New Lessons January 6th!

Post moved from 10/25/21 to 11/01/21

In (location): Sinhala Grammar #56

Ayubowan!

Today we will be talking about describing the position of an object and continuing our discussion

of -wala from the last lesson.

I will start the lesson off with this table, as I think it will be a helpful way to learn this concept.

	Sinhala word	Foreign/Loan word
Singular	-e	-eka
Plural	-wala	-wala

Let’s practice this with the words Kaamaraya/කාමරය/Room and Car/කාර්

	Sinhala word	Foreign/Loan word
Singular	Kaamaraya/කාමරය  -> Kaamaraye/කාමරයේ	Car ekeyi/ කාර් එකට
Plural	Kaamaraya walata/කාමරය වලට	Car walata/ කාර් වලට

Now let’s use these words in a sentence to bring it all together:

My phone is in the room.

Mage phone eka kaamaraye thiyenawaa.

මගේ ෆෝන් එක කාමරයේ තියෙන.

The children sleep in the rooms.

ළමයි කාමර වලට නිධගනවා 

Lamayi kaamara walata nidhaganawaa.

There is a book in the car.

Pothak kar ekeyi thiyenawaa.

පොතක් කාර් එකෙයි තියෙනවා 

There are a lot of people in their cars.

Ada godak minisu car walata inawaa.

අද ගොඩක් මිනිසු කාර් වලට ඉනවා .

That’s all for this lesson! Stay tuned for the next lesson on November 1st.

~Wala (Part 1)- Speaking about events that repeat: Sinhala Grammar #55

Ayubowan everyone!

Today’s lesson will be about talking about events that repeat. Let’s get started!

I go to the store on Wednesdays.

This sentence is talking about an event that occurs repeatedly. In this case, the event 

is going to the store. 

In Sinhala, this sentence would be:

Mama badaadaa wala kade yanawaa.

මම බදාදා වල කඩේ යනවා.

I go to the store on Wednesdays.

I would like you to pay attention to badaadaa wala/ බදාදා වල, as it is the main 

point of this lesson.

Wala (වල) is a preposition that roughly translates to “on”. You can only use it when 

talking about plural things. In this case, the plural thing it is attached to is

badaadaa/ බදාදා/Wednesdays. You can use wala for the physical position of objects too, but I will cover that in the next lesson.

You can also use wala to talk about the past:

In those days, I walked home with my sister.

E davas wala mama akkath gedarata æviddaa.

ඒ දවස් වල මම අක්කත් ගෙදරට ඇවිද්දා.

Let’s look at a final example:

Decembers here are really cold.

Methanata desaember vala harima sitalayi.

මෙතනට දෙසැම්බර් වල හරිම සීතලයි.

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

comment down below. Stay tuned for the next lesson on October 11th.

Thank you for reading!

Purpose of an Action: Sinhala Grammar #54

 Ayubowan!

Today’s lesson is going to be about expressing the purpose of coming/going. 

Let’s jump right in!

I am going to the store to get rice.

Mama haal ganna kadhe yanawaa.

මම හාල් ගන්න කඩේ යනවා.

There are two parts to this kind of statement. One is your purpose and the other 

is your action of movement (coming/going/etc.).  The action verb is in the tense 

of your sentence (past/present/future), while the verb describing the purpose of 

your action is in the -nna form (Ganna: To get)

In the example above, I put the purpose first and then the action. You can reverse 

these two if you would like:

Mama kadhe yanawaa haal ganna.

මම කඩේ යනවා හාල් ගන්න.

Let’s look a few more examples:

I'm coming to your house to give this book to you.

Mama me poth oyaata dhenna oyaage gedara enawaa.

මම මේ පොත් ඔයාට ද්හෙන්න ඔයාගේ ගෙදර එනවා.

We went to the cinema to see the new movie.

Api aluth movii eka balanna sinema ekata giya.

අපි අලුත් මොවී එක බලන්න  සිනෙම එකට ගිය.

That’s all for this lesson! Feel free to leave any comments, questions, or corrections 

down below. I will have to pause my creation of lessons for a month, as university is

starting up again, so look forward to the next post on September 27th!

Thank you for reading!

Connecting Ideas (conjunctions, etc.): Sinhala Grammar Review

 

Concept	Sinhala	Conceptual translation
Because  (Lesson #14)	Mama bath kaeva hinda, mage bada ridunaa. මම බත් කෑව හින්ද, මගේ බද රිදුනා.	Because I ate rice, I got a stomach ache.
That is the reason (Lesson #42)	Mama bath kaeva. Eka hinda mage bada ridunaa. මම බත් කෑව. එක හින්ද මගේ බද රිදුනා	I ate rice. That’s why my stomach hurts.
And then (result of an action) (Lesson #36)	Mama bath kǣva, ethakota mage bada ridunaa. මම බත් කෑව එතකොට මගේ බද රිදුනා.	I ate rice and then my stomach hurt.
If not~  (Lesson #48)	Oyaa bath kanna pulwan, nætham roti thiyenawa. ඔයා බත් කන්න පුළුවන් නැතම් රොටි තියෙනවා	You can eat rice. If not (rice), there is roti.
Until~ (Lesson #44)	Mama bath kannakal, mata sellang karanna bae.	Until I eat my rice, I can’t play.
Even though (Lesson #24)	Mama bath kǣvath, eith badagini. මම බත් කැවත් එඉත් මට ධං බඩගිනි	I ate rice, but I’m still hungry. (I’m hungry now).

Verb Review Updated 07/19/21

 Ayubowan! 

The verb review has been updated with some more concepts that I have covered on this blog relating to verbs. Tune in on August 1st for the next post!

Verb Tenses: Grammar Review

This is a table of all the verb tenses that have been covered on the blog (with a few exceptions which I will post about later.) This list will be edited as I learn more ways to express ideas using verbs. Dashes indicate ideas that have not been covered yet or ideas that do not exist in Sinhala.

Next week, July 19th, I will be adding a table for the other verb modifications that did not really fit in with these tenses. Hope this is helpful and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

I apologize for the fact that this table is too large for the blog. It seems that if I try to make the table smaller on my original document, the table becomes larger and takes up the entire space of the blog 😅

I'll definitely be working on getting that fixed!

	Positive	Negative
Simple Present Lesson #3	I eat rice. Mama bath kanawaa. මම බත් කනවා.	I do not eat rice. Mama bath kanne nae. මම බත් කන්නේ නැ.
Simple Past Lesson #3	I ate rice. Mama bath kaeva. මම බත් කෑවා.	I did not eat rice. Mama bath kaeve nae. මම බත් කෑවේ නැ.
Present Continuous	I am eating rice (at the moment). Mama bath kanna. මම බත් කන්න.	-
Past Continuous	-	-
Future: With Certainty (Things you will do/ Things other people said they would do.) Lesson #52	I will eat rice. Mama bath kannam. මම බත් කන්නම්.	-
Future: Without Certainty  “Might” (Things other people will do/ Things other people or yourself might do. Lesson #53	He will eat rice Literally: He might eat rice. Eyaa bath kayi. එයා බත් කයි.	-
When + Action in the present Lesson #18 Lesson #19	When I do eat rice. Mama bath kanakota. මම බත් කනකොට.	When I don’t eat rice. Mama bath kanne nathikota. මම බත් කන්නේ නැතිකොට.
When + Action in the past Lesson #19	When I ate rice. Mama bath kaevahama. මම බත් කෑවහැම.	-
Imperative Lesson #10	Eat rice! Bath kanda. බත් කන්ඩ.	Don’t eat rice! Bath kanda epaa. බත් කන්ඩ එපා.
Invitational Dialogue #1: Grammar Points	Let’s eat rice! Bath kamu. බත් කමු.	-
Conditional Lesson #27	If I eat rice~ Bath kævoth~ බත් කෑවොත්~	If I don’t eat rice~ Bath kanne nætham බත් කන්නේ නැත්නම්
While~ Lesson #22	While I eat rice~ Bath kana gaman. බත් කන ගමන්.	-

Verb Modifications

I can/ cannot eat Lesson #6	Mata kanna bæ මට කන්න බැ  *-ta form of subject pronoun must be used
I want to eat Lesson #7	Mata kanna one *-ta form of subject pronoun must be used
I like eating Lesson #8	Mama kanna aasayi මම කන්න ආසයි
To start eating	Kanna patan ganawaa කන්න පටන් ගන්නවා
To finish eating	Kanna ivaraa කන්න ඉවරා
The rice that I ate Qualifying Nouns with Verbs: Lesson #31	Mama kapu bath. මම කපු බත්
I am planning to eat	Mama kanna hadanne. මම කන්න හදන්නේ