This is a breakthrough book unlike any other for Tamil. My husband and I moved to Chennai a number of years ago. Our shelves are lined with how to learn Tamil text books. We even took a course at the Tamil Institute which helped us read but there was zero practical application. Tamil is a very difficult language compared to Hindi and any Latin based language-at least for an English speaker. But this book cracks the code. It’s written in a way that a language learner would want to logically learn. No more just trying to memorize and hope it’s right without fully understanding it. Thank you, Sanjay. We really appreciate you doing this. It must have truly been a labor of love. It took a lot of work to do this since no other book has done this before. I hope you can get this into all the language schools as the main text book. It’s a necessity. Next time we are in the states, we’ll also get the print book. May you have great success!

வணக்கம். I have recently begun learning Tamil with the author of *Spoken Tamil for Absolute Beginners*. We use the book in class and for homework, and I find it clearly written and easy to follow. A previous reviewer has already mentioned the most striking and important aspects of the book, and it should be said that, although the book focusses on the spoken variety of the language, the beautiful Tamil writing system is taught in the beginning of the book and is used throughout along with transcriptions in Roman letters (for most examples). Learning the script is necessary for most exercises and many charts in the book. The availability of audio and Memrise files for learning the letters, vocabulary, and more makes this course valuable to the modern Tamil learner.

5 stars! Highly recommended! This book is a MUST have for every Tamil student. I’ve spent the last 8 years gathering Tamil language learning resources, a difficult task as there aren’t a lot of resources compared to some of the other languages. Important features of this book include: 1) Lessons on writing the Tamil script should the reader decide to learn it (highly recommended); 2) The author uses Tamil script AND romanization (English letters to represent the sounds of the Tamil words) AND the English translation; 3) There are 30+ audio tracks provided; 4) Important vocabulary is provided and flashcards have been made available through the online Memrise website which correspond to the book; 5) The author describes the differences between spoken and written Tamil; 6) Sandhi rules (rules for suffixes), pronouns, verb conjugation, tenses, cases, adjectives, adverbs and negation are all taught; 7) The author provides the conjugation for the top 100 commonly used Tamil verbs by class (A GOLDMINE); 8) Important cultural notes are provided; 9) There are many exercises with an answer key for hands-on practice. This is a comprehensive, detailed, easy to understand book which is a MUST have for every student. The author also offers personal or group lessons. I have taken lessons with the author and he is an excellent, very encouraging, patient and personable teacher.

This book is a must have. One of the challenges I have faced while learning Tamil is the difference between spoken Tamil and written Tamil. This book removes that problem since it mainly focuses on spoken Tamil. The author goes over how to write and read the Tamil script in the earlier chapters as well as Tamil grammar in the later chapters. The author also provides a the most commonly used Tamil words as a vocabulary list. At the end of every lesson there are exercise problems to test what the reader learned and what we as the student need to work on. So far this book has slowly helped me correct my Tamil grammar. To take your Tamil learning further, you can take lessons with the author. Overall a great book for self teaching yourself Tamil.

Fantastic Book, Highly recommend. It is very easy to understand for beginners, great with details, and has helpful audio in case you need more assistance. 🙂

This book has everything you could possibly need in spoken Tamil. There are verb charts for the 100 most common verbs in case you want to skip complex explanations. I have both this book and Routledge Tamil Grammar and I can't decide which one is better. This one is definitely easier to understand.

I’ve some basic knowledge of Tamil and found this book very very good, in that one can start from scratch and be able to learn the language fairly well. The whole layout is commendable!

I started learning tamil by just memorizing the vocabulary and putting words together. Most of the time my sentences made no sense and i would get very frustrated. Learning a language is hard but learning a language with limited resources to actually learn the language is harder. Then i found spoken tamil for absolute beginners. It has so much information in it. Everything i had learned started to make sense. Slowly i started forming sentences. This book has so many grammar rules and little tips that i had to read it... And then break it up into chunks and then reread it just so that I could get all the information in the book. It is one of the best tools for teaching yourself tamil that i have ever seen. I use my book daily. I live in america so not being submerged in the language was a problem but now I am moving past that problem with the help from this book. I love it!

Very comprehensive. Lots of step by step explanations (in English).Tamil is not easy to learn as it is SO different from English, but this should help me! There are exercises to do, and the answers are at the end of the book. I see the author also teaches online and is contactable for lessons. What a good idea!

The book is well laid out and includes the script, which I have found very helpful. All the grammar points are clearly explained and enable you to progress through the language in a logical manner. The additional audio resource is great. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn Tamil.

This book is very helpful. I found the grammar explanations clear, well explained and accessible. I also like that it is well organised, providing a whole method to learn the language : tamil script, main grammar points, vocabulary, verbs conjugation. Therefore it is easy to set up a learning plan and stay motivated. It has also very good advices and tips to progress in Tamil, and the author has provided courses in a learning app. This app made me learn the script very quickely and easily even though I did not want to learn to read at first, fearing that would be too difficult. The book also provides extremely useful and well explained reading rules. I strongly advise this book to anyone learning Tamil.

Tamil is a very difficult language to learn from English however, it is just as interesting and beautiful as it is hard. This book is incredibly helpful for this as it is very easy to understand while covering large aspects of grammar in a detailed manner. There are also exercises throughout the book with answers available at the end. This book has been very useful to me when it comes to learning Tamil and made its fairly complex grammar seem simpler and easier to work out. Overall I would highly recommend this book if you are learning Tamil.

The style of writing, examples used and progression of the book make learning Tamil a lot easier than others make it out to be! Genuinely a really good book!

This is a very good addition to your library if you are interested in spoken Tamil. It is well presented in a easy to follow progressive manner. It is helpful if you are familiar with the Tamil script, but it is taught here and as well transliteration is provided. It is certainly evident upon reading that the author is sharing his unbridled enthusiasm for the Tamil language. Also provided are downloadable audio files for pronunciation and for material covered in the book, as well as a key to the exercises included. Highly recommended.