ං — binduva
«binduva» is sign of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “bindu (nasal n)”. A nasal “n/ng” hum after the vowel: කං — “kan(g)”. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. A dot above the line. The very name of the language is written with it: සිංහල — “sinhala”. On a carrier the character looks like this: කං. It appears, for example, in the word “සිංහල” — Sinhala.
In short
| Character | ං |
| Name | binduva |
| Sound | bindu (nasal n) |
| What it is | sign |
| On the carrier | කං |
In our course the character comes 75th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ් and ඃ, appears in 108 words of this site.
How it sounds
A nasal “n/ng” hum after the vowel: කං — “kan(g)”
The character in the “hal, bindu and visarga” group
Three signs that are not vowels. Hal kirima removes the vowel altogether, the bindu adds a nasal shade, the visarga has remained from Sanskrit.
Words with this character
- සිංහලsiṁhalaSinhala
- ලංකාවlaṁkāvaSri Lanka
- ඉංගිරිසිiṁgirisiEnglish (language)
- බැංකුවbæṁkuvabank
- මං එනකන් ඉන්නmaṁ enakan innawait for me
- ඉංජිනේරුiṁjinēruengineer
- මීටිං එකmīṭiṁ ekameeting
- පදිංචි වීමේ බලපත්රයpadiṁci vīmē balapatrayaresidence permit
- බැංකු ගිණුමbæṁku giṇumabank account
- බෝඩිං පාස් එකbōḍiṁ pās ekaboarding pass
- නැංගුරමnæṁguramaanchor
- මට බෝරිංmaṭa bōriṁI'm bored
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound, see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 76 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Sinhala character ං read?
As “bindu (nasal n)” — it is sign of the “the Sinhala script” script. A nasal “n/ng” hum after the vowel: කං — “kan(g)”.
What is the letter ං called?
Binduva. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “binduva” and reads as “bindu (nasal n)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ං be confused with?
A dot above the line. The very name of the language is written with it: සිංහල — “sinhala”. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.