Learn Kannada - Chapter 1: The Basics

This is basically how I learnt Japanese and German.

I don't really like learning languages by memorizing hundreds of random sentences. Hello. Where is the railway station? I would like a glass of water. Sure, those sentences are useful, but I wanted to understand how the language actually works.

Once you understand the structure, you can make your own sentences instead of remembering every sentence individually.

So that's how I'm going to teach Kannada too.

We'll start with the absolute basics.

1. Kannada's Basic Sentence Structure

Before learning words, understand where those words go.

English generally follows:

Subject + Verb + Object

For example:

I eat rice.

Break it down:

• I → Subject
• eat → Verb
• rice → Object

So English gives us:

I → eat → rice

Kannada is different.

Kannada generally follows:

Subject + Object + Verb

So the same sentence becomes:

ನಾನು ಅನ್ನ ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu anna tinnuttēne

Literally:

I → rice → eat

The verb usually comes at the end.

That's probably the first important thing you should remember.

English

I + eat + rice

Kannada

I + rice + eat

Once you know this, constructing basic Kannada sentences becomes much easier.

2. Subject

The subject is the person or thing doing something.

Here are a few basic ones:

KannadaPronunciationEnglishನಾನುnānuIನೀನುnīnuYouಅವನುavanuHeಅವಳುavaḷuSheನಾವುnāvuWeಅವರುavaruThey / He / She (respectful)

Don't worry too much about memorizing everything immediately.

Let's use ನಾನು (nānu) for now.

ನಾನು ಅನ್ನ ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu anna tinnuttēne
I eat rice.

We already know:

ನಾನು = I

3. Object

The object is what the action is being performed on.

Take:

ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu nīru kuḍiyuttēne

Here:

ನಾನು = I
ನೀರು = water
ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ = drink

So literally:

I → water → drink.

Or in normal English:

I drink water.

Another one:

ನಾನು ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu pustaka ōduttēne

ನಾನು = I
ಪುಸ್ತಕ = book
ಓದುತ್ತೇನೆ = read

Literally:

I → book → read.

English:

I read a book.

You can already see the pattern.

4. Verb

The verb is the action.

Some basic Kannada verbs are:

KannadaPronunciationEnglishತಿನ್ನುtinnueatಕುಡಿkuḍidrinkಓದುōdureadಬರುbarucomeಹೋಗುhōgugoಮಾಡುmāḍudoನೋಡುnōḍusee/watchಮಾತಾಡುmātāḍuspeak

You'll notice something though.

I said:

ತಿನ್ನು = eat

But our sentence used:

ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತೇನೆ

Why?

That's because Kannada verbs change depending on things like tense and person.

Don't worry about that yet.

We'll get there.

For now, understand the structure.

5. Put Everything Together

We now have three building blocks:

Subject + Object + Verb

Let's construct some sentences.

I drink water.

I → ನಾನು
water → ನೀರು
drink → ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ

Put them in Kannada order:

ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu nīru kuḍiyuttēne

I read a book.

I → ನಾನು
book → ಪುಸ್ತಕ
read → ಓದುತ್ತೇನೆ

Therefore:

ನಾನು ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu pustaka ōduttēne

He eats rice.

He → ಅವನು
rice → ಅನ್ನ
eats → ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾನೆ

Therefore:

ಅವನು ಅನ್ನ ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾನೆ
Avanu anna tinnuttāne

Again:

Subject → Object → Verb

6. You Don't Always Need an Object

Consider:

I am coming.

There isn't really an object here.

So Kannada can simply be:

ನಾನು ಬರುತ್ತೇನೆ
Nānu baruttēne

I → come

Or:

ಅವನು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಾನೆ
Avanu hōguttāne

He → goes

So don't think every Kannada sentence needs exactly three words.

The important idea is that when you have a subject, object and verb, Kannada generally puts them in SOV order.

7. Your First Kannada Formula

For now, forget complicated grammar.

Remember this:

English

WHO → DOES WHAT → TO WHAT

Kannada

WHO → TO WHAT → DOES WHAT

Or simply:

Subject + Object + Verb

English:

I eat rice.

Kannada:

I rice eat.

English:

She reads a book.

Kannada:

She book reads.

English:

He drinks water.

Kannada:

He water drinks.

It might sound strange when translated literally into English, but once your brain gets used to putting the verb at the end, Kannada sentence construction starts feeling much more natural.

And interestingly, if you've learnt Japanese before, this should feel familiar. Japanese also generally follows Subject–Object–Verb.

That's enough grammar for Chapter 1.

Don't try to memorize a dictionary yet.

Just get one thing into your head:

Kannada puts the action at the end.

Once that becomes automatic, we can start changing who is performing that action.

That's where pronouns come in.

Next: Chapter 2 — I, You, He, She, We and They