Today, as I said before, I'll talk about other ways to say 'no' and about the direct objects of verbs having to do with emotions.
I've said before that the way you usually say 'yes' in Malayalam is to repeat the main verb in a sentence. Similarly, to say 'no', we just use the negative form of that verb. Since most verbs in Malayalam are negated using ഇല്ല
illa anyway, we can usually use ഇല്ല by itself instead of the entire negative form of the verb. However, when we're responding to a question about whether we want something and saying 'no', then we instead use the negative form of that verb, i.e. വേണ്ട
vENDa.
A verb like വേണ്ട can take a direct object in accusative case even though the subject has to be in dative case. However, for some verbs that require the subject to be in dative case, the direct object (or at least, the direct object in the English equivalent) isn't necessarily in accusative case. For example, if you wanted to say 'I like him' in Malayalam, what you would literally say is 'I have a liking to/for him'. One way you could say this is എനിക്ക് അവന് ഒരു ഇഷ്ടം ഉണ്ട്
enikk avan oru ishTam uND(u). This could perhaps be ambiguous since both 'I' and 'him' are in dative case, so it could also mean 'he likes me' rather than 'I like him', although 'I like him' would probably be the more likely interpretation given the word order.
oru ishTam may also be pronounced more like
orishTam colloquially/when you're speaking casually or normally.
Another way you could say it that's not ambiguous is എനിക്ക് അവനോട് ഒരു ഇഷ്ടം ഉണ്ട്
enikk avanOT [oru ishTam]/[orishTam] uND(u). Here, അവനോട്
avanOT(u) is in sociative case, and this sentence can only mean 'I like him', not 'he likes me'. These are not the only ways you can say 'I like him'; you could also say 'I
felt a liking to him', i.e. എനിക്ക് അവന്/അവനോട് ഒരു ഇഷ്ടം തോന്നി.
enikk avan/avanOT oru ishTam thOnni. You could even just say എനിക്ക് അവന്/അവനോട് ഇഷ്ടമാ(ണ്).
enikk avan/avanOT ishTamaa(N(u)).
And so, when Pareekkutty asks Karuthamma whether she likes him, he says:
കറുത്തമ്മ, എന്നോട് ഇഷ്ടമാണോ?
karruththamma, ennOT ishTamaaNO?Next time, maybe I'll post a lesson about how to say 'only' and how to talk about whether there's any point to doing something.
