Tamilweb: Grammar Notes

		Home Overview Technical Help
Home Grammar Lessons > Introduction I 1 2 3 4 5 6 II 1 2 3 4 5 6 III 1 2 3 4 5 6 IV 1 2 3 4 5 6 V 1 2 3 4 5 6 VI 1 2 3 4 5 6 Select Unit

Unit: 1, Lesson: 2

Question Words

Question words in Tamil can occur freely in more than one position in a sentence. Depending upon where they occur and how the stress is placed on them, they have slightly different meanings. For example, யார் முருகன்? would mean 'who is Murugan?' but the question முருகன் யார்? with an extra stress on the word யார் can mean 'who do you think Murgan is?'. Both of these questions in normal utterances can also mean 'which person is called Murgan?' or 'who is called Murukan?'.

The following table provides a list of question words along with their spoken form.

Written form	Spoken form	Meaning
யார்	யாரு	Who
என்ன	என்ன	What
எது	எது	Which (noun)
எந்த	எந்த	Which (adjective)
ஏது	ஏது	What source
ஏன்	ஏன்	Why
எங்கே or எங்கு	எங்கே	Where
எப்படி	எப்படி	How
எப்பொழுதும்	எப்போ	When
எத்தனை	எத்தனெ	How many (countable)
எவ்வளவு	எவ்வளவு	How much

Question words and deictic sets

Every language has a class of expressions called 'deictic.' Here this simply means words that refer by 'pointing to' some.htmlect of the context. The reference of such words, then, vary depending on the context: e.g., who is speaking, where you are, etc. In English, 'I', 'you, 'he', 'she', 'that', 'there', etc., are deictics.

We have already seen a number of such constructions in Tamil: நான், நீங்கள், நீ, அவர், அவர்கள், அது,, etc. In addition, some deictics tend to occur in contrastive paradigms: e.g., in English, 'here/there/where', 'this/that/which', etc. In Tamil, such constrastive paradigms are extremely regular and vary by the first letter: இ, அ, எ (proximate, distal, question). Consider the following deictic sets:

Proximate (close to speaker/speech event) Distal (far from speaker/speech event) Question word

இவன், 'this man (impol)' அவன், 'that man (impol)' எவன், 'which man (pol)?'

இவர், 'this man (pol)' அவர், 'that man (pol)' எவர், 'which man (pol)?'

இவள், 'this woman (impol)' அவள், 'that woman (impol)' எவள், 'which woman (impol)?'

இவர்கள், 'this woman (pol), 'these people' அவர்கள், 'that woman (pol)', 'those people' எவர்கள், 'which woman (pol)?', 'which people?'

இது, 'this' (noun) அது, 'that' (noun) எது, 'which?' (noun)

இந்த, 'this(adj)' அந்த, 'that(adj)' எந்த, 'which(adj)?'

இங்கெ, 'here' அங்கெ, 'there' எங்கெ, 'where?'

இப்பொழுது, 'this time', 'now' அப்பொழுது, 'that time', 'then' எப்பொழுது, 'which time?', 'when?'

இவ்வளவு, 'this much' அவ்வளவு, 'that much' எவ்வளவு, 'how much?'

இத்தனை, 'this many' அத்தனை, 'that many' எத்தனை, 'how many?'

இப்படி, 'this way/manner' அப்படி, 'that way/manner' எப்படி, 'how?' (in what manner?)

இன்றைக்கு, 'this day' ('today') அன்றைக்கு, 'that day' என்றைக்கு, 'which day?'

Note that யாரு is simply the unmarked question word for எவன், எவர், எவள், எவர்கள் and can stand in for any of them. In fact, எவன், எவர், எவள், எவர்கள் can only be used if it is already known that the person in question fits the more specific information carried along in such question words (e.g., எவள் is a low-status/informal female, etc.). Similarly, எது is used only when it is known that a non-animate/rational 'thing' is being talked about; otherwise என்ன is used.
Dialogue: unit_01/section_A/lesson02.html