Two ways to say or-: Sinhala Grammar #48

 Ayubowan!

Today I will be going over three ways to express or. Let’s dive right in!

Let’s say that you are at the store, and the merchant asks you which kind of apple you want.

You may hear:

Do you want the red (colored) apples or the green (colored) ones?

Oyaa rathu paatha apple gediya one da kola paatha da?

ඔයා රතු පාට ඇපල් ගෙඩිය ඕනේ ද කොළ  පාට ද?

The basic structure of this is:

Item A or Item B

Item A da/ද  Item B da/ද?

Although this is one way of expressing this idea is, you can also use this way:

I can get a red apple. If not, I can get you a green one.

Rathu paata appel gediya  ganna puluwan nætham kola paata eka ganna puluwan.

රතු පාට අප්පෙල් ගෙඩිය ගන්න පුළුවන් නැතං කොළ පාට එක ගන්න පුළුවන්. 

The thing to note here is that, unlike in the English translation. This whole example is

one sentence instead of two ideas.

Let’s look at a few more examples of expressing this “or” concept:

What do you want to drink? Milk or water?

Oya monada bonna one da? Wathura da kiri da?

ඔයා මොනාද බොන්න ඕනේ? කිරි ද වතුර ද?

You can eat rice. If not, make an egg.

Bath kanna puluwan nætham bithara hadhanda.

බත් කන්න පුළුවන් නැතං බිතර හද්හන්න.

That's all for this lesson! If you have any questions or feedback, please leave comments 

down below! The next lesson will be uploaded on May 10th. 

Thank you for reading!