ේ — dirga kombuva
«dirga kombuva» is diacritic of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “-ee”. Long “e”: කේ — “kee”. Kombuva plus a tail to the right. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. On a carrier the character looks like this: කේ. It appears, for example, in the word “මගේ නම” — my name is.
In short
| Character | ේ |
| Name | dirga kombuva |
| Sound | -ee |
| What it is | diacritic |
| On the carrier | කේ |
In our course the character comes 69th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ෙ and ෛ, appears in 474 words of this site.
How it sounds
Long “e”: කේ — “kee”. Kombuva plus a tail to the right
The character in the “pili — fourteen vowel signs” group
Shown on ක (ka): on its own a vowel sign is not written. From කා the “k” has to be subtracted in one’s head — and the very vowel the sign means remains. One of them, kombuva (ෙ), is written to the left of the letter although it sounds after it.
Words with this character
- මගේ නමmagē namamy name is
- ඔයාගේ නම මොකක්ද?oyāgē nama mokakda?what is your name?
- මට තේරෙන්නේ නෑmaṭa tērenne nǣI don't understand
- තේtētea
- ඕනේōnēto need, to want
- කඩේkaḍēshop
- ඊයේīyēyesterday
- උදේudēmorning
- මේක ගණන් වැඩියිmēka gaṇan væḍiyithis is expensive
- මම මේක ගන්නවාmama mēka gannavāI'll take it
- ග්රොසරි කඩේgrosari kaḍēgrocery store
- මේසයmēsayatable
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 “-ee” — it is diacritic of the “the Sinhala script” script. Long “e”: කේ — “kee”. Kombuva plus a tail to the right.
What is the letter ේ called?
Dirga kombuva. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “dirga kombuva” and reads as “-ee”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.