Some simple words of Telugu Language

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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

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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

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

ఆ - 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
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