This lesson tells you all about idioms and their usage.

An idiom is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words, and which must be learnt as a whole unit.

Traditionally, certain words are used to denote certain things. For example, the young one of a horse is called ‘Kutti’. And the sound made by a horse is termed ‘neighing’ or kanaiththal.

When talking about items of food, we use the word ‘eat’; unnal, Fruits and vegetables have to be chewed. This is called ‘thinnal’. Drinks are liquid items. Hence, the word ‘parukudal’ is used. Thus, certain words are used for certain things.

A word can denote one or more things.

For example, Maram - - Tree
Thaamam -- garland, fear, place, body, cord, town, flower, pride, battlefield, elephant, house etc.

When a word with several meanings occurs in a sentence, how do you know what it indicates exactly? Scholars have laid down a tradition by which we can use certain words in collocation with the given word, to bring out its exact meaning.

For example, ‘Maa’ can mean the mango tree, the bee or the horse. When we say Maa pooththathu or Maa kaaiththathu we know that Maa refers to the tree.

When we say Maa moiththa Malar we know that Maa refers to bee.

Similarly, the list Maa, Yaanai, Ther, Kaalaall indicates that Maa refers to the horse.

In some Tamil words, the meaning changes according to the Pronunciation and stress.

Example: Palakaiyoli. If we read it as Palakai + Oli it refers to the sound made by a wooden board or plank. If we read it as Pala Kai Oli it means the sound made by many hands.

When many words or phrases referring to the same thing occur in a sentence, it is customary to end the sentence with a word which brings out the meaning of all the phrases used.

Example: Poyyil Pulavar, Muppaal Aasiriyar, Thamizh
Vedam Thantha Thalaimakan, Thiruvalluvar vandaar.

Thus, this lesson teaches you the rules regarding the traditional use of words and phrases in a sentence.

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