Malayalam grammar
Malayalam case suffixes
Malayalam is agglutinative — case endings attach directly to the noun rather than standing as separate words.
in/at (locative)
-ഇൽ
-il
e.g. വീട്ടിൽ (vīṭṭil) — "in the house."
to/for (dative)
-ക്ക് / -ന്
-kk / -n
e.g. എനിക്ക് (enikk) — "to me / for me."
from
-ഇൽ നിന്ന്
-il ninn
e.g. വീട്ടിൽ നിന്ന് (vīṭṭil ninn) — "from the house."
with
കൂടെ / -ഓട്
kūṭe / -ōṭ
e.g. എന്റെ കൂടെ (ente kūṭe) — "with me."
of (possessive)
-ന്റെ / -ഉടെ
-nte / -uṭe
e.g. രാമന്റെ വീട് (rāmante vīṭ) — "Raman's house."
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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 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 sentence structure — building a basic sentence
Malayalam follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. Adjectives come before the noun, and case suffixes attach after it.
Malayalam numbers 1–10
The Malayalam numerals 1 through 10.