Telugu grammar
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.
This is not a book
ఇది పుస్తకం కాదు
idi pustakaṁ kādu
కాదు negates "is/am/are X" statements about identity or description.
I am not a doctor
నేను డాక్టర్ కాదు
nēnu ḍākṭar kādu
Same pattern — negating a noun that describes the subject.
There is no water
నీళ్ళు లేదు
nīḷḷu lēdu
లేదు negates existence — "there isn't any."
I don't have money
నా దగ్గర డబ్బు లేదు
nā daggara ḍabbu lēdu
లేదు also negates possession.
He didn't come
అతను రాలేదు
atanu rālēdu
లేదు attaches to a verb root to negate a completed action in the past.
No (plain answer)
లేదు
lēdu
Used alone, లేదు is also the everyday word for "no."
Learn 1,000+ Telugu words, phrases & lessons on the Bhasha app
Daily 5-minute lessons, audio from native speakers, progress tracking and 1,000+ words. Free to start — first 8 units unlocked, no card required.
- ✓ Native-speaker audio
- ✓ Offline lessons
- ✓ Progress sync
- ✓ Ad-free for kids
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 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 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.
Telugu numbers 1–10
The Telugu numerals 1 through 10 — used the same way whether counting objects or reading them aloud.