Telugu: write what you hear విన్నదే రాయి

In English, 'though', 'through' and 'tough' all end differently than they look. Telugu rarely plays such tricks: there is almost one symbol per sound and one sound per symbol. If you can say it, you can spell it, and if you can read it, you can say it.

The vowel signs are systematic too. The mark that turns క into కా turns ప into పా and మ into మా in exactly the same way. Learn the pattern once and it pays off across every consonant — that's the whole idea behind the guninthalu page.

This is why Telugu reading clicks suddenly rather than slowly: the moment the system clicks, thousands of words open up at once.