Simplified Telugu Grammar

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Simplified Telugu Grammar

Alphabet & Pronounciation

Telugu is written in its own alphabet, called తెలుగు లిపి (Telugu lipi), an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts. As such, every syllable is formed by a consonant, either alone or carrying a distinctive mark representing the vowel, or a special mark indicating no vowel at all. Other consonants can be added to the beginning of a syllable. Besides that, each vowel has an independent form to be used when not preceded by a consonant.

Some examples to illustrate the building of syllables in Telugu:

అ	a
బ	ba
బ్	b
డ	da
డ్	d
బ్డ	bda
డ్బ	dba
అబ్	ab
అడ్	ad
అడ్బ్	adb
అబ్డ్	abd
బబ్	bab
డడ్	dad

Long vowels have their own letters, usually a modified or extended version of the short vowel.

Some consonants have special forms to be used in conjunct with other consonants. Ex.:

త	ta
క	ka
త్క	tka
క్త	kta
ర	ra
క్ర	kra
ర్క	rka

Several consonants can come in a cluster. This is very common in the writing of English words. E.g.:

స్త్రక్త్స్

strakts, "structs"

You can see below how such a complex syllable is composed.

స	sa
త	ta
స్త	sta
త్ర	tra
స్త్ర	stra
అక్	ak
అక్త్	akt
అక్త్స్	akts
సక్	sak
స్తక్	stak
స్త్రక్	strak
సక్త్	sakt
సక్త్స్	sakts
స్తక్త్	stakt
స్తక్త్స్	stakts
స్త్రక్త్స్	strakts

Nouns

Gender

Although Telugu has three genders, viz. masculine, feminine and neuter, but these are more semantic than grammatical. I.e., words representing male living beings are usually masculine, words representing female living beings are usually feminine, and words representing inanimated objects are usually neuter. This is not absolute, though, as there are masculine and feminine words representing inanimate objects as well.

The most prominent effect of gender is the use of different pronouns and verb forms, which usually have one form for masculine and another form for feminine and neuter.