Questions

Sinhala Lesson 9 (Questions and Misunderstanding)

Duration: 30 mins

Lessons Sinhala Lessons
Linguistic Sinhala Vocabulary
Culture Sinhala Phrases
Structure Sinhala Grammar

This 9th lesson teaches an important aspect in Sinhala which is the interrogative form also called questions. In addition, there is a list of vocabulary terms about misunderstanding and finally some commonly used phrases. I will try to give examples using both vocabulary and grammar. That way it will be easy for you to see the words when they are separate and when they are in a sentence. Going through the whole page should take about 30 min. Make sure to read the pronunciation and hear the audio as well. If you have any question about this course, please email me directly at Sinhala Classes.

Questions

Being able to ask questions is what makes us curious beings, which in turns broadens our knowledge. It is no different when it comes to learning Sinhala. You will always be asking questions, and the following are some tools to help you in that quest.

The following are the 5 Ws + "how" commonly used adverbs to express the interrogative form. Most likely, whenever a question needs to be asked, one of them should be used. The table contains 3 columns (English, Sinhala, and Audio). Make sure you repeat each word after hearing it by either clicking on the audio button or by reading the pronunciation. That should help with memorization as well as improving your pronunciation.

Interrogative Form in Sinhala

Questions Sinhala Audio
How?කොහොමද?
kohomada?
What?මොකක්ද?
mokakda?
When?කවදා/ කොයි වෙලේද?
kavadā/ koyi velēda?
Where?කොහෙද?
koheda?
Who?කවුද?
kavuda?
Why?ඇයි?
æyi?

Now we will try to implement the adverbs above into full Sinhala sentences. That way you will be able to use the word not only by itself but embedded in a structure.

Sinhala Questions in a Sentence

Can I come?මට එන්න පුළුවන්ද?
maṭa enna puḷuvanda?
Can I help you?ඔබට උදව් කරන්නද?
obaṭa udav karannada?
Can you help me?මට උදව් කරනවද?
maṭa udav karanavada?
Do you know her?ඔයා ඇයව දන්නවද?
oyā æyava dannavada?
Do you speak English?ඔබ ඉංග්‍රීසි කතා කරනවාද?
oba iṁgrīsi katā karanavāda?
How difficult is it?ඒක කොයිතරම් අමාරුද?
ēka koyitaram amāruda?
How far is this?මේක කොයි තරම් දුරද?
mēka koyi taram durada?
How much is this?මේක කීයද?
mēka kīyada?
How would you like to pay?ඔයා ගෙවන්නට කැමති කොහොමද?
oyā gevannaṭa kæmati kohomada?
What is this called?මේකට කියන්නේ මොකක්ද?
mēkaṭa kiyannē mokakda?
What is your name?ඔයාගෙ නම මොකක්ද?
oyāge nama mokakda?
What time is it?දැන් වෙලාව කීයද?
dæn velāva kīyada?
When can we meet?අපට හමුවෙන්න පුළුවන් කවදාද?
apaṭa hamuvenna puḷuvan kavadāda?
Where do you live?ඔයා ජීවත් වෙන්නෙ කොහෙද?
oyā jīvat venne koheda?
Who is knocking at the door?දොරට තට්ටු කරන්නේ කවුද?
doraṭa taṭṭu karannē kavuda?
Why is it expensive?ඒක මිල අධික ඇයි?
ēka mila adhika æyi?

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact me using the Sinhala contact form on the header above.

Vocabulary List about Misunderstanding

There are times when you will not understand what a person said in Sinhala, or simply that you want them to repeat a word. The following are 24 expressions used to clear misunderstandings. Very essential to any conversation!

Misunderstanding in Sinhala

Misunderstanding Sinhala Audio
Can you repeat?ආයෙත් කියන්න පුළුවන්ද?
āyet kiyanna puḷuvanda?
Can you speak slowly?හෙමින් කියන්න පුළුවනිද?
hemin kiyanna puḷuvanida?
Did you understand what I said?මම කිවුව එක තේරුණාද?
mama kivuva eka tēruṇāda?
Don't worry!කරදර වෙන්න එපා!
karadara venna epā!
Excuse me? (i.e. I beg your pardon?)සමාවෙන්න
samāvenna
How do you say "OK" in French?ඔක්කොම හරි කියලා ප්‍රංශ භාෂාවෙන් කියන්නෙ කොහොමද?
""okkoma hari"" kiyalā praṁśa bhāṣāven kiyanne kohomada?
I don't know!මම දන්නේ නෑ!
mama dannē nǣ!
I don't understand!මට තේරෙන්නෙ නෑ!
maṭa tērenne nǣ!
I need to practice my Frenchමම ප්‍රංශ පුරුදු වෙන්න ඕන
mama praṁśa purudu venna ōna
Is that right?ඒක හරිද?
ēka harida?
Is that wrong?ඒක වැරදිද?
ēka væradida?
Mistakeවැරදීමක්
væradīmak
My French is badමගේ ප්‍රංශ හොඳ මදි
magē praṁśa hon̆da madi
No problem!ප්‍රශ්නයක් නෑ!
praśnayak nǣ!
Quicklyවේගයෙන්
vēgayen
Slowlyහෙමින්
hemin
Sorry (to apologize)මට සමාවෙන්න
maṭa samāvenna
To speakකථා කරන්නට
kathā karannaṭa
What does that word mean in English?ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ඒ වචනයේ තේරුම මොකක්ද?
iṁgrīsi bhāṣāven ē vacanayē tēruma mokakda?
What is this?මේ මොකක්ද?
mē mokakda?
What should I say?මම මොකක්ද කියන්න ඕන?
mama mokakda kiyanna ōna?
What?මොකක්ද?
mokakda?
What's that called in French?ප්‍රංශ භාෂාවෙන් ඒකට කියන්නේ මොකක්ද?
praṁśa bhāṣāven ēkaṭa kiyannē mokakda?
Write it down please!කරුණාකර මේක ලියාගන්න!
karuṇākara mēka liyāganna!

Daily Conversation in Sinhala

Finally, a list of some common phrases that you might come across from time to time. For a complete list of commonly used sentences, please visit our Sinhala Phrases page. Enjoy!

Common Expressions in Sinhala

English Sinhala Audio
Thisමේක
mēka
Thatඅරක
araka
Hereමෙහෙ
mehe
Thereඑහෙ
ehe
In The Morningඋදෑසන
udǣsana
In the eveningහැන්දෑවේ
hændǣvē
At Nightරාත්‍රියේ
rātriyē
Really!ඇත්තට!
ættaṭa!
Look!බලන්න!
balanna!
Hurry up!ඉක්මන් කරන්න!
ikman karanna!

Fun Facts

Language Quote: The oldest written language was believed to be written in about 4500 BC.

Congratulations! You finished your 9th lesson in Sinhala about questions, and misunderstanding. Are you ready for the next lesson? We recommend Sinhala Lesson 10. You can also simply click on one of the links below or go back to our Learn Sinhala homepage.

Lessons Sinhala Lessons
Linguistic Sinhala Vocabulary
Culture Sinhala Phrases
Structure Sinhala Grammar