Malayalam grammar
Malayalam sentence structure — building a basic sentence
Malayalam follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. Adjectives come before the noun, and case suffixes attach after it.
I eat rice
ഞാൻ ചോറ് കഴിക്കുന്നു
ñān chōṟ kaḻikkunnu
Literally "I rice eat" — the verb comes last.
The big house
വലിയ വീട്
valiya vīṭ
Adjectives precede the noun, same order as English.
to the market
ചന്തയിലേക്ക്
chantayilēkk
The direction suffix -ലേക്ക് (-lēkk) attaches after the noun.
She is reading a book
അവൾ പുസ്തകം വായിക്കുന്നു
avaḷ pustakaṁ vāyikkunnu
Subject → object → verb, in that fixed order.
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More Malayalam grammar lessons
Malayalam personal pronouns
Malayalam pronouns distinguish formality and — like Tamil — an inclusive vs exclusive "we". Respectful third-person forms matter a lot socially.
Malayalam present tense verbs
Malayalam is unusual among Dravidian languages: verbs do NOT change for person, number or gender. The present tense adds -ഉന്നു (-unnu) to the stem, and the same form works for every subject. Shown here for ചെയ്യുക (cheyyuka, "to do").
Malayalam negation with ഇല്ല and അല്ല
Malayalam has two everyday negators: ഇല്ല (illa) denies existence or an action, while അല്ല (alla) denies identity — "is not (a) X".
Malayalam case suffixes
Malayalam is agglutinative — case endings attach directly to the noun rather than standing as separate words.
Malayalam question words & yes/no questions
Malayalam wh-questions use a fixed set of question words; yes/no questions add -ഓ (-ō) to the end of the verb or word being questioned.
Malayalam numbers 1–10
The Malayalam numerals 1 through 10.