Learn Telugu

Your child speaks Telugu. Reading and writing it is the missing half.

COOLPHABETS teaches children to read and write all 52 Telugu letters by hand, with an on-device AI coach that checks every stroke.

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Spoken at home. Rarely written.

In Telugu families settled far from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, children usually speak the language well. It is what they hear at dinner, on calls with ammamma and tatayya, and every time they are told to finish their homework.

Reading and writing is different. Nobody picks up a script by listening. It takes a page, a pencil and someone patient, and most weeks there is no time for any of the three.

Many parents tell us this is the part that worries them most. A child who cannot read Telugu cannot read a letter from a grandparent, a wedding card, or the name on the family home. And if one generation skips the script, the next has nobody at home to learn it from.

Most language apps

  • Teach speaking and listening
  • Tap the right answer
  • Made for someone starting from zero

COOLPHABETS

  • Teaches reading and writing
  • Write every letter by hand
  • Made for children who already speak it at home
The alphabet

The Telugu alphabet: 52 letters your child will learn

Telugu has 16 vowels, called అచ్చులు (achchulu), and 36 consonants, called హల్లులు (hallulu). COOLPHABETS starts at అ and works through every one.

Vowels అచ్చులు 16

  • అ a
  • ఆ ā
  • ఇ i
  • ఈ ī
  • ఉ u
  • ఊ ū
  • ఋ ru
  • ౠ rū
  • ఎ e
  • ఏ ē
  • ఐ ai
  • ఒ o
  • ఓ ō
  • ఔ au
  • అం am
  • అః aha

Consonants హల్లులు 36

  • క ka
  • ఖ kha
  • గ ga
  • ఘ gha
  • ఙ nga
  • చ cha
  • ఛ chha
  • జ ja
  • ఝ jha
  • ఞ nya
  • ట Ta
  • ఠ Tha
  • డ Da
  • ఢ Dha
  • ణ Na
  • త ta
  • థ tha
  • ద da
  • ధ dha
  • న na
  • ప pa
  • ఫ pha
  • బ ba
  • భ bha
  • మ ma
  • య ya
  • ర ra
  • ల la
  • వ va
  • శ sha
  • ష Sha
  • స sa
  • హ ha
  • ళ La
  • క్ష ksha
  • ఱ Ra

A capital letter marks a sound made with the tongue curled back, as in Ta and Da. A line over a vowel means it is held longer.

Telugu alphabet chart: 16 vowels, 36 consonants, each with how to say it The Telugu alphabet chart All 52 letters on one page. Open it to save or print for the fridge door.
The hard parts

What makes Telugu hard to write

These are the four places where children, and adults coming back to the script, most often get stuck.

  1. Curves everywhere

    English print is mostly straight lines and circles. Telugu letters are loops and curves that turn back on themselves, so a child who learned English first has to train a new movement in the hand.

  2. The tick on top

    Most consonants wear a small tick called the talakattu (తలకట్టు). It is part of the letter, and it gives way when certain vowel signs are attached, as when క becomes కి.

  3. Look-alike pairs

    One small stroke is all that separates ప from వ, ద from ధ, and బ from భ. Children mix these up when reading and when writing.

  4. Letters that stack

    A consonant can be written small beneath another. The word అమ్మ (amma, mother) has its second మ tucked under the first. Words and sentences in the app are where these come into practice.

First words

Five Telugu words to write first

Short, familiar, and each one practises something from the list above.

  • అమ్మ amma mother

    The second మ is written small, under the first.

  • నాన్న nanna father

    The same stacking, this time with న.

  • ఇల్లు illu house

    A doubled ల, and a u sign at the end.

  • పాలు paalu milk

    The long ā sign changes the top of ప.

  • పువ్వు puvvu flower

    Two u signs and a doubled వ in one short word.

"My kids hated going to language school. It felt like 'forced homework'. I'm glad we discovered COOLPHABETS."

Sowmya Ramanan, Parent of two. New York City.
How it works

One letter at a time, written by hand.

  1. 1

    Watch. The letter draws itself, stroke by stroke, in the right order.

  2. 2

    Write. Your child writes it with a finger. No tapping on answers, no typing.

  3. 3

    Get checked. CoolphaSense scores the strokes they actually made, on the device.

  4. 4

    Hear it. A native voice says the letter. Or yours, if you record it.

After the letters come words, sentences and games. See everything COOLPHABETS does.

Questions

What Telugu parents ask us

My child speaks Telugu but cannot read a word. Where do we start?

At the first vowel, అ. The app goes through the 16 vowels and then the 36 consonants, one letter at a time, before moving on to words and sentences. Speaking the language already is a head start: your child knows the sounds and only has to meet the shapes.

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