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Telugu phrases, by meaning
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Common questions about Telugu
What does this Telugu page cover?
Twenty-two functional categories with Telugu examples: tense (past, present, future), aspect (perfective, progressive, habitual), modality (కలగు for ability, వలెను for must, కావలెను for want), three negation strategies (-లేదు for past or non-existence, వద్దు for prohibition, -నేను for stative negation), case suffixes (-ని, -కి, -తో, -లో), questions (ఎవరు, ఏమి, ఎక్కడ, ఎప్పుడు), comparison with కంటే, and 14 others.
How does Telugu's three-gender system work?
In the third person singular, Telugu distinguishes masculine, feminine, and neuter. He: అతను takes -డు on the verb. She: ఆమె takes -ది. It: అది also takes -ది. In the plural, masculine and human-feminine merge into one form (వారు), while non-human plural takes another (అవి). Examples on the page label gender and number explicitly.
Why does Telugu have three different ways to say 'no'?
Each negation form does a different job. -లేదు negates past actions or existence (వెళ్ళలేదు 'didn't go', లేదు 'isn't / there isn't'). వద్దు prohibits or refuses ('don't', 'no thanks'). The negative copula కాదు covers identity-negation ('it is not'). Pick the wrong one and the sentence reads strange even when individual words are correct. Examples in the Negation section show all three side by side.
Is this Modern Standard Telugu or a regional variety?
Modern Standard Telugu (the literary register used in education, media, and writing across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). Spoken regional varieties (Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) differ in some lexical items and pronunciation; Telangana speech in particular has its own distinctive verb endings. The structures shown here are the broadly understood literary standard.
How does Telugu mark formal address?
Through pronoun choice and verb agreement. మీరు (you-formal/plural) takes plural verb agreement even with one addressee, while నువ్వు (you-familiar) takes singular. The third-person honorific వారు raises status. Telugu also has a distinct honorific imperative form. Phrases under Politeness and Social Deixis surface the contrasts.
Sources for Telugu
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju & Gwynn, J. P. L. (1985). A Grammar of Modern Telugu. Oxford University Press (480 pp.). — The definitive modern reference grammar — phonology, morphology, syntax; replaces Caldwell's 150-year-old Dravidian grammar as standard reference. [via static/grammar-library/tel/krishnamurti-gwynn-1985-grammar-modern-telugu.pdf]