Sinhala Grammar #1: Word Order: Sinhala vs. English

The Sinhala word order is a little different than the English word order.

Let’s take a look at a simple sentence: I eat red apples.

In Sinhala, that is:

මම රතු ඇපල් කනවා.                                                  

Mama rathu apple kanawaa.

Let’s take a closer look at the word order in both the English and Sinhala sentences.

I eat red apples.

මම රතු ඇපල් කනවා

Mama rathu apple kanawaa

Noun: A person, place, or thing. It is the subject of the sentence

Verb: The verb, or action, of the sentence

Object: The object of the sentence. In other words, the thing that the verb is acting on

Adjective: A word that describes a noun

The only other difference in word order I see is with adverbs:

Adverb: A word that describes a verb.

I go quickly.

Mama ikmanaṭa yannawa.

මම ඉක්මනට යන්නවා

Don’t worry about the words in the sentence. In this lesson, I’m just trying to
get the basics of word order. Let me know if you have any questions or if I
need to make a correction. Thanks for reading!