AIを使ってEnglishからKannadaを自然に学びましょう。EnglishのテキストをKannadaに翻訳し、発音を聴き、各単語を理解し、スピーキングの練習をします。無料、登録不要。
Learning Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) from English is a bigger leap than a sister language would be, but a beautifully regular one — no gender agreement, no articles, and every word built by adding suffixes — and your doorway to one of India's oldest languages, with 2,000 years of literature. Kannada is your new alphabet, and it is completely phonetic. Each consonant carries an inherent vowel, and vowel marks attached above, below, or beside it change the sound — so once you learn the letters you can read any word aloud correctly. That predictability makes Kannada much easier to pronounce than English. The main mental shift is word order: English puts the verb right after the subject, but Kannada — like Japanese — wants it at the end, and uses postpositions after the noun. Retrain yourself from "I drink water" to the Kannada shape: "I water drink". English and Kannada come from different families (Germanic vs Dravidian), so the vocabulary is genuinely new — but the phonological habits you already own, like retroflex consonants and clear long vowels, transfer cleanly across the family boundary.
English keeps the verb right after the subject (SVO), but Kannada — like Japanese — sends it to the end (SOV). However, the relational word still comes after the noun. A neutral sentence translates across as "I am learning English." → "ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.", which is exactly where the word-order discipline lives. Kannada marks relations with postpositions after the noun, where English uses prepositions — "in the house" becomes "house-in". English keeps no grammatical gender; Kannada keeps gender only for people. Watch the noun, not the logic.
Kannada curls the tongue for its retroflex consonants (ಟ, ಡ, ಳ) — a tongue position English does not use. Practise touching the tongue tip to the roof of the mouth, well behind the teeth.
Long versus short vowels is meaningful in Kannada: ಕಡ (kaḍa) vs ಕಾಡು (kāḍu, forest) change word meaning. Hold a double vowel about twice as long as a single one.
Hello
→ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ
I would like some water.
→ ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು.
Thank you.
→ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು.
I'm sorry.
→ ಕ್ಷಮಿಸಿ.
How are you?
→ ನೀವು ಹೇಗಿದ್ದೀರಿ?
I didn't understand that.
→ ನನಗೆ ಅರ್ಥವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ.
How much is this?
→ ಇದು ಎಷ್ಟು?
I am learning English.
→ ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.
Where are you from?
→ ನೀವು ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀರಿ?
Could you speak more slowly, please?
→ ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿ.
ನೀರು
water
ಮನೆ
house
ಮನುಷ್ಯ
man
ಮಹಿಳೆ
woman
ಮಗು
child
ತಿನ್ನು
to eat
ಕುಡಿ
to drink
ಹೋಗು
to go
ಬರು
to come
ಮಾತನಾಡು
to speak
ನೋಡು
to see
ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ
good
ಕೆಟ್ಟ
bad
ದೊಡ್ಡ
big
ಚಿಕ್ಕ
small
ಇಂದು
today
ನಾಳೆ
tomorrow
ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು
please
ಮೇಜು
table
ಬಾಗಿಲು
door
Kannada sentences end with the verb: "ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ." literally runs "I water drink". Train against the English instinct of verb-second by speaking each idea as subject → object → verb.
Kannada uses natural gender only: male/female pronouns and endings for people, and one simple neutral form for everything else — objects, animals, and ideas. No arbitrary noun genders to memorize.
Kannada glues case and verb suffixes onto a word instead of using separate helper words: ಮನೆ (house) + ಇಂದ (from) = ಮನೆಯಿಂದ, ಮಾಡು (do) + ಉತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ (am doing) = ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. Learn roots with their most common suffixes.
Kannada gender is natural: male/female words take he/she verb forms; everything else (objects, animals, ideas) uses the same neat "it" form. There is no arbitrary gender to memorize.
Needs are "to me X is needed": ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು. The same pattern covers hunger and wishes — a single handy suffix instead of a full "want" verb.
I drink water.
→ ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ.
I would like some water.
→ ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು.
I am going home.
→ ನಾನು ಮನೆಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.
This is my book.
→ ಇದು ನನ್ನ ಪುಸ್ತಕ.
I am learning English.
→ ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.
Where are you from?
→ ನೀವು ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀರಿ?
ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು. (spoken as short vowels)
ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು. (long vowels held)
Vowel length changes meaning in Kannada (ಕಡು vs ಕಾಡು). Make the -ೀ- in ನೀರು and -ಾ- in other words clearly long. The trap for English speakers is importing verb-second order — Kannada verbs close the sentence.
ನಾನು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ ನೀರು.
ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ.
SOV — the object (ನೀರು) comes before the verb (ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ). Object-last word order is an Indo-Aryan/English habit. The trap for English speakers is importing verb-second order — Kannada verbs close the sentence.
ಮಹಿಳೆ ಬಂದನು.
ಮಹಿಳೆ ಬಂದರು.
Verb form must match the person: women and respected figures take the respectful -aru suffix, not the neutral male -anu. The trap for English speakers is importing verb-second order — Kannada verbs close the sentence.
Translate into Kannada
I drink water.
Suggested: ನಾನು ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯುತ್ತೇನೆ.
Translate into Kannada
I would like some water.
Suggested: ನನಗೆ ನೀರು ಬೇಕು.
Translate into Kannada
I am learning English.
Suggested: ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.
Say these words in Kannada
water, man, woman (in English)
Suggested: ನೀರು, ಮನುಷ್ಯ, ಮಹಿಳೆ
Ask the question in Kannada
Where are you from?
Suggested: ನೀವು ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀರಿ?
If you already speak Hindi/Bengali etc., the sounds (retroflex, no aspiration) will partly transfer, but the vocabulary and suffix-heavy grammar are genuinely Dravidian and new. English and Dravidian speakers alike find the "no gender" simplicity a relief after Indo-Aryan's two-gender systems.
Yes, and it rewards you: it is perfectly phonetic and shares the vowel-mark logic of all Brahmic scripts. If you read any Devanagari-family script the shapes are different but the system is the same — some letters even look similar (ಕ to क, ಸ to स).
Agglutination: Kannada prefers piling suffixes onto the root (ಬಂದು + ವುದು + ಇಲ್ಲ = "has not come yet") where English uses separate words. Learn to hear the root inside the long word — you will recognize it from the verb lists in this tool.
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