In Thamil, asking questions or pointing out objects up close ("this"/ "these") or objects far away ("that"/ "those") is very simple. In general, the prefix "m-" points out objects far away, the prefix ",-" points out objects up close, and the prefix "v-" asks "which?" or "what?" about the object.
There are a few groups of words in Thamil that differ only by their prefixes and are related in this way. In addition, the similarity between words in one group is that they refer to the same thing. The chart below categorizes these words.
| that | this | what/which | relationship | |||
| me;j | that | ,e;j | this | ve;j | which? | (adjectives) |
| mJ | that thing | ,J | this thing | vJ | which thing? | thing |
| mq;F | there | ,q;F | here | vq;F | where? | place |
| mg;nghOJ | then | ,g;nghOJ | now | vg;nghOJ | when? | time |
| mg;gb | in that manner | ,g;gb | in this manner | vg;gb | how? | manner / method |
| md;W | that day | ,d;W | today | vd;W | which day? | day |
| mt;tsT | that much | ,t;tsT | this much | vt;tsT | hwo much? | amount |
| mj;jid | that many | ,j;jid | this many | vj;jid | how many? | number |
| mtd; | that boy | ,td; | this boy | vtd; | which boy? | boy |
| mts; | that girl | ,ts; | this girl | vts; | which girl? | girl |
| mtu; | that elder | ,tu; | this elder | vtu; | which elder? | elder |
| mit | those things | ,it | these things | vit | which things? | things |
There are a few more words that ask a question, but these words have no "m-/,-" equivalents.
| question words | |
| ahu; | who? |
| vd;d | what? |
| Vd; | why? |
| vj;jidahtJ | which rank? |
When using the question word ahu;, the respect/plural verb suffix (-Mu;fs;) must be used with the verb. Ex:
The words in the big chart above, whose relationship is either "time", "manner", or "day" are called adverbs. It is important to distiguinsh adverbs because the placement of words in a Thamil sentence is different from English.
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To learn about using the verb ,U with adverbs for making sentences like "It is red" or "He is here", go to the next lesson, Adjectives / Adverbs.