Telugu grammar
Telugu sentence structure — building a basic sentence
Telugu follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order, the opposite of English's Subject-Verb-Object. Descriptive words come before the noun they describe, and case markers come after it.
I eat rice
నేను అన్నం తింటాను
nēnu annaṁ tiṇṭānu
Literally "I rice eat" — the verb always comes last.
The big house
పెద్ద ఇల్లు
pedda illu
Adjectives ("big") precede the noun, same order as English.
to the market
మార్కెట్కి
mārkeṭ-ki
Postpositions attach after the noun, not before it — the reverse of an English preposition.
She is reading a book
ఆమె పుస్తకం చదువుతోంది
āme pustakaṁ caduvutōndi
Subject → object → verb, in that fixed order.
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More Telugu grammar lessons
Telugu personal pronouns
Telugu has different pronouns for formal and informal contexts. This guide covers I, you, he/she, we, and they.
Telugu present tense verbs
Telugu present/present-continuous tense is built with the marker -తున్న (-tunna) attached to the verb stem, followed by a person-and-number ending. Here it is conjugated for "చేయు" (cheyu, "to do").
Telugu negation — కాదు vs. లేదు
Telugu splits negation into two words depending on what's being denied: కాదు (kādu) for identity/description ("is not"), and లేదు (lēdu) for existence, possession, or a past action that didn't happen.
Telugu postpositions & case markers
Telugu is agglutinative — instead of separate preposition words, short markers attach directly onto the end of a noun to show its role in the sentence.
Telugu question words & yes/no questions
Telugu wh-questions use a fixed set of question words in the same slot the answer word would occupy; yes/no questions are formed by adding -ఆ (-ā) to the end of the verb.
Telugu numbers 1–10
The Telugu numerals 1 through 10 — used the same way whether counting objects or reading them aloud.