Let us see about plurals in Tulu. 

In Tulu language plural form of a word is achieved by adding suffixes -ḷu, -kkuḷu, -ṅkuḷu at the end of the word. For example

SINGULAR - PLURAL
  • Akshara - aksharoḷu (letters)
  • Jana - Janakkuḷu (people)
  • Vēda - Vēdoṅkuḷu (Vēdas)
Please note that the suffix -ḷu & -ṅkuḷu can be interchanged. So in spoken Tulu only -ḷu is used to form plural. In standard form of Tulu we have to use -ṅkuḷu as much of possible. It makes a sentence beautiful. 

It is difficult to say where exactly we have to use -ḷu, -kuḷu & -ṅkuḷu. To understand this we have to go through examples. 

The suffix -kuḷu is used to form a plural. Let us see some examples regarding this:
  • Jōv - Jōvkuḷu (children)
  • Mara - Marakkuḷu (trees)
  • Pū - Pūkuḷu (flowers)
  • Tine - Tinekkuḷu (paddies)
  • aikuḷu/akuḷu (those). 
These are the some examples. The -kuḷu is also rarely used suffix. In some dialects ḷa phoneme was lost, so the ḷa in the suffixes replaced with la.