Learn AksharaMalayalam reading guides
01 · VOWELS · FREE READING GUIDE

Malayalam vowels

13 vowel letters from the Malayalam course, with sound spellings and a recording for each. Learn to recognise the shapes before moving to attached vowel signs.

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Choose Listen beside an available recording. Audio plays only when you ask.

13 Malayalam vowel letters and sounds

The large character is an independent vowel. The English label and hint help you remember its sound; Listen plays the vowel itself. Example words connect the letter with vocabulary from the course.

Compare the sounds and shapes

Compare അ / ആ, ഇ / ഈ, ഉ / ഊ, എ / ഏ, and ഒ / ഓ. In this course, ae labels ഏ and oh labels ഓ. These are aids to remembering the recordings, not a request to add an English h sound.

The course also introduces ഋ with the label ri and ഔ with au. Practise these separately before mixing all the vowels together in a quiz.

Try one pair three ways: with both labels visible, with the labels covered, and in a different order. Replay only when you need to check yourself. This separates recognising a sound from remembering a card’s position.

Move from independent vowels to attached signs

An independent vowel and a vowel sign serve different reading roles. Compare them in the Malayalam vowel-sign chart: each row keeps the vowel beside a completed consonant–vowel form.

Return here whenever two signs feel confusing. Practise the vowel sounds first, then try the combined forms again.

Prepared by Learn Akshara from our beginner Malayalam curriculum. English spellings are approximate learning aids. Writing-system reference: The Unicode Standard, South Asian Scripts. Foundation audio is adapted from the University of Texas at Austin Malayalam course under CC BY 4.0; other clips use a synthetic male voice. See our audio sources and credits.