Question Words
ചോദ്യ വാക്കുകൾ
French can flip the subject and verb around, or add a ready-made phrase, just to ask a yes/no question. Malayalam simply adds a single particle to the sentence you already have.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
Inversion: swapping the subject and verb
Parlez-vous français? (literally 'Speak you French?') — vous and parlez trade places
no equivalent word-order change — the sentence keeps its normal order
One way French turns a statement into a yes/no question is by inverting the subject and verb: vous parlez becomes parlez-vous. Malayalam has no matching word-order shift — it never needs to reorder a sentence just to ask a question.
Est-ce que: a question opener, no reordering needed
Est-ce que vous parlez français? — the same word order as the statement, just introduced by est-ce que
സുഖമാണോ? — a single particle (-ഓ) added directly, no extra opening phrase
For beginners, est-ce que is the easier option: it turns any statement into a question just by placing this phrase in front, with no word-order change at all. This is the closer match to Malayalam's approach — adding something to the sentence rather than rearranging it — even though Malayalam's addition is a single suffix rather than a whole phrase.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- ആര്aaru
- English
- who
- Malayalam
- എന്ത്enthu
- English
- what
- Malayalam
- എവിടെevide
- English
- where
- Malayalam
- എപ്പോൾeppol
- English
- when
- Malayalam
- എന്തുകൊണ്ട്enthukondu
- English
- why
- Malayalam
- എങ്ങനെengane
- English
- how
- Malayalam
- എന്ത്enthu
- English
- what (in questions)
- Malayalam
- -ഓ-o
- English
- (question opener)
- Malayalam
- ഇത് ആരാണ്?ithu aaraanu?
- English
- who is this?
- Malayalam
- നീ എവിടെയാണ്?nee evideyaanu?
- English
- where are you?