Adverbial Participle Form (AVP)

The Adverbial Participle is a form that is used to conjoin actions that are carried out either sequentially (as in 'I went to the store, bought milk, made coffee and drank) or simultaneously (as in 'I write looking at the book'). To use the AVP, these actions must be causally related. The first action that takes place prior to the second action takes the past tense suffix and an adverbial participle marker either இ, உ or ய் depending upon the verb. Only the last verb in the sequence takes the tense and person, number and gender suffixes. The AVP is often translated as 'having VERB.'

All verbs except class 3 verbs like பேசு, ஆடு, பாடு etc., take the suffix உ as noted below.

செய்-த்-உ > பேசி 'having done'

வ-ந்த்-உ > வந்து 'having come'

எழு-ந்த்-உ > எழுந்து 'having gotten up'

எடுத்த்-உ > எடுத்து 'having taken'

சாப்பிட்ட்-உ > சாப்பிட்டு 'having eaten'

நின்ற்-உ > நின்று 'having stood'

All the class three verbs except போ takes the suffix இ, but without the ன் of the past tense marker. The final உ is replaced by இ in these types of verbs.

பேச்-இ > பேசி 'having spoken'

பாட்-இ > பாடி 'having come'

எழுத்-இ > எழுதி 'having written'

Note that when writing Tamil, for all AVP forms except those that end in து and ந்து, if the following word begins with a stop consonant (க், ச், ட், ற், த், ப்) that consonant must be doubled at the end of the AVP.

Examples: (Sequential actions)

நான் வீட்டுக்குப் போய்ச் சமைத்துச் சாப்பிடுவேன். 'I will go home, cook and eat.'

பெட்டியைத் திறந்து பணத்தை எடுத்து நூறு ரூபாய் எண்ணி அவரிடம் கொடு. 'open the box, take the money, count for hundred rupee and give it to him'

Examples: (Simultaneous actions)

நீங்கள் இந்தப் புத்தகத்தைப் பார்த்து எழுதுங்கள். 'Write looking at this book.'

இந்தச் சட்டையைப் போட்டுப் பாருங்கள். 'Try this shirt' (Lit. 'Wear this shirt and see.')

நான் பள்ளிக்கூடத்துக்கு நடந்து வந்தேன். 'I came to school walking.'

இங்கேயிருந்து சீக்கிரமாக ஓடிப் போங்கள். 'Run away from here quickly.'

Negative form of Adverbial Participle

The AVP form is negated using the infintive form with the suffix ஆமல் (sp. ஆமெ.

Examples:

உங்களால் பள்ளிக்கூடத்துக்கு வராமல் தமிழ் படிக்க முடியுமா?
Can you study Tamil without coming to school?

நீங்கள் சர்க்கரை போடாமல் காப்பி குடிப்பீர்களா?
Do you drink coffee without (putting) sugar?

ஓடாமல் நடந்து போங்கள் 'without running, walk and go'.

Besides these basic usages, AVP form is also used when using aspectual verbs, e.g., when using progressive (Unit 6, Grammar 2), perfective (Unit 6, Grammar 3), completive (Unit 6, Grammar 4), reflexive (Unit 5, Grammar 5), and other related aspectual forms.
Translate:
1) I came home and ate Idly.
2) Did you go to the theater and see a Tamil movie?
3) Can you try this shirt?
4) Did you teach in school?
5) I bought a pair of glasses for my father.
6) You should take with you lots of money when you go to India.
7) Come here and sit.
8) Everything in this store sold out.
9) I went to the library, checked out a book, came home, read it and slept.
10) I went to the store, bought milk, came home, made coffee, drank it and slept.

Scolding and Yelling

Scolding and yelling at someone can be done in varying degrees. There are particular words and phrases which can be used for this. Someone can be scolded very lightly, with no offense necessarily taken and even enjoying such teasing. However, the nature of some words and phrases can make the other person really angry no matter in what context it is uttered.

Using the names of animals:

Each animal is understood in Tamil culture with specific (negative) quality, and using the names of such animals to talk about someone would make that person angry given the quality invoked. When yelling with the names of animals, the person yelled at may or may not have the qualities of the animals in that context, but would be used just to denote someone's angry mood.

நீ ஒரு நாயி. ஏன் இப்படி கத்திக்கிட்டே இருக்கே? 'You are a dog. Why are you screaming all the time'.

சும்மா இருடி கழுதெ. வாயெ தொறெந்தா பல்லெ ஒடெப்பேன் 'Keep quiet, you donkey! If you open your mouth (try to utter anything), I will break your teeth'.

பன்னி மாதிரி எதையாவது தின்னுக்கிட்டேயிருக்கியே! 'You are eating like a pig.'

எறுமெ மாடு! ஏதாவது உறுப்படியா செய்யேன்! 'You the water buffalo! Why don't you do something good?'

ஏய்! கொரங்கு! சொன்னா கேக்க மாட்டியா? 'Hey! Monkey! Won't you listen to me?'

Names of devils and supernatural elments

Usually when referring to someone's appearance and behavior, the names of supernatural entities like பேய் 'devil', பிசாசு 'ghost', எமன் 'death god', மூதேவி 'godess of ill-luck', தரித்திரம் 'unlucky person' etc., and insanity like பைத்தியம் 'insane person' etc., are used. These words usually don't have as much effect in kindling the other person's anger as animal names. Some times, husbands and wives, lovers, and other friends use these words to yell at each other to kiddingly show their extraordinary affection.

Words referring to unfortunate status of some person--e.g., as a widow, poor person, etc., are also used to yell at somone.

கம்மனாட்டி 'widow': This word is used to scold both male and female persons, despite the fact that it is a feminine noun.

மடையன் 'senseless-male' vs. மடச்சி 'senseless-female'

கிறுக்கன் 'insane (male)', கிறுக்கி 'insane (female)'.

கழுத்தறுப்பு 'boring person' (lit. one who would cuts the neck)

Using body parts

Some of the body parts, especially hair and other private parts are often used as part of the 'scolding vocabularies' in Tamil. When words get such specialized meanings, using those words in normal contexts becomes difficult. So, new vocabularies representing such bodyparts from ancient Tamil are reused. One example is the use of the word மயிர் for hair. Saying this word in anger is considered very rude, and can make the other person very angry as well. So, the word முடி is used instead in normal occasions. Saying மயிர் வேட்ட போறேன் 'I go to get a haircut' is not common but முடி வெட்ட போறேன் is.

Also, telling the action of 'pulling one's hair' also attained this unacceptable meaning. The sentences மயிர் புடுங்கு 'pull the hair'; என்ன? மயிர் புடுங்க போனியா 'What? did you go to pull the hair or something?'; என்ன பெரிசா புடுங்கிட்டெ? 'what (the hell) did you make a big thing of? (lit. what did you pull that was so big?) etc., imply bad connotations, and should be avoided in normal contexts.