Ayubowan! (Hello!)
I’m so excited to be back to making lessons!
Since this website has gotten a lot of new visitors recently, I thought that it might be
helpful to have a list of basic Sinhala greetings and introductory sentences.
Let’s get started!
Hello (Formal)
Ayubowan
ආයුබෝවන්
In Sri Lanka, it is pretty common to use the English word “Hello” in Sri Lanka as well,
especially in casual settings.
How are you?
Oyata kohoma da?
ඔයාට කොහොම ද?
You can also just say “Kohomada? කොහොම ද?”
I am fine.
Mama hondin innawaa.
මම හොඳින් ඉන්නවා.
This literally means, “I’m in a state of being good”.
Thank you (Formal)
Sthuthiyi
ස්තූතියි
If you are not in a formal setting-you are more likely to hear the English, “Thank you”
Goodbye!/ We’ll meet again!/I will go and come back!
Mama gihila ennanm.
මම ගිහිලා එන්නම්
If you are saying goodbye to someone that you know (friend, family, acquaintance),
you are likely to hear this phrase. It literally means, “I’ll go and come back”. For Sri Lankans,
It sounds a little bit sad to just say goodbye, as it implies not seeing each other again.
This concludes this short vocab lesson! Make sure to tune in for the next post on June 8th
at 12AM PDT. I am in the process of trying to add audio to these lessons, so that you can
practice the pronunciation. In the meanwhile, I would recommend plugging these sentences
into Google translate's speaking feature. I’ll be sure to send an update if and when I manage
to add them on.
Thank you for reading!
Mama gihila ennanm!
