Malayalam and the Class 4 languages
Exceptionally difficult languages for English speakers — and how much of Malayalam's grammar each one already gives you.
Shared grammatical features with Malayalam
Each language scored against the same ten features used throughout this site. A full match counts 1, a partial match 0.5.
A perfect ten, with no historical connection to Kerala whatsoever. desu is aanu; ka is -o; suru is cheyyuka; -tara is -aal; the small っ is Malayalam's twin consonant.
Nine of ten. -ida parallels aanu, -myeon parallels enkil, and Korean kinship is as precise as Malayalam's.
Prenominal relative clauses with 的 work like Malayalam's relative participle, and its retroflex series is made the same way.
As Mandarin: prenominal relatives and final question particles.
Ferguson's classic diglossia case — the closest parallel anywhere to Malayalam's own written/spoken split.
Patterns Japanese and Korean speakers will know
Like Japanese and Korean, Malayalam puts the verb last and uses endings instead of prepositions.
| Malayalam | Romanised | English |
|---|---|---|
| ഞാൻ ചായ കുടിച്ചു | njan chaya kudichu | I drank tea: subject, object, verb |
| കഴിച്ചോ? | kazhicho? | Did you eat? The -o ending asks the question, much like Japanese ka |
| വീട്ടിൽ | veettil | In the house: the ending -il works like Japanese ni |
Feature by feature
● full match · ◐ partial · ○ absent
| Language | Verb goes last | Postpositions | Suffixes stack | Case endings | Subject dropped | Dative subject | Relative participle | Question by ending | Twin consonants | Respect levels | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | 10 |
| Korean | full match | full match | full match | full match | full match | partial | full match | full match | partial | full match | 9 |
| Mandarin Chinese | absent | partial | absent | absent | full match | absent | full match | full match | absent | partial | 4 |
| Cantonese | absent | partial | absent | absent | full match | absent | full match | full match | absent | partial | 4 |
| Arabic | absent | absent | absent | partial | full match | absent | absent | partial | full match | partial | 3.5 |
Learn this properly, with a teacher who wrote the book
Everything on this page is drawn from Speak Malayalam: The Complete Colloquial Course — 3,297 pages, nineteen volumes, built on the spoken language rather than the textbook one. The first thirty days are free.
Respect levels, as in Japanese and Korean
Like Japanese and Korean, Malayalam changes how you address people depending on age and closeness. Choosing the right form matters more than perfect grammar.
| Malayalam | Romanised | English |
|---|---|---|
| നീ | nee | You (to a child or close friend) |
| നിങ്ങൾ | ningal | You (polite, or more than one person) |
| ചേട്ടാ | chetta | Older brother: a polite way to address an older man |
| ചേച്ചി | chechi | Older sister: a polite way to address an older woman |