Tamil alphabet

Vowels and vowel diacritics

Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations

Consonants

The final five consonants (the blue ones) are known as grantha letters and are used to write consonants
borrowed from Sanskrit, and also some words of English origin.
Numerals

The numerals rarely appear in modern Tamil texts. Instead, 'Arabic' numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) are used.

Other symbols

Sample text in Tamil

Transliteration
Maitap piaviyiar akalarum utantiramkav piakkiaar; avarka matippilum urimaikailum
amamavarka. Avarka niyyattaiyum maaiyaiyum iyapapkap peavarka. Avarka
oruvaruaoruvar aktara uarvup pkil naantukoal vum.
Compound form
Using the consonant 'k' as an example:
Formation

Compound
form

ISO
15919

IPA

ka

[k]

[k]

ki

[ki]

[ki]

ku

[ku],
[k]

[ku]

ke

[ke]

[ke]

kai

[kj]

ko

[ko]

[ko]

kau

[k]

Vowels
Consonants

Vowels
Grantha
consonant
s