Language/Tamil/Grammar/Cases

THAMIL CASES

Thamil Cases

Certain special suffixes in Thamil are known as case suffixes. There are about 7 case suffixes, and they are only added to nouns. Each has a different meaning. Examples of the meanings of some case suffixes include “at”/“in”, “for”/“to”, and “from”. In a setence, words that have case suffixes usually appear after the noun but before the adverb.

Case Suffixes

Adding case suffixes is the second instance where the word changes before a suffix is added. The first was when making plural nouns.

 Adding Case Suffixes

• If the word ends in -டு or -று:
  • add the case suffix using the [basic set of suffix addtion rules] if:
    • the word is made of two short letters
    • the final -டு or -று is preceded by a consonant
  • change -டு to ட்ட் or -று to ற்ற் and add the case suffix for any other word
• If the word ends in -ம்: drop the -ம், add த்த், and add the case suffix

Remember that a consonant is a letter that does not have a vowel sound (e.g. க், ங், ச், etc.).

The pronouns change uniquely before adding suffix:

Case Suffixes - Word Changes
Word	Change before adding case suffix	Word	Change Before Adding Case Suffix
நான்	என்-	நாம்	நம்-
		நாங்கள்	எங்கள்-
நீ	உந்	நீங்கள்	உங்கள்-
நீங்கள்	உங்கள்-
அவன்	அவன்-	அவர்கள்	அவர்கள்-
அவள்	அவள்-
அவர்	அவர்-
அது	அத்-/அதன்-	அவை	அவற்று-
Word		Change Before Adding Case Suffix
எல்லாம்		எல்லாவற்ற்-

அது changes very irregularly when adding case suffixes to it.

See the next lesson about direct objects to see examples of case suffix rules.