The Tamil Case System: Endings on Nouns

Tamil is an agglutinative language. It adds endings to words to show grammar, so it does not rely on separate small words like prepositions.

The main cases

Case	Ending	Example
Object (accusative)	-ஐ (-ai)	புத்தகத்தை (puththagaththai), the book
To, for (dative)	-க்கு (-kku)	வீட்டுக்கு (veettukku), to the house
In, at (locative)	-இல் (-il)	வீட்டில் (veettil), in the house
With, by (instrumental)	-ஆல் (-aal)	கையால் (kaiyaal), by hand
Of (genitive)	-உடைய (-udaiya)	அவருடைய (avarudaiya), his

Examples in sentences

• நான் புத்தகத்தைப் படிக்கிறேன். I am reading the book.
• நான் வீட்டுக்குப் போகிறேன். I am going home.
• அவர் வீட்டில் இருக்கிறார். He is at home.

Sound changes

Endings sometimes change the end of the noun. For example, வீடு (house) becomes வீட்டு- before an ending, as in வீட்டில் and வீட்டுக்கு. Learn these as they come.

Many endings, one word

Tamil can stack several endings in a single word, which is why some words look long.

Word order

The endings let Tamil use a flexible order, though the usual order is subject, object, verb.

Why it matters

Once you spot an ending, you can often guess the word's role. If you see -க்கு, think "to" or "for". If you see -இல், think "in" or "at".

Tips

1. Learn -ஐ, -க்கு and -இல் first.
2. Notice stem changes.
3. Use the dictionary to find the base form.

Look up any Tamil word with English Tamil Dictionary →