Tamil phonetic typing: type “vanakkam”, get வணக்கம்

01 · How it works

Six rules cover almost everything.

1. 01

   Type the sound

   Consonants and vowels are written the way they sound: ka, ki, kuu. A consonant with no vowel after it gets a pulli, so “thamizh” ends in ழ்.

   thamizh→தமிழ்

2. 02

   Long vowels: double or capital

   aa ii uu ee oo, or the capitals A I U E O, give ஆ ஈ ஊ ஏ ஓ. Single e and o are the short எ and ஒ. ai and au are ஐ and ஔ.

   kaalai→காலை

3. 03

   Capitals pick ண ள ற ஸ

   Capital N is ண, L is ள, R is ற and S is ஸ. Use them when the sound matters: “maNi” is மணி, “makkaL” is மக்கள்.

   makkaL→மக்கள்

4. 04

   ந, ன, ங and ஞ are chosen by position

   Roman letters cannot tell them apart, so n becomes ந at the start of a word, ந் before th, ண் before t or d, ங் before k and ன elsewhere. “ng” and “nj” inside a word give ங்க and ஞ்ச.

   thangam→தங்கம்

5. 05

   A short word list covers the rest

   For very common words the spelling cannot be worked out from letters alone, such as vanakkam, amma or madurai, the converter uses a short built-in list. Type a capital letter to skip it.

   vanakkam→வணக்கம்

6. 06

   Keep English with { }

   Put any text in curly braces to leave it as it is: names, URLs or English words in the middle of a Tamil sentence.

   nandri {Google} vanakkam→நன்றி Google வணக்கம்