Some simple words of Telugu Language

Friday 13 February 2009

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In Telugu language most of the words resemble or are the same as the corresponding words of the divine Sanskrit language excepting some basic words like come, go, here, there, etc which are different from the corresponding Sanskrit words. I hope you already know the alphabet of Telugu language and its pronunciation too.They are similar to that of Sanskrit/Hindi languages. If you don't know them there are other websites that can help you in this regard.You can mail me or write a comment if you want me to include the alphabet too in this site.

Take a look at these words. I have written Telugu script, its transcription/transliteration in English and its meaning in English. For reading the transliteration see the guidelines below.

GUIDELINES FOR PRONOUNCING THE TRANSLITERATED TEXT:


  • The letter 'i' stands for the sound 'i' in the word 'kick', or the short pronunciation of the alphabet letter 'e'
  • The letter 'I' stands for the sound 'ee' in the word 'cheek'
  • The letter 'e' stands for the sound of the short pronunciation of the letter 'a' as the first 'e' in the word 'elephant'
  • The letter 'E' stands for the sound 'a' in the word 'base'
  • The letter 'o' stands for the sound of the short pronunciation of the letter 'o'
  • The letter 'O' stands for the sound 'o' in the word 'more' or the the long pronunciation of the letter 'o'
  • Pronounce consonants like 'k', 't', 'd', etc as their sound indicates. Addition of 'h' to them: Pronounce 'th' as 'th' in 'thumb', 'dh' as 'th' in 'that'/'this' and so on.
  • Simplifications for simplicity: thth = tth, dhdh=ddh and so on. For example kaththi (knife) = katthi, vadhdhu (don't want) = vaddhu, etc
  • For consonants, lower case letter indicates normal pronunciation and capital letter indicates pronunciation with stress e.g., katthi(knife), Kadgam(sword) - observe the case of 'k' in both.
  • For the sound of 'j' in 'junk' I use 'j', for the sound of 'g' in 'gum' I use 'g'. For example ginger will be transliterated to jinjar according to this rule. 
  • 's' indicates normal pronunciation as in 'sum'. 'S' indicates pronunciation of 's' as in 'sat', 'sad',etc. In Hindi/Sanskrit also there are these two different versions of 'sa' as you all know.
  • Apply same thing to letter 'v' also. 'v' indicates normal pronunciation like 'v' in 'vault' and 'V' indicates pronunciation of 'v' as in 'van'. Note that both are two very different pronunciations and if one is used instead of other, it won't sound good!. But one thing to note is in written Telugu there is only one letter 'va' which will be used for both and its pronunciation depends on the word in which it is used. Only in some Telugu verb forms and when English words like 'van' are transliterated into Telugu, the 'V' sound is pronounced and mostly in all others, 'v' sound is pronounced. You will find this (the above two different ways of pronouncing the same Telugu letter) happening in few more cases like 'kA', 'chA', 'dA', 'thA', 'pA' when these are used in Telugu verb forms corresponding to 'Past tense'. Some examples for these can be found towards the end of this post in the table with references below it


I will be updating the site regularly.So visit the site frequently for more information about learning Telugu for free.

ఎక్కడ - ekkada - where

ఏమి/ఏంటి - Emi/Enti - what

ఎందుకు - endhuku - why

ఎలా - elA - how

అక్కడ - akkada - there

అందుకు - andhuku - for that

ఇందుకు - indhuku - for this

దేనికి - dhEniki - for what

అటు - atu - that side

ఇటు - itu - this side

అది - adhi - that

ఇది - idhi - this

కానీ-kAni-but/let it...

లేదు - lEdhu - not there/did not 'verb'

కాదు - kAdhu - is not, not correct

వద్దు - vaddhu - don't want

కావాలి - kAvAli - want

గురించి - gurinchi - about

ఎప్పుడు - eppudu - when

అప్పుడు - appudu - then/that time

ఇప్పుడు - ippudu - now

కింద - kindha - down

పైన - paina - up

మీద - mIdha - on top of/over

లో/లోపల - lO/lOpala - in/inside

అంటే - antE - means

అంతే - anthE - thats it

అయినా - ayinA - 'but', 'though', 'having something happened,still....', etc

కొంచం - koncham - little, some

కనీసం - kanIsam - atleast

మరి - mari - so/then

మరింత - marintha - much

చాలా - chAlA - many

కాబట్టి/కావున - kAbatti - hence/so

అలాగే - alAgE - ok (that's fine)

ఎక్కువ - ekkuva - more/extra/much

తక్కువ - thakkuva - less

అన్నీ - annI - all

అంతా - anthA - everything

- I ( don't pronounce it as the English 'I' ) - this

- A - that

కానివ్వు/కాని - kAnivvu/KAni - keep working/do it/complete it

చాలు - chAlu - enough

చాలదు - chAladhu - will not be enough

చాల్లేదు - chAllEdhu - is/was not enough

సరిపోదు - saripOdhu - will not be sufficient

సరిపోతుంది/చాలుతుంది - saripOthundhi - will be sufficient

సరిపోయింది - saripOyindhi - is/was sufficient

సరిపోలా/సరిపోలేదు - saripOlA/saripOlEdhu - is/was not sufficient

Some words may not be translated exactly or it happens to be difficult to translate into English.Such type of words are to be learnt by observing their use in the sentences. Even in the above you find some words having more than one meaning, ( e.g., 'kAni' , 'ainA' )which is to say that the meaning of that particular word is dependent on the context of the sentence where it is used. Also to express something in Telugu you can do it by means of one or more different words. Come back frequently as I will be updating the site explaining you more about learning Telugu Language.


Dear Readers/Visitors,
If you want me to translate a particular sentence/word in English to Telugu or vice versa, then please go here and post it as a comment there mentioning the same. I'll try to translate it for you depending on my time availability. That page also contains doubts/questions asked by readers so far and my answers to them. So you can also go through them for your benefit. Thanks







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UTSAVA MURTHY OF LORD SRI MALAYAPPA(VENKATESWARA) WITH SRIDEVI AND BHUDEVI
(Click on the image to view full size)

51 comments:

Anonymous,  3 August 2011 at 03:06  

thank you. could you post more. like translate common sentences to Telugu
?

vijay 3 August 2011 at 07:40  

thank u. waiting for more posts. then i will b able to talk to my daughter in law. thanks

Anonymous,  30 October 2011 at 08:56  

Thank you....and I think it would be easier if you could make something like....a learner can type in any language and you could translate it into telugu below it or something like that.

A Telugu Guy 30 October 2011 at 11:09  

Thanks (above)Anonymous visitor for your suggestion. But I know only English properly other than Telugu. So I'll ask the visitors to post a comment if they want a particular English sentence to be translated to Telugu or vice-versa.

Anonymous,  4 November 2011 at 21:10  

pz giv meaning of chesave, choosttukonte,emaindi,gumma

A Telugu Guy 4 November 2011 at 21:46  

chesave - what you did (only while referring to girls/women in a very informal way)
example: While speaking to a girl if you say 'emi chesave' you are asking her what she did. If you want to ask the same thing in a respectful way say it 'emi chesaru'

chusukunte - if we see
(chusthe is more widely used)

emaindi - what happened

gumma - beauty (refers to ladies)

Anonymous,  6 November 2011 at 21:14  

Thanks yaar for the meanings.

Anonymous,  7 November 2011 at 15:52  

whats the meaning of "pampichu"?

A Telugu Guy 7 November 2011 at 23:36  

'pampinchu' means to send (informal).
Example: naakadi pampinchu = naaku (to me) + adi(that one) + pampinchu(send) = send me that one.

To ask respectfully say it 'pampinchandi'

Anonymous,  25 November 2011 at 03:36  

How would you say hello?

A Telugu Guy 25 November 2011 at 15:56  

Informally (with our friends or very known ones) we will just use 'hai' or 'hai ra'(for close friends (male only)),'hai andi' (if you want to show some respect). If you want to show more respect (to unknown persons like some government officers,etc) then use 'namaskAramandi'

Actually 'hello' is also used in Telugu people's day to day conversations like we can also say 'hello andi' instead of 'hai andi', etc, but it's usage is less compared to 'hai' in day to day conversations.

laxmi,  26 November 2011 at 17:59  

very useful ..thanx!

A Telugu Guy 26 November 2011 at 18:38  

Thanks laxmi gAru for finding it useful :)

nandu 4 December 2011 at 20:35  

nice gud job...keepit up

A Telugu Guy 4 December 2011 at 21:19  

Thank you nandu for your compliment :)

Roy John,  6 December 2011 at 12:58  

I am Roy from Kerala. Please tell me the meaning of 'always'. This site is very useful to me.

A Telugu Guy 6 December 2011 at 13:47  

Thank you Roy for finding this site useful :)
I have answered your doubt in this page (as said in this post): http://learntelugufree.blogspot.com/2011/11/readers-doubtsquestions-and-my-answers.html

Roy John,  13 December 2011 at 13:07  

have ante ?

A Telugu Guy 13 December 2011 at 20:52  

Mr. Roy please find your doubt answered at the end of this post: http://learntelugufree.blogspot.com/2011/11/readers-doubtsquestions-and-my-answers.html
Thanks

Roy John,  13 December 2011 at 21:58  

Thank sir

Roy John,  17 December 2011 at 13:03  

Can you please post past, future, present tense of useful telugu words in a table with table tag

A Telugu Guy 17 December 2011 at 13:30  

Hi Roy,
I think this post will help you in that regard:

http://learntelugufree.blogspot.com/2009/04/verbs-of-telugu-language-in-informal.html

Roy John,  17 December 2011 at 23:53  

Can you please show verbs in a table.

A Telugu Guy 18 December 2011 at 22:35  

Hi Roy,
Currently I'm a bit busy so I'll do that (making it a table) after a 2 or 3 days. Sorry for that..

Roy John 25 December 2011 at 09:09  

go, went, gone, going

get, got

come, came, comming

please give me the meaning of bold letters.

I wishing you MERRY X'MAS

A Telugu Guy 25 December 2011 at 16:46  

Hi Roy,
Same to you! (Merry X'Mas!)

I've answered your question in the doubts page.

Anonymous,  10 January 2012 at 14:21  

hi to admin.. happy to have found this site.. i am learning both hindi and telugu and wants to learn more...

Anonymous,  10 January 2012 at 15:59  

wish you could convert ur every post into pdf for us to download.., that too with transliteration.. found your site very very useful.. thanks..

A Telugu Guy 10 January 2012 at 22:00  

@Above
Thanks for finding it useful :)
There are many websites which can convert a webpage into pdf for download. For example: www.web2pdfconvert.com. Regarding transliteration, I'll try to add it as and when I get free time. But for posts not having transliteration, it is done so deliberately to encourage the Telugu learners to learn how to read Telugu alphabet which is a part of overall learning process. It's even mentioned as point no 2 in the top left corner of this post.

Anonymous,  11 January 2012 at 10:04  

hi admin, i can understand but i have not much time to learn telugu alphabets, thats y i asked for transliteration :( ... wish i cud tell u more :(

Unknown 20 January 2012 at 15:27  

keep teaching us because i need it.
n its helping me a lot

Neha 3 March 2012 at 16:29  

HEY, REALLY THANKS TO WHO MADE THIS SITE... ITS REALLY HELPFUL ME TO LEARNING TELUGU...:) JSK

A Telugu Guy 4 March 2012 at 22:27  

@ Neha
Thank you for your compliments :)
Currently I'm unable to get enough time to make new posts. Hope I'll get time in near future to add more posts to the blog :)

Yashodhan,  7 March 2012 at 21:10  

Cant thank you enough A Telugu Guy for this site! I am a Maharashtrian in love with the mellifluous Telugu language. And as much as I can understand it, is mostly because of this site.
Meeku Dhanyavaadamulu.

A Telugu Guy 10 March 2012 at 18:40  

chAlA(very much) thanks andi(with respect) Yashodhan gAru(Sir) mee(your) yokka(of) words of appreciation ki(for) :)

Anonymous,  3 July 2012 at 10:21  

nw only i am learning telugu.i intrsted in learning it.so pls help me in translating the following into telugu.......
i want a friend who can understand my situations and feelings..and i want them to be with me in all happy and critical situations.i have selected such a person...i think she will be with me in every aspects of my life...anthe

Anonymous,  14 July 2012 at 12:51  

hi admin,

what is mean by "mee","petamma","petayya","paduthundic","sarlee", and "machpena"

also "how are you and am fine"

Anonymous,  16 July 2012 at 22:04  

dheniki?

Anonymous,  17 July 2012 at 16:17  

I am in love with a Telugu girl so am interested in learning Telugu. I am a Tamilian so it is easy for me to learn because most of the words are common in both the languages.

I am really interested in this sentence to tell my Telugu sweet heart: "ninnu neevu premisthunanu"

sudhakar 10 September 2012 at 16:32  

NICE THIS WEB SITE PLEASE POST NEW ENGLISH WORDS, I AM VERY HAPPY BECAUSE I SEE THIS WEB SITE VERY USE FULL TO ME. THANK YOU SIR. SO I AM UNDERSTANDING IN ENGLISH BUT I DON'T RE-PLAY, SO PLEASE TELL ME EASY METHOD.

Anonymous,  26 December 2012 at 20:35  

"Ammailu pogiditey padipotaru anukunna kaani.. Palakaristey padipotaru anukoledu.."

please tell me the meaning of above paragraph. Your site is very helpfull, i'm biplob roy from Bangladesh.

Anonymous,  26 October 2014 at 11:32  

I am a pure hindi speaker.. N i love to speak in telugu... My 1st step to learn in telugu is ur website.. Thanq telugu guy .. Plz help to learn complete telugu speaking.

Anonymous,  26 October 2014 at 11:34  

I am a pure hindi speaker.. N i love to speak in telugu... My 1st step to learn in telugu is ur website.. Thanq telugu guy .. Plz help to learn complete telugu speaking.

Anonymous,  26 October 2014 at 11:35  

I am a pure hindi speaker.. N i love to speak in telugu... My 1st step to learn in telugu is ur website.. Thanq telugu guy .. Plz help to learn complete telugu speaking.

Anonymous,  15 February 2015 at 23:58  

Chesaave-u did it
No word like choostuknte...
Choosukunte-if u can see by yourself
Emaindi-what happeneed

LEARNKANNADA 24 June 2015 at 09:59  

To learn kannada language visit http://learnkannada.in
contact number is 9535097540
any bloggers can contact me for mutual traffic exchange

Unknown 25 February 2017 at 18:54  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown 14 April 2018 at 10:15  

You can practice telugu phrases . you can also learn useful verbs,nouns,adverbs,adjectives and phrases from this website
http://freeusermanuals.com/telugu_phrases

Unknown 19 October 2018 at 18:56  

Sir tell me meaning of ye maaya chesave.

btgs 22 November 2018 at 21:46  

Thank you very much sir. Very useful and informative. May God bless all your knowledge sharing endeavours.



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