Here are a few words, chosen for their usefulness to the traveler.  Keep your sentence structure simple.  Practice with friendly locals, and polish up your pronunciation.  You'll be surprised at the results, and will be able to pick up new words as you need them.  The polite forms have been given here, and you can also add "Sir", often pronounced "Saar".  or Madam to requests or questions.  The "~" symbol indicates where the object will go.  Usually before the verb.  There is a pronunciation guide at the bottom of the page.

greetings yes no (it's not) Namaskaaram awanu kaadhu don't have I don't have a book leedhu book leedhu is there (do you have) ~ Do you have a room? ~ undhaa ? room undhaa? there is (I have) ~ Yes, I have a room ~ undhi awanu, room undhi where is ~ Where is the station? how much is ~ How much is a room? ~ yekada ? Station yekada? ~ yentha Room yentha? this that how much is ~ How much is this? How much is that? idhi adhi ~ yentha Idhi yentha? Adhi yentha? please give ~ Please give coffee ~ iiyandi coffee iiyandi (I) want ~ don't want~ ~ kaavali ~ wadhuu I want black coffee I don't want sugar black coffee kaavali sugar wadhuu a little a little sugar kunjum sugar kunjum big ~ small ~ big car small book peddha ~ chinna ~ peddha car chinna book I know ~ I don't know ~ I know a little Telugu I don't know Telugu ~ tellisu ~ telliyadhu Telegu kunjum tellisu Telegu telliyadhu please go please come don't you have ~ don't you have a room? vellandi randi ~ leedhaa ? room leedhaa? Thank you English "thanks" is common Goodbye (I go and come) (Said when you are leaving) Goodbye (please go & come) (Said when the other is leaving) vandanaalu / thanks velli vastaanu velli rundi NUMBERS one two three four five six seven eight nine ten okati rendu muudu naalagu aidhu aaru yeerdu yenamidhi tomadhi padhi

Indian languages use a few more sounds than most Western languages.  Some of the constants, like "d" or "t" have a harder and a softer version than the ones in English.  There are also long and short vowel sounds, and you will be more easily understood if you greatly exaggerate the length of your long vowels.  For example, to say "yes" in Tamil you would say "aama", but it would not be wrong to pronounce it 'aaaaaaama'.  It would be very hard to over lengthen long vowel sounds.

The vowels are pronounced as follows.
The short "a" is like the sound in "aha".  
The long form - "aa" - sounds like the drawn out sound of "ah, yes"

The short "i" is like the sound in "ill".
The long form - "ii" - sounds like the drawn out sound of "eel"

The short "e" is like the sound in "hey".  
The long "ee" is like the drawn out sound of "hale"

The short "o" is like the sound in "snow".
The long "oo" is like the drawn out sound of "pole"

The short "u" is like the sound in "rue".
The long "uu" is like the drawn out sound of "rule"

The short sound "ai" is like the sound in "height".
There is no long form.

Rather than give you further complex explanations of pronunciations, we suggest you take a few minutes with a friendly waiter or room boy and ask him how to pronounce the words.  There are a few sounds in Indian languages that do not exist in Western languages, and you have to learn to hear and say them for yourself.

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