English Lessons
பாடங்கள்
Beginner
· 14 lessonsGreetings & Formality
வணக்கம் மற்றும் மரியாதை
Tamil marks respect with a formal/informal 'you' split — நீ vs. நீங்கள். English removes that distinction entirely, which is itself the thing to learn.
Personal Pronouns & 'to be'
பிரதிபெயர்கள் மற்றும் 'to be' வினைச்சொல்
English pronouns change form far less than you'd expect from a case-marking language like Tamil, but the verb 'to be' is irregular in a way that has no clean Tamil parallel.
Simple Present Tense
நிகழ்கால வினைச்சொல் (எளிய வடிவம்)
English marks the present tense with almost no ending at all — except for a lone -s that appears only in the third person, a small but famous trap for learners.
Articles: a, an, the
கட்டுரைச் சொற்கள்: a, an, the
This is the single biggest structural gap between Tamil and English — Tamil has never needed a word like 'a' or 'the', so this entire category of decision-making is new territory.
Plural Nouns
பன்மைச் சொற்கள்
English pluralizes with a single suffix most of the time, much like Tamil — but a short list of very common nouns breaks the rule in ways that have to be memorized individually.
Numbers 1–10
எண்கள் 1–10
English numbers compound almost as cleanly as Tamil's from thirteen onward — but eleven and twelve are a small irregular pocket worth knowing about upfront.
Numbers 11–100
எண்கள் 11–100
Past twenty, English numbers follow the same tens-then-units order Tamil uses — a rare case where English's word order matches your instinct exactly.
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.
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
சுட்டுப்பெயர்கள்: இது, அது
English demonstratives split along two dimensions at once — near versus far, and singular versus plural — where Tamil only marks one of those distinctions on the word itself.
Possessives: my, your, his, her, and 's
உடைமைச் சொற்கள்
English marks possession two different ways depending on whether you're using a pronoun or a full noun — a split with no equivalent in Tamil's single, consistent possessive suffix.
Prepositions of Place: in, on, at
இட முன்னிடைச் சொற்கள்
English prepositions come before the noun, the reverse of Tamil's postposition habit — and choosing between in/on/at follows its own logic that doesn't map cleanly onto any single Tamil suffix.
There is / There are
இருக்கிறது / இருக்கின்றன
English uses the dummy subject 'there' to announce that something exists — a grammatical placeholder Tamil doesn't need, since Tamil can simply state existence directly.
Can & Basic Modal Verbs
இயலுமை வினைச்சொற்கள்
'Can' behaves nothing like a regular English verb — it never takes -s, never needs 'to', and pushes the real action verb after it, echoing a Tamil pattern you may already sense.
Sentence Structure
வாக்கிய அமைப்பு
English word order is rigid in a way Tamil's isn't — and the reason why is the single most useful grammar fact on this page.
Elementary
· 12 lessonsPast Simple Tense
இறந்தகால வினைச்சொல் (எளிய வடிவம்)
English's past tense collapses down to a single form for every person — no he/she/it exception this time — but a large set of common verbs refuse to follow the regular -ed pattern.
Object Pronouns
செயப்படுபொருள் பிரதிபெயர்கள்
English swaps in a completely different-looking word for the object form of a pronoun — me, him, her — rather than adding a suffix the way Tamil does.
Prepositions of Time: in, on, at
கால முன்னிடைச் சொற்கள்
The same three prepositions from the Place lesson return for time — but the logic for choosing between them shifts completely, from size of space to size of time period.
Present Continuous
நடந்துகொண்டிருக்கும் நிகழ்காலம்
English distinguishes 'what's happening right now' from 'what happens generally' with two entirely different verb forms — a distinction Tamil also makes, but through a lighter touch.
Comparatives & Superlatives
ஒப்பீட்டு மற்றும் மிகை நிலைகள்
English builds comparisons two different ways depending on how long the adjective is — a split with no Tamil equivalent, since Tamil handles every comparison the same way regardless of word length.
Imperative (Commands)
ஏவல் வாக்கியங்கள்
English gives commands with the bare verb and no subject at all — a striking contrast to Tamil, which still marks who's being commanded through the verb ending itself.
Modal Verbs: must, should, have to
கடமை உணர்த்தும் வினைச்சொற்கள்
English has three separate ways to express obligation, each carrying a different shade of strictness — a three-way split Tamil doesn't need, since a single suffix family covers the whole range.
Question Formation: Do/Does and Wh-Words
கேள்வி அமைத்தல்
English inserts a helper word, do or does, into questions that have no other helping verb — a purely grammatical requirement Tamil has no equivalent for.
Negation: don't, doesn't, isn't
மறுப்பு வாக்கியங்கள்
Just like questions, English negation needs the helper verb do/does for ordinary verbs — but 'to be' and modals negate directly, without any helper at all.
Adverbs of Frequency
அடிக்கடி நிகழ்வதைக் குறிக்கும் சொற்கள்
English adverbs of frequency have a surprisingly strict favorite position in the sentence — right before the main verb — a placement rule with no fixed Tamil counterpart.
Future: going to
எதிர்காலம்: going to
English's 'going to' future is transparently built from a motion verb, exactly the way Tamil sometimes reaches for movement to signal something about to happen.
Reflexive Pronouns
தன்வினை பிரதிபெயர்கள்
English marks 'doing something to oneself' with a dedicated set of -self words — a separate, visible marker where Tamil often just leaves the reflexive sense built into the verb itself.
Intermediate
· 12 lessonsPresent Perfect Tense
தற்போதைய முழுமை காலம்
The present perfect (have/has + past participle) describes a past action whose effect still matters right now — a distinction Tamil's single past tense doesn't grammatically separate at all.
Present Perfect vs. Past Simple
தற்போதைய முழுமை காலம் vs இறந்தகாலம்
The clearest signal for choosing between these two tenses is whether a specific time is mentioned — a simple test that resolves most of the confusion.
Future: will vs. going to
எதிர்காலம்: will vs going to
English keeps two future forms alive side by side, and the choice signals something Tamil's single future-tense ending doesn't distinguish: whether the decision was made now or earlier.
First Conditional
முதல் நிபந்தனை வாக்கியம்
The first conditional describes a real, likely future possibility — if this happens, that will follow — mapping closely onto Tamil's own if-suffix construction.
Modal Verbs of Possibility: might, may, could
சாத்தியக்கூறு உணர்த்தும் வினைச்சொற்கள்
These three modals hedge a statement without committing to it — a graded uncertainty English marks through word choice, where Tamil often relies on a suffix instead.
Passive Voice
செயப்பாட்டு வினை
English builds the passive with be + past participle, backgrounding the doer of an action the same way Tamil's -படு construction does.
Relative Clauses: who, which, that
தொடர்பு வாக்கியங்கள்
English attaches extra information to a noun with a relative clause after the noun — the reverse of how Tamil folds the same information into a participle placed before the noun.
Reported Speech
மறைமுக பேச்சு
Reporting what someone said pushes English's verb tense one step back into the past — a shift with a close functional cousin in Tamil's என்று quotative marker, even though the mechanism differs.
Phrasal Verbs: An Introduction
இணை வினைச்சொற்கள் — அறிமுகம்
English combines a verb with a small particle (up, out, off) to build a new, often unpredictable meaning — a genuinely distinct English habit without a real Tamil equivalent to lean on.
Gerunds vs. Infinitives
-ing வடிவம் vs to + வினைச்சொல்
After certain verbs, English demands the -ing form; after others, it demands 'to' plus the verb — and the choice is dictated purely by the first verb, not by any consistent underlying logic.
Question Tags
உறுதிப்படுத்தும் கேள்விகள்
English tacks a small mirrored question onto the end of a statement to seek agreement — a two-part structure that echoes the confirmation particles Tamil already uses.
Second Conditional
இரண்டாம் நிபந்தனை வாக்கியம்
The second conditional describes an unreal or unlikely present situation — a hypothetical, not a real possibility — and lines up closely with Tamil's own hypothetical -ால் construction from a slightly different angle.
Upper Intermediate
· 12 lessonsPresent Perfect Continuous
தற்போதைய தொடர் முழுமை காலம்
This tense stacks two ideas you already recognize separately — the present perfect's 'still relevant now' and the continuous's 'ongoing action' — into a single form emphasizing duration.
Past Perfect Tense
இறந்தகாலத்திற்கு முந்தைய இறந்தகாலம்
The past perfect (had + past participle) marks the earlier of two past events — English's way of showing sequence that Tamil often leaves to context or a connector word.
Passive Voice: All Tenses
செயப்பாட்டு வினை — அனைத்து காலங்களிலும்
Every English tense has its own passive form, built by keeping the same be-plus-participle pattern but conjugating be into whichever tense the sentence needs.
Third Conditional
மூன்றாம் நிபந்தனை வாக்கியம்
The third conditional talks about an unreal past — something that didn't happen and can no longer be changed — the furthest English's hypothetical system reaches, matching a layered Tamil past-conditional.
Reported Speech: Questions & Commands
மறைமுக பேச்சு: கேள்விகள் மற்றும் கட்டளைகள்
Reporting a question or a command reshapes the sentence completely, not just the tense — question word order disappears, and commands turn into a to-infinitive.
Modal Verbs of Deduction: must, can't, might have
ஊகிக்கும் வினைச்சொற்கள்
These modals let you reason aloud about something you're not certain of — deducing what must be true, what can't be true, and what might have happened, all from available evidence.
Relative Clauses: Non-Defining, whose/where/when
தொடர்பு வாக்கியங்கள் — மேம்பட்ட வடிவங்கள்
A comma before a relative clause changes its job entirely — from narrowing down which noun you mean to simply adding a side comment about a noun already identified.
Phrasal Verbs: Separable vs. Inseparable
இணை வினைச்சொற்கள்: பிரிக்கக்கூடியவை vs பிரிக்க முடியாதவை
Some phrasal verbs let their object slide between the verb and the particle, while others refuse to be split at all — a distinction that has to be learned per verb, with no visible clue in the words themselves.
Past Habits: used to and would
கடந்தகால பழக்கங்கள்: used to / would
English has a dedicated construction for 'this used to happen regularly, but not anymore' — a nuance Tamil's ordinary past tense doesn't separate out from a single completed action.
Causative Verbs: have/get something done
செய்வித்தல் வினைச்சொற்கள்
English marks 'I arranged for someone else to do this' with a compact have/get + object + past participle structure — collapsing an entire two-person sentence into one tight pattern.
Advanced Comparatives: as...as, the...the
மேம்பட்ட ஒப்பீட்டு அமைப்புகள்
Beyond simple -er/more comparisons, English has a structure for equal comparison and a paired structure for two things changing together — both with close Tamil parallels once you see the pattern.
Discourse Connectors: however, although, despite
சொல்லாடல் இணைப்புச் சொற்கள்
These formal-register connectors mark contrast and concession in writing and careful speech — each with a distinct grammatical requirement that doesn't map onto a single Tamil word.
Advanced
· 12 lessonsMixed Conditionals
கலப்பு நிபந்தனை வாக்கியங்கள்
Real events don't always respect the clean past/present split the second and third conditionals assume — mixed conditionals let a past condition affect the present, or a present truth explain a past outcome.
Inversion for Emphasis
வலியுறுத்தலுக்கான வினை-முன்னிடப்பாடு
Fronting a negative or limiting word at the start of a sentence forces the subject and auxiliary to swap places — a formal, literary flourish with a loose echo in how Tamil reorders words for emphasis.
Cleft Sentences: It was...who / What I need is...
பிரிக்கப்பட்ட வாக்கியங்கள்
Cleft sentences split a plain statement in two to spotlight exactly one piece of information — a structural way of adding emphasis that Tamil often achieves with intonation alone.
Modal Perfect: should have, could have, would have
இறந்தகால இயலுமை வினைச்சொற்கள்
These three modal-plus-have combinations reflect on a past that didn't happen — a missed obligation, an unused ability, or an unfulfilled decision — each carrying a distinct emotional shade.
Nominalization & Formal Register
பெயர்ச்சொல்லாக்கம் மற்றும் முறையான நடை
Formal English writing prefers turning verbs into abstract nouns — a compression habit that makes academic and official English feel denser than the same idea spoken casually.
Idioms & Collocations
மரபுத்தொடர்கள் மற்றும் இணைச் சொற்கள்
Native-level fluency means recognizing fixed word partnerships whose meaning can't be built from the individual words — and Tamil's own idiom tradition gives you the right instinct for spotting them, even when the imagery differs completely.
Subjunctive Mood
வேண்டுகோள் வினைமுறை
A small pocket of formal English grammar uses the plain, unconjugated verb form even for he/she/it — a fossil of an older verb mood that survives specifically after suggestion and demand verbs.
Ellipsis & Substitution
தவிர்த்தல் மற்றும் மாற்றீடு
Fluent English constantly drops repeated words rather than restating them — a habit that requires holding the missing information in mind rather than seeing it spelled out.
Advanced Phrasal Verbs & Multi-word Verbs
மேம்பட்ட இணை வினைச்சொற்கள்
Some English verbs stack two particles at once, or blend with a preposition into a three-part unit — pushing the phrasal-verb habit from earlier levels to its most compressed form.
Register Switching: Formal vs. Colloquial English
முறையான நடை vs பேச்சு நடை
The final C1 skill isn't a new grammar rule — it's knowing when to deploy everything learned so far. English shifts vocabulary, contractions, and structure between formal and colloquial registers roughly as sharply as Tamil shifts between எழுத்துத் தமிழ் and பேச்சு தமிழ்.
Discourse Markers & Hedging
பேச்சுவழக்கு குறிப்பான்கள் மற்றும் மென்மைப்படுத்தல்
Advanced English softens strong claims with a set of hedging words — arguably, presumably, to some extent — letting a speaker commit to an idea without overstating its certainty.
Participle Clauses
பங்கேற்பு வாக்கியங்கள்
Advanced English compresses two related actions into one sentence by turning the second verb into a participle — a tightly packed construction that echoes the participle-before-noun habit Tamil already uses for description.