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Learn Kannada — Kannada for beginners

Read the Kannada script, greet and introduce yourself, and get by in everyday Kannada in Bengaluru and across Karnataka.

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What you will learn

  1. Kannada script, part 1: vowels (swaragalu)
    If you can read Hindi, you already know the order of the Kannada alphabet — the vowels are the same list, plus two short vowels Hindi never bothered to write.
  2. Kannada script, part 2: consonants and how vowels attach (kagunita)
    Thirty-four consonants sounds like a lot until you notice they are the Hindi grid in a new font — and the one letter Hindi lacks, ಳ, is in the name of the city you live in.
  3. Greetings and introducing yourself
    Say 'ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ, ಹೇಗಿದ್ದೀರಾ?' to your landlord, colleague or the security uncle, and watch the conversation change temperature — most people don't expect a newcomer to try.
  4. The basic sentence: I am, you are, this is
    In Kannada 'this is my house' is just ಇದು ನನ್ನ ಮನೆ — 'this my house'. No 'is'. Half your first sentences need no verb at all.
  5. Numbers, money and telling the time
    Hindi makes you memorise 100 separate number words. Kannada numbers past 20 are pure Lego — 'twenty' + 'five' = twenty-five — so you can count to 99 by Friday.
  6. Everyday verbs: come, go, eat, want
    The most famous Kannada word for newcomers is ಬರಲ್ಲ (baralla) — 'won't come' — from the auto driver. By the end of this lesson you'll know exactly how it's built, and how to say everything else.
  7. Asking questions and directions
    Google Maps knows the road; it doesn't know the gate is closed and you have to go round by the temple. Eight question words and four direction words get you the local answer.
  8. Auto, shop and hotel: Kannada for daily life
    Three places decide whether Bengaluru feels like home: the auto, the darshini and the corner shop. Twenty phrases cover all three — and a Kannada sentence often gets you the meter, the extra chutney and the fair price.

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