Tamil voice typing in your browser

Tamil script, not Tanglish

Both Tamil options, Tamil (India) and Tamil (Sri Lanka), return Tamil script: the same Unicode text a Tamil 99 or Anjal keyboard produces. Nothing is romanised, so if you want Tanglish, Tamil spelt out in Latin letters, this page cannot give you that.

The script itself shapes how borrowed words look. Tamil writes k and g with one letter, க, and likewise p and b with ப and t and d with த, which is why Google is written கூகுள். For sounds its native letters lack, Tamil keeps the Grantha letters ஜ, ஷ, ஸ and ஹ, and writes ஃ before ப for an English f, as in ஃபோன் (phone). An English word spoken while a Tamil option is selected is heard by a Tamil model, so read each one back, and dictate long English passages with English (India) selected.

Formal written Tamil also has its own words for many things that everyday speech names in English: கணினி for computer and மின்னஞ்சல் for email, among others. The recogniser writes down the word you said and should not be expected to swap one for the other, so if a document calls for மின்னஞ்சல், say மின்னஞ்சல்.

Tamil numerals have a history of their own. The traditional system had no zero; it had separate signs for ten (௰), a hundred (௱) and a thousand (௲), and the Unicode Standard notes that Tamil adopted a zero from general Indian practice. The Tamil block also keeps signs from old calendars and account books, such as ௳ for day, ௴ for month, ௵ for year and ௹ for rupee. Today Tamil text uses Western digits. Nothing on this page reformats numbers, so read back sums, dates and phone numbers before you send them.

The two Tamil tags are there for a reason. Tamil (India) suits the varieties spoken in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Sri Lankan Tamil, from Jaffna to Batticaloa, keeps words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, so if that is how you speak, try Tamil (Sri Lanka) on the same paragraph and keep whichever needs fewer corrections. Speakers in Malaysia and Singapore have no tag of their own here; Google Docs voice typing does list Tamil (Malaysia) and Tamil (Singapore).

Spoken Tamil and written Tamil are not the same

Tamil is strongly diglossic. The formal written register, செந்தமிழ் (centamil), and everyday speech, கொடுந்தமிழ் (koṭuntamil), differ in vocabulary and verb endings, not just in accent: இன்று against இன்னைக்கு for today, வருகிறேன் against வரேன் for I am coming. The sample above was spoken in the formal register, with போகிறோம் where a conversation would usually have போறோம்.

Speech recognition is built to transcribe, not to edit, so do not count on it to turn colloquial speech into formal prose. For a letter, a form or anything official, speak in the formal register from the first word, with full verb endings. For a note to a cousin, speak the way you normally do and tidy it afterwards. Switching register halfway through a paragraph gives you text that reads oddly in either style.

Quarter dot to finishing dot: Tamil punctuation

Tamil punctuates with the Western marks, and its names for the dotted ones read like a scale built on புள்ளி, a dot. The comma is காற்புள்ளி, literally a quarter dot; the semicolon அரைப்புள்ளி, a half dot; the colon முக்காற்புள்ளி, a three-quarter dot; and the full stop முற்றுப்புள்ளி, the finishing dot. The question mark is கேள்விக்குறி. Tamil prose has no danda, and Tamil letters have no upper and lower case, so there is nothing to capitalise after a full stop. The one character that looks like punctuation is not: ஃ, the āytam, is a letter.

None of those marks appears here unless you type it. This page’s spoken commands are English words and switch off for both Tamil options, nothing turns a spoken காற்புள்ளி into a comma, and the recogniser should not be relied on to punctuate Tamil of its own accord. Finish the paragraph, press Stop dictating, then put the marks in from the keyboard before you copy.

Windows 11 voice typing works differently. Microsoft’s Tamil command list accepts the Tamil names, காற்புள்ளி for a comma and முற்றுப்புள்ளி or புள்ளி for a full stop, as well as English ones spoken in Tamil, such as கமா and ஃபுல்ஸ்டாப். For a question mark it takes கேள்விக்குறி or வினாக்குறி, and புதிய கோடு starts a new line.

Tamil 99, Anjal or transliteration: typing Tamil by hand

There are three kinds of Tamil keyboard, and it helps to know which one you are choosing. Tamil 99 is a fixed layout approved by the Tamil Nadu government in 1999: you type consonant then vowel on an ordinary QWERTY keyboard. Anjal, from the Murasu Anjal software, maps each Tamil letter to the English keys that sound like it. Transliteration keyboards go a step further: you type a whole word in Latin letters, such as vanakkam, and pick வணக்கம் from the suggestions.

• Windows 11: Settings, Time & language, Language & region, Add a language, Tamil. Tamil 99 is the default keyboard; Tamil Anjal, the Tamil phonetic keyboard (type by sound, pick from suggestions) and the older Tamil INSCRIPT layout can be added from the language’s options. Switch with Windows key + Space.
• macOS: System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input, Edit, then the add button and Tamil. Apple lists Anjal, Tamil 99 and transliteration input sources. Switch from the Input menu in the menu bar or with Control-Space.
• iPhone and iPad: Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards, Add New Keyboard, Tamil. Apple lists Anjal, Tamil 99 and alphabetic Tamil keyboards.
• Android: in Gboard, open Settings, Languages, Add keyboard, choose Tamil and pick a layout. Gboard has offered Tamil with transliteration since 2017, so you can type Tamil words in Latin letters and choose the Tamil suggestion.

Tamil dictation in Google Docs, Gboard, Windows and on Apple devices

Tamil speech recognition is available on some platforms and missing on others, and a Tamil keyboard being installed does not tell you which.

• Google Docs: Tools, then Voice typing, in a current version of Chrome, Edge or Safari on a computer. The language list includes Tamil (India), Tamil (Malaysia), Tamil (Singapore) and Tamil (Sri Lanka). Google says its voice commands work only in English, so Tamil punctuation is added by hand there too.
• Gboard on Android: Google added Tamil voice typing for India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia in 2017. Add Tamil as a Gboard language, tap the microphone, and check that Tamil is the language shown before you speak.
• Windows 11: voice typing (Windows key + H) lists Tamil (India). It follows your input language, so switch the keyboard to Tamil with Windows key + Space first. Its Tamil punctuation commands are described in the punctuation section above.
• iPhone, iPad and Mac: Apple’s current feature lists include Tamil keyboards but do not list Tamil for Dictation, so the microphone key on Apple’s keyboard will not transcribe Tamil speech. On a Mac, use this page in Chrome or Edge, or Google Docs.

ழ, doubled consonants and Grantha letters: what to check

Some Tamil spellings cannot be told apart reliably by ear, which makes them the first things to read for in a dictated paragraph.

• ல, ள and ழ; ர and ற; ந, ன and ண. Not every pair is kept apart in everyday speech, and the recogniser has only the sound and the rest of the sentence to go on. One swap changes the word: வலி is pain, வளி is air and வழி is a way.
• Doubled consonants where words meet. Written Tamil adds க், ச், த் or ப் at some word boundaries, as in இந்தப் பொங்கலுக்கு and வீட்டுக்குப் போகிறோம் in the sample, not இந்த பொங்கலுக்கு or வீட்டுக்கு போகிறோம். A missing one counts as a spelling mistake in formal Tamil, so check them in anything official.
• Grantha letters and house style. Some writers avoid ஜ, ஷ, ஸ and ஹ where a native spelling exists: Tamil Wikipedia titles January சனவரி and gives ஜனவரி as the alternative. Whichever spelling comes back, change it if your school, office or publication uses the other.
• Background Tamil. A Tamil film or serial playing in the room competes directly with you, because the recogniser is listening for exactly that language. Pause it before you start, or its dialogue can end up in your text.

Tamil in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia

Tamil is the official language of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of India’s constitution. The 2011 Census of India counted 69,026,881 people with Tamil as their mother tongue, about 5.7 per cent of the population. It is an official and national language of Sri Lanka alongside Sinhala, one of the four official languages of Singapore, and spoken by a large community in Malaysia. In 2004 it became the first language the Indian government recognised as a classical language.