LingoflyWeather with nobody doing it: වහිනවා, අව්වයි, රස්නෙයි
English weather needs somebody to hold it up: "it is raining", "it is cold". Sinhala does without, and it has three ways. For example: “අද (ada) උදේ (udē) ඉඳන් (indan) වහිනවා” (vahinavā) — It has been raining since this morning. A rule from the Sinhala course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English weather needs somebody to hold it up: "it is raining", "it is cold". Sinhala does without, and it has three ways.
A bare verb: වහිනවා (vahinavā) ("it rains"), වහින්නේ නෑ ("no rain"). No word for rain stands in the sentence; the verb alone carries it.
A quality with -යි: අව්වයි (avvayi) ("sunny"), රස්නෙයි (rasneyi) ("hot"), සීතලයි (sītalayi) ("cold"). The negative goes as with any quality — නෑ (nǣ) after the bare shape: අද (ada) අව්ව (avva) නෑ (ada avva nǣ).
"There is no such thing": කාමරේ (kāmarē) හුළං නෑ (huḷaṁ nǣ) (kāmarē huḷaṁ nǣ) — "the room is stuffy", word for word "no air". The trap sits here: stuffiness is a shortage, not a quality. A forecast uses the present: හෙට (heṭa) වහිනවා (vahinavā) (heṭa vahinavā).
Table
| Way | Example | Translation | Negation |
|---|---|---|---|
| a bare verb | වහිනවා (vahinavā) | it rains | වහින්නේ නෑ |
| a feature with -යි | අව්වයි (avvayi) | it is sunny | අව්ව (avva) නෑ |
| a feature with -යි | රස්නෙයි (rasneyi) | it is hot | රස්නෙ නෑ |
| “no something” | හුළං නෑ (huḷaṁ nǣ) | it is stuffy | — |
| the -ලා state | වලාකුළින් වැහිලා (valākuḷin væhilā) | overcast | වලාකුළු (valākuḷu) නෑ |
| a forecast with -වි | හෙට (heṭa) වහියි (vahiyi) | tomorrow, probably, rain | හෙට (heṭa) වහින්නේ නෑ |
By example
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Weather with nobody doing it: how does it work in Sinhala?
English weather needs somebody to hold it up: "it is raining", "it is cold". Sinhala does without, and it has three ways.
What does it look like in a Sinhala example sentence?
“අද (ada) උදේ (udē) ඉඳන් (indan) වහිනවා” (vahinavā) (ada udē indan vahinavā) — It has been raining since this morning. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.