ට — murdhaja-ta-yanna
«murdhaja-ta-yanna» is a consonant of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “tta”. Hard “ta” with the tongue curled back — as in English “table”. For example, in the word “කඩේ” — shop. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The pair to ත: ට is hard, “thick”; ත is soft, dental. The difference changes the meaning. It appears, for example, in the word “මට තේරෙන්නේ නෑ” — I don't understand.
In short
| Character | ට |
| Name | murdhaja-ta-yanna |
| Sound | tta |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 32nd of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ඦ and ඨ, appears in 752 words of this site.
How it sounds
Hard “ta” with the tongue curled back — as in English “table”
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- කඩේkaḍēshop
The character in the “twenty consonants of “pure sinhala”” group
Shuddha sinhaala is what native words are written with. Having learned these twenty, you read almost any sign: everything else in the script is needed for Sanskrit and Pali borrowings.
Words with this character
- මට තේරෙන්නේ නෑmaṭa tērenne nǣI don't understand
- අටaṭaeight
- දකුණටdakuṇaṭato the right
- වමටvamaṭato the left
- ටුක් ටුක්ṭuk ṭuktuk-tuk
- ටැක්සිṭæksitaxi
- හෙටheṭatomorrow
- කවුන්ටරයkavunṭarayacounter
- මිල ටැගයmila ṭægayaprice tag
- වට්ටමvaṭṭamadiscount
- රිසිට් එකrisiṭ ekareceipt
- ටිකක් අඩු කරන්න පුළුවන්ද?ṭikak aḍu karanna puḷuvanda?can you make it cheaper?
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 (for «murdhaja-ta-yanna» it is “tta”, as in the word “කඩේ”), 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 ට read?
As “tta” — it is a consonant of the “the Sinhala script” script. Hard “ta” with the tongue curled back — as in English “table”. For example, in the word “කඩේ” — shop.
What is the letter ට called?
Murdhaja-ta-yanna. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “murdhaja-ta-yanna” and reads as “tta”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ට be confused with?
The pair to ත: ට is hard, “thick”; ත is soft, dental. The difference changes the meaning. 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.