In particular we have focused on the following areas: Verb classes: Most English-Tamil dictionaries do not give verb classes, but without this information, non-Tamils cannot know how to predict the various tense forms of the Tamil verb. Because Tamil verb classification is more complex for the spoken forms, we have adapted the verb-classification system of Graul to serve both for the Literary Tamil forms, and the Spoken Tamil Forms. Spoken Tamil: No English-Tamil dictionaries give information about spoken Tamil, which non-Tamils need to know in order to communicate with Tamils in the language most of them use in almost all situations involving natural communication with other Tamils. In the electronic form (on the DVD) the spoken example sentences are also given in sound files to give a better idea of what the language sounds like as spoken by mother-tongue speakers. Example Sentences: Currently extant English-Tamil dictionaries give few if any example sentences illustrating the morphological and/or syntactic frames that verbs occur in. These are all given in both written and spoken Tamil form. Modern Usage: Most extant English-Tamil dictionaries are now seriously out of date, since their compilers have often simply replicated the data found in previous dictionaries, so the forms in them are often stilted or archaic. Syntactic Complexity of the Verb Phrase: Because the Tamil verb is morphologically complex, and the verb phrase therefore syntactically very complex, we decided to focus only on the Tamil verb.