I heard: Sinhala Grammar #32

Ayubowan!

Today, we will learn to talk about things that we have heard. 

Take this sentence for example:

I heard that there is a new restaurant nearby.

In Sinhala, we would say:

I heard that there is a new restaurant nearby.

Mata æhunaa aluth hotalayi langayi thiyenna kiyala.

මට ඇහුනා අලුත් හොටලයි ලඟයි තියෙන්න කියල.

Like the structure we use when we talk about something someone

said, we must include kiyala. Let’s take a look at a sentence in the

present tense.

I heard that you are studying well.

Mata aehenewaa oya hondhin igenna gannawaa kiyala.

මට ඇහෙනවා ඔයා හොඳින් ඉගෙන ගන්නවා කියලා.

Another phrase you can use is ahala thiyennawaa, which means 

something along the lines of “have heard”. We covered this structure

in Lesson #30

Have you ever heard of the Avengers?

Avengers ahala thiyennawaada?

Avengers අහල තියෙන්නවාද? 

He has never heard of Bigfoot.

Eyata Bigfoot ahala thiyenne næ.

එයට Bigfoot අහල තියෙන්නේ නැ 

That’s all for this lesson! If you have any questions or comments,

leave them down below. Stay tuned for the next lesson on August 10th.

Thank you for reading!

Qualifying Nouns with Verbs: Sinhala Grammar #31

Ayubowan!

Today’s lesson is going to talk about using verbs as descriptors for nouns. 

Take this sentence as an example:

I ate the rice you made yesterday.

In Sinhala, there is a certain way you need to change the descriptive verb.

If we were to translate this sentence, it would be:

Oya iye hadapu bath kǣva.

ඔය ඊයේ හදපු බත් කෑවා.

Hadanna + pu = Hadapu

Kanna + pu = Kapu

Bonna + ipu = Bipu

Giya + pu= Giyapu

Evanna + pu= Evapu

Hopefully, seeing a few example verbs will give you a sense of the pattern. 

Let’s look at a few more examples to cement this idea. Giya is an irregular

verb, so it does not conjugate using the present tense.

The movie we watched was very good.

Api balapu movie eka harima hondayi.

අපි බලපු මොවිඑ හරිම හොඳයි.

The banana that she brought was rotten.

Eya genapu kessel gediya narakayi.

එය ගෙනාපු කෙස්සෙල් ගෙඩිය නරකයි 

That’s it for this lesson! If you have any questions or comments, please use

the comments down below. Stay tuned for the next lesson on July 26th.

Thanks for reading!