Family
குடும்பம்
English dropped grammatical gender entirely — no der/die/das, no le/la, nothing on the noun itself. But it also flattens distinctions Tamil keeps, like which side of the family a relative is on.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
No grammatical gender on nouns or verbs
the mother, the father — same 'the' either way; she comes, he comes — same 'comes' either way
அவள் வருகிறாள் (she comes) / அவன் வருகிறான் (he comes) — the verb ending itself changes with gender
Tamil verbs change their ending depending on the subject's gender — அவள் வருகிறாள் vs. அவன் வருகிறான். English is the odd one out here: 'comes' stays 'comes' no matter who's doing it. This makes English easier in one specific way — you never have to remember a gendered verb form — but it also means gender only shows up in the pronoun (he/she), nowhere else in the sentence.
Maternal and paternal relatives get the same word
grandmother (used for both your mother's mother and your father's mother)
தாய் வழி பாட்டி vs. தந்தை வழி பாட்டி — distinguishable by adding which side
Tamil can specify which side of the family a grandparent or uncle is from. English collapses this: 'grandmother', 'uncle', and 'cousin' cover both sides with no built-in way to distinguish, short of adding a full explanatory phrase ('my mother's mother'). Don't go looking for a single English word that captures the distinction — it isn't there.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- Tamil (English explanations)
- அம்மாammā
- Tamil (English explanations)
- அப்பாappā
- Tamil (English explanations)
- சகோதரன்sagōdharan
- Tamil (English explanations)
- சகோதரிsagōdhari
- Tamil (English explanations)
- பாட்டிpāṭṭi
- Tamil (English explanations)
- தாத்தாthāththā
- Tamil (English explanations)
- மகன்magan
- Tamil (English explanations)
- மகள்magaḷ