Sinhala Grammar #15: Instrument of Use

Today, we will be learning how to describe what tools we use in order to accomplish a goal.
The proper term for what we are learning today is ‘The ablative of instrument’, but that is not
really that important to know.

Let’s say you want to tell someone that you eat your rice and curry with your hands instead of
a fork. You might say:

Mama athin kanawaa.

මම අතින් කනවා.

I eat with my hands

The Sinhala word for hand is ‘atha/අත’. All we had to do was replace the ‘a’ sound with an
‘in’ sound.

Let’s look at another example:

I write with a pen.

Mama paenakin liyanawaa.

මම පෑනකින්  ලියනවා

The Sinhala word for pen is ‘paena’. All that was done was that ‘kin’ was added to the end
of the word. I think that reason that ‘paenain’ or ‘athkin’ aren’t correct is probably because
they both sound kind of strange. I think that as we practice this concept, which suffix we use
will be more intuitive, but for now, I’m going to try to come up with some rules to
navigate this.

If the word ends with ‘tha’, ‘dha’, ‘bha’ sounds, take away the ‘a’ sound and add ‘in’ 

All other words can have ‘kin’ added to the end