Sinhala
Sinhala — Indo-European family, about 17 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Sinhala script: rounded signs where a vowel is written as a mark on the consonant. This site has 4049 words and 76 letters with audio.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge — tell us and we will fix it.
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- ආයුබෝවන්āyubōvanhelloaa-yu-BOH-vun; the stress stays level — Sinhala barely uses any
- සුබ උදෑසනක්suba udǣsanakgood morningThe bookish greeting, but everyone knows it: hotels and the radio open with it. suba is 'auspicious', udǣsana is 'morning'
- ස්තූතියිstūtiyithank youstūtiyi — STOO-tee-yee, from the Sanskrit word for praise. It's often boosted: bohoma stūtiyi, 'many thanks', is the everyday strong version
- කොහොමද?kohomada?how are you?Literally just 'how?'. The particle -da at the end is the real question marker — the question mark only doubles it
- සමාවෙන්නsamāvennaexcuse meLiterally 'forgive me' — an imperative by shape, but it lives as a ready-made exclamation. To hail a stranger people more often just say ov or a polite title
- කරුණාකරkaruṇākarapleasekaruṇākara opens a request: 'kindly…'. It is never said in reply to 'thank you' — that slot belongs to other words
- ගිහින් එන්නම්gihin ennamgoodbyeLiterally 'I'll go and come back'. Shaped like two verbs, used as a set farewell — saying 'I'm off' without adding 'I'll be back' is considered bad luck
- ටිකක් අඩු කරන්න පුළුවන්ද?ṭikak aḍu karanna puḷuvanda?can you make it cheaper?Literally 'can you reduce it a little?'. Puḷuvanda is 'can you' — the universal polite wrapper for any request
How it sounds
Five words spoken aloud: click the speaker and pick the translation. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.
- What is this word?
It is ආයුබෝවන් (āyubōvan) — hello.
- What is this word?
It is කරුණාකර (karuṇākara) — please.
- What is this word?
It is අපි (api) — we.
- What is this word?
It is ඉංගිරිසි (iṁgirisi) — English (language).
- What is this word?
It is හොඳයි (hondayi) — fine, well.
About the language
| Native name | සිංහල · siṁhala |
| Official in | Sri Lanka |
| Also spoken in | the UAE, Italy and Australia |
| How many speakers | about 17 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Indo-European family, Indo-Aryan group |
| Writing | the Sinhala script: rounded signs where a vowel is written as a mark on the consonant |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: a script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language.
Easy: no grammatical gender in everyday speech, free word order.
What Russian speakers most often take it up for: living and working in Sri Lanka, long winter stays, family.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the rarer its repetitions should be. To hold it for a week, review every day; to hold it for a year, about once a month.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20% of the target interval on a horizon of weeks, and 5–10% on a horizon of a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- Pay someone to study and they study less, not more. Praise and a clear explanation of their mistakes do the opposite — they help.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. Material reward: d = −0.40 for taking part, −0.36 for finishing. Praise and feedback: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Sinhala?
With the script: 76 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak it in Sinhala?
About 17 million speakers — an estimate from Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Sinhala hard?
A script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language. At the same time, no grammatical gender in everyday speech, free word order.
Where is it spoken in Sinhala?
An official language in: Sri Lanka. Noticeable communities: the UAE, Italy and Australia.
Is Sinhala in Duolingo?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Duolingo’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Sinhala in full: 4049 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.