personalise

To personalize a noun just add 'kaaran' after it. Sometime the 'k' will be stressed. The last consonant sound (if any) of the noun is often omitted to have continuity.

paal = milk paalkkaaran = milk man

miin = fish miinkaaran = fish seller

pathram = news paper pathrakkaaran = fish seller

kata = shope katakkaaran = shop keeper

samaram* = strike samarakkaaran = person who do strike

krishi = agriculture krishikkaran = farmer

panam = money panakkaran = rich person

paattu = song paattukaaran = singer

All the above words represents a male person. To tell about a female person, use 'kaari' instead of kaaran.

panakkari = rich woman/girl

krishikkari = farmer(female)

katakkaari = shop girl

paattukaari = female singer

* samaram means strike. samaram cheyyuka = to strike. There are also activities called bandh which is a form of strike affects shopes, public, private transport, work etc. If a bandh is declaired by some political parties, the life stops in that country ( reagion) on that day. It was banned in Kerala, but still exists in another name harthaal. It has the same worse effect as bandh.

If you want to make it plural ( more than one person), use -kaar instead of -kaaran. It is the same for both gender. It is also common to add -kaarikal to make a feminine plural noun.

katakkaaran = shop keeper; kata* = shop

katakkaar = shop keepers

katakkaari = shop keeper (girl)

katakkaarikal = shop girls

* It is actually pronunced as kada in spoken malayalam.

Changing gender

Changing gender of other nouns (creatures) is also very easy. For example if you say, kaduva (= tiger) can be male or female. To specify the gender, you have to say,

pen kaduva = female tiger

aan kaduva = male tiger.

NOTE: here the 'n' sound in pen and aan is a bit nasal sound.

The above method can be applied to almost all creatures.