Ayubowan! Today I will be explaining some of the grammar found in Dialogue 1:
Going to the Movies. If you want to read the dialogue before reading this,
use this link: https://learnsinhalawithme.blogspot.com/2020/06/dialogue-1
Sikuraadata/සිකුරාදාට : The word for Friday in Sinhala is Sikuraada/සිකුරාදා.
In this sentence, you may have noticed that we added ta/ට to this word. This
is because we are using Sikuraada as a prepositional phrase: Do you want
to go to the movies on Friday.
Balanna yamu/: Yamu/යමු is what can call the invitational form of yanna/යන්න,
as we are inviting someone to come and see the movie with us. In my experiences
with Sinhala, the most common verb used in the invitational form is yamu, but you
can use this form with other verbs:
Infinitive form: Invitational form:
Kanna / කන්න Kamu / කමු
Bonna / බොන්න Bomu / බොමු
Karanna / කරන්න Karamu / කරමු
Balala thiyennawaa: This phrase is used to talk about experiences you have
had rather than actions you have taken. This means you would not use this if
someone asked you if you already washed the dishes that day and you wanted
to tell them that you already did. Instead, you would use this to answer a question
like: “Have you ever gone to Spain?”. In the future, I hope to write a lesson explaining
how to form past participles like Balala.
Baeluwata passe: This phrase directly translates to “After we have watched”.
To form this phrase with any other verb, you would take the past tense of the
verb and attach -ta/-ට to the end of the verb. For example, if you wanted to say,
“After I ate”, you would say kǣvata passe/ කෑවාට පස්සෙ.
I realize that these past two posts have been a little different, so I would like to
know what you think about these kinds of posts. Please let me know what you think
in this anonymous one-question poll so that I can figure out what kind of posts are helpful
for you guys.
https://forms.gle/YW8yfcXJcFHZhPGa9
As always, feel free to comment down below if you have any questions or comments.
Stay tuned for the next post on July 6th. Thank you for reading!
