Telugu grammar
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").
I do / am doing
నేను చేస్తున్నాను
nēnu chēstunnānu
First person singular.
You (informal) do
నువ్వు చేస్తున్నావు
nuvvu chēstunnāvu
Second person informal singular.
You (formal) do
మీరు చేస్తున్నారు
mīru chēstunnāru
Second person formal/plural.
He does
అతను చేస్తున్నాడు
atanu chēstunnāḍu
Third person masculine.
She does
ఆమె చేస్తోంది
āme chēstōndi
Third person feminine.
We do
మేము చేస్తున్నాము
mēmu chēstunnāmu
First person plural.
They do
వాళ్ళు చేస్తున్నారు
vāḷḷu chēstunnāru
Third person plural — same ending as formal "you".
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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 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 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.