Probably the most familiar use of this case as covered in my first cases post. Pretty self explanatory means something like at or in in English

അവൾ മുറ്റത്ത് നിന്നു - 'she stood in the courtyard' (notice the ത്ത് ending instead of ഇൽ which are both locative suffixes)

ഒൻപത് മണിക്ക് നാടകം തുടങ്ങും - 'the play will begin at 9 o'clock' (again the ക്ക് ending is locative in this case)

കുട്ടികൾ ബസിൽ കയറുന്നു - 'the children are boarding the bus' (typical ഇൽ ending)

വേദനാജനകമായ സമയങ്ങളിൽ ആശ്വസിക്കുന്നു - 'consoled in painful times'

2. Superessive

Fancy word to say that locative is used to denote on, on top of, on the surface of.

തലയിൽ ചുമക്കുന്നു - 'carried on head'

മടിയിൽ ഇരുത്തി - 'placed on lap'

3. Inessive

Again another fancy word to describe in, at, inside of.

കുപ്പിയിൽ ഒഴിച്ചു - 'poured in the bottle'

വീട്ടിൽ സൂക്ഷിച്ചു - 'kept in the house'

4. Topical and causative relation

Confusingly some uses of the locative case cannot be explained as a physical locations like how we say 'stand by my beliefs' in English, we say we are standing by them, but they aren't a physical place in the world.

തീരുമാനത്തിൽ ഉറച്ചുനിന്നു - 'stood firm by decision'

പ്രവർത്തനത്തിൽ ലജ്ജിച്ചു - 'was ashamed by the action'

സന്തോഷത്തിൽ സ്വയം മറന്നു - 'forgot himself in happiness'

5. Manner

To describe things how you did something.

ക്രോധത്തിൽ സംസാരിച്ചു - 'spoke in anger'

ആവേശത്തിൽ ചാടി - 'jumped in excitement'

അവിശ്വാസത്തിൽ മുട്ടുകുത്തി - 'knelt in disbelief'

6. Ablative, Allative and Perlative

Ablative in grammar means a source of (from place), allative means a destination (to place), and perlative is path of movement (through place). These uses are often associated with Malayalam postpositions such as -നിന്ന് (from), -േക്ക് (to, towards), and -ൂടെ (through).

Ablative - പുസ്തകം അലമാരയിൽ നിന്ന് എടുക്കുക - 'take the book from the shelf'

Allative - ഞങ്ങൾ റൂമിലേക്ക് പോകുന്നു - 'we are going to the room'

Perlative - പർവ്വതങ്ങളിലൂടെ വെള്ളം ഒഴുകുന്നു - 'water flows through the mountains'

7. Locative copula

If the ഇൽ suffix is added to an എ then you can use locative case to make sentences like so.

തലയിലെ പുഷ്പം - 'the flower that is on the head'

നെഞ്ചിലെ വേദന - 'pain that is in the chest'

അലമാരയിലെ ഭക്ഷണം - 'food that is in the cupboard'

Addendum:

I just wanted to expand further about the Allative which uses the -േക്ക്, and the Perlative which uses the -ൂടെ constructions. -േക്ക് is used when speaking about a specific direction and the -ൂടെ refers to a general direction.

രവി കുഴിയിലേക്ക് വീണു - 'Ravi fell into the hole'

രവി കുഴിയിലൂടെ വീണു - 'Ravi fell towards the hole'

-േക്ക് also denotes purposive meaning, and a fixed period of time

അതിലേക്ക് പണം കരുതിയിട്ടുണ്ട് - 'money has been set aside for it'

So I have finally got round to watching both Drishyam 1 and 2 this week and OMG! Both amazing films! I can see what all the hype was around the release of the second one a few weeks ago! I watched without subtitles and got a few bits, enough to get the gist, I'll have to watch them again with subs to pick up on subtleties I probably missed. Inspired by the films I have added some new vocab to my Anki deck.

Family - കുടുംബം

Funny/Comedy - തമാശ

Lies - നുണകൾ

Police officer - പോലീസ് ഉദ്യോഗസ്ഥന്

Film/Movie - സിനിമ

To threaten - ഭീഷണിപ്പെടുത്തുക (ഭീഷണിപ്പെടുത്തി)

To protect - സംരക്ഷിക്കുക (സംരക്ഷിച്ചു)

To hit/beat - അടിക്കുക (അടിച്ചു)

To die - മരിക്കുക (മരിച്ചു)

To bury - അടക്കം ചെയ്യുക (അടക്കം ചെയതു)

To dig - കുഴിക്കുക (കുഴിച്ചു)

To resist - ചെറുക്കുക (ചെറുത്തു)

To happen - സംഭവിക്കുക (സംഭവിച്ചു)

Animal - മൃഗം