Sinhala grammar
Sinhala grammar explained in plain words. No grammatical gender in everyday speech, free word order. What is harder: a script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language.
Notes
- 📐The verb always comes lastSinhala builds a sentence as subject → object → verb. English 'I drink water' becomes 'I water drink': මම වතුර බොනවා.
- 📐The verb does not change for personGood news next to the script: spoken Sinhala does not conjugate the verb. 'I go', 'you go', 'we go' — everywhere the…
- 📐A question is the particle දTo get a question, -ද (-da) is added to a word. There is no separate word order for a question, and intonation is not…
- 📐No gender, but animate and inanimateNouns are not divided into genders, there are no articles, and the linking verb 'to be' is not pronounced at all in the…
- 📐Two Sinhalas: spoken and literaryThe main feature of the language worth knowing at once: Sinhala is spoken and written differently, and the two…
- 📐Comparison: “than” stands before වඩාSinhala adjectives have no comparative form. ලොකු is 'big', and no 'bigger' can be squeezed out of it. Instead the word…
- 📐Animate and inanimate: two “there is” and two pluralsEnglish sorts nouns by gender rarely and grudgingly; Sinhala sorts every noun into animate and inanimate, and the sort…
- 📐Where it lies: an ending instead of a prepositionSinhala has no prepositions 'in' or 'at' — there is an ending. For native words in -ය and -ව it is -ේ: රෝහල → රෝහලේ…
- 📐The past tense: the verb finally changesThe present of spoken Sinhala is learned in a minute: one form in -නවා for all persons. The past is where the work…
- 📐Requests and address: better not touch the pronounsA request in Sinhala is built with the ending -න්න: කියන්න ('say'), දෙන්න ('give'), ඉන්න ('wait'). It is already polite…
- 📐The future: the present plus “tomorrow”The first piece of news is pleasant: spoken Sinhala almost has no separate future tense. The form in -නවා covers both…
- 📐To me, to you, him: a pronoun with an endingThere are no separate words for 'to me', 'me', 'my' in Sinhala — there are three endings on one stem. Learn them once…
- 📐Definiteness: no article, but the difference existsSinhala has no articles, yet the language does draw the line between 'some' and 'the very one' — with the ending of…
- 📐The plural: shorter for things, longer for the animateThe rule unit six introduced is taken to its end here, because from A2 on the plural is needed every day. The main…
- 📐Need, can, must not: ඕන, පුළුවන්, බෑModality in Sinhala rests on three words, and all three stand at the end of the sentence, after the verb. The verb…
- 📐This, that and that over there: මේ, ඒ, අරEnglish manages with 'this' and 'that' — two. Sinhala has three, and the third is not decoration: මේ is what is in my…
- 📐My, your, mother’s: the ending -ගේSinhala has no separate words for 'my', 'your', 'his'. There is one ending, -ගේ, which hangs on anyone: මම → මගේ 'my'…
- 📐Very, a little, probably: degree and appraisalDegree in Sinhala is carried by a word placed before the feature, and there are exactly as many of them as a person…
- 📐Not “I” but “to me”: impersonal turnsHalf of what English says through 'I', Sinhala says through 'to me' — through the -ට form. This is not a rarity and not…
- 📐Two thoughts in one sentence: නිසා, නම්, කොට, කියලාUntil now every phrase stood alone. To tie two together, English puts the conjunction between them ('I was late because…
- 📐No relative clause: a participle insteadThe English 'the man who works at the bank' is two sentences stitched by the word 'who'. Sinhala has no such word at…
- 📐Much, little, all, about: exactly how muchQuantity in Sinhala is shown by a word before the noun — there are no cases and no agreement here, which is good news.…
- 📐If: නම් and the ending -ොත්A condition in Sinhala is built in two ways, and both stand at the end of the clause, not at the beginning like English…
- 📐As, than, just as: comparison of a whole phraseThe comparative has been covered: මේක ඒකට වඩා ලාභයි — 'this is cheaper than that'. Now the same, but not for one word…
- 📐The most: the tag -මThe superlative in Sinhala is made with a single letter. The feature takes -ම, and 'the most' appears: හොඳ 'good' →…
- 📐Who did it does not matter: verb pairs and the literary passiveWhen the doer is unknown or uninteresting, English reaches for the passive voice ('the door was opened', 'the flight…
- 📐Someone else’s words: කියලා closes everything saidReported speech in Sinhala is arranged the reverse of English. English puts 'that' before the quoted words; Sinhala…
- 📐Already, still, while: duration and completionSo far the verb answered 'when': කරනවා, කළා, කරයි. But more often another thing is needed — is it already done, or…
- 📐Probably, hardly, certainly: how sure you areAbout 'need' and 'can' you already know: ඕන, පුළුවන්, බෑ. But modality has a second half — not permission but…
- 📐Two thoughts and a linker between them: where it standsA complex sentence is not a list of conjunctions but a question of place. English puts the conjunction between the two…
- 📐The feature: bare before a noun, with -යි as a predicateA Sinhala feature has two forms, and the choice between them is made not by meaning but by the place in the sentence.…
- 📐The feeling is given to me: මට instead of මමEnglish says 'I am afraid', 'I want', 'I understand' — with the subject 'I'. Sinhala speaks about a good half of the…
- 📐Kitchen forms: -න්න, -මු and එපාA recipe, a request at the table and an invitation to visit rest on three verb forms, and all three are made from the…
- 📐The tail -ලා: one action after anotherEnglish chains actions with 'and' or a participle: 'went into the shop and bought', 'having taken the receipt…
- 📐It broke by itself or someone broke it: -වෙනවා and -කරනවාTalk about breakdowns rests on one pair. -වෙනවා means it happened by itself; -කරනවා — that somebody did it. රත් වෙනවා…
- 📐Weather without a subject: වහිනවා, අව්වයි, රස්නෙයිEnglish weather demands a subject, if only an empty one: 'it rains', 'it is cold'. Sinhala manages without one, and it…
- 📐Where and to where: a tail on the noun and a word after itExplaining the way means arranging things relative to each other, and here Sinhala is the mirror image of English.…
- 📐Can, be able, know: පුළුවන්, බැහැ, දන්නවාThe English 'I can' covers two senses — ability and possibility — with one verb, and both demand the subject 'I'.…
- 📐About the future without a future tense: -නවා, -න්නම්, -විThe main thing to know about the Sinhala verb once plans come up: it has no future tense. There is the past (කළා, ගියා…
- 📐Three tails of conversation: -ද, -නේ, -කෝSinhala asks again, softens and reacts with tails alone. There are three of them, they are short, and without them…
- 📐ගොවියා, තරගකරු, පාන් හදන කෙනා: how a deed becomes a personUnit forty gives twenty professions, and half of them need not be memorized: they can be assembled. Sinhala makes the…
- 📐From where, from whom and with what: the tail -ෙන් and -ගෙන්The course knows two case tails: -ට ('to whom, to where') and -ේ ('where, whose'). Unit forty-one demands a third…
- 📐The name of an action: -ීම, “...න එක” and the literary -නයThe unit about society is almost entirely assembled from names behind each of which stands a verb: දූෂණය is 'they…
- 📐Two nouns in a row: පොත් කඩේ, කතා පුවත, ගායක කණ්ඩායමEnglish ties two nouns with 'of' or a preposition: 'a book shop', 'the scene in the theater'. Sinhala ties them with…
- 📐An English word in Sinhala: when එක is neededUnit forty-four is the most English one in the course: බාස්කට් බෝල්, වොලිබෝල්, ජිම් එක, ඩම්බෙල්, විසිල් එක, ෆිනිෂ් එක.…
- 📐ලීටර් දෙකක්: the measure first, the number after itUnit forty-five introduces the meter, the liter and the gram, and on the very first phrase the foreigner slips twice…
- 📐How it is done: -ව, -ෙන්, -ට and “ඇඟට හොඳයි”An English adverb is a ready-made word: 'by hand', 'automatically', 'harmful', 'in vain', 'with effort'. Sinhala has…
- 📐Four “no”s: නෑ, නෙවෙයි, නැති and නො-The course already knows නෑ and knows බෑ. The unit about argument demands two more, and without them one cannot…
- 📐What did not happen: “කිව්වා නම්” and “කරන්න තිබුණා”The real condition has been covered: -ොත් and නම් are about what may still happen. Unit forty-nine demands the other…
- 📐To whom one bows: වහන්සේ, හාමුදුරුවෝ and the polite pluralThe unit about faith raises a question European languages do not have: Sinhala keeps a separate tier of words for the…
- 📐ගොරෝසු, බිඳෙනසුලු, බරකම: five tails for describing a thingUnit fifty is the first in the course wholly about the property of an object. Before it the course could say 'big'…
- 📐උඩින්, උඩට, උඩ: three tails of place and why there are no prepositionsThe backbone tags 'across', 'amid', 'past' and 'through' with the mark prep, and the mark describes the English side of…
- 📐තුනෙන් එක, දෙගුණයකින්, ගෙඩියට: how Sinhala countsUnit fifty-two is the most arithmetic one in the course, and almost all of it is assembled from familiar numerals with…
- 📐වැඩේට බහිනවා, කල් ඇදෙනවා: phases and willThe backbone warns outright: for 'stop', 'complete', 'resume', 'set about', 'take up' and 'drag on' the mark verb…
- 📐ඔප්පු කිරීම, සොයාගැනීම, අත්කරගැනීම: the name of an action and the literary layerUnit fifty-four is more literary than the whole wave, and for a reason: Sinhala discusses neither thinking nor proof in…
- 📐දිනපතා, නිතිපතා, ඉඳහිට: how Sinhala says “how often”Unit fifty-five rests on four devices, and all of them are assembled from already familiar words. Twenty adverbs of…
- 📐වාහන දුම, කසළ ගොඩ, බඩු ලේඛනය: a name made of two namesThe units about nature and production are the most 'compound' in the course: almost every second word in them is glued…
- 📐When there is no word: a description instead of a termThe backbone warns about this unit outright: 'packaging', 'waybill', 'work shift', 'acceptance', 'timber', 'building…
- 📐කියලා: the one word on which all reported speech restsThe backbone tags all ten slots of the fifth lesson with phrase, and the mark describes the English side of the card.…
- 📐-කම, -ත්වය, -ශීලී: the name of a character and a person’s featureUnit fifty-nine is about the properties of a person, and it is assembled with the same tails with which unit fifty…
- 📐Āyubōvan and suba udǣsanak: what to say, and whenĀyubōvan literally means "may you live long", and any time of day will do; the hands fold in front of the chest as you…
- 📐Samāvenna and karuṇākara: an apology and a request are different wordsSamāvenna literally means "forgive me": in shape it is an imperative, but it lives as a ready-made exclamation. This is…
What is hard about Sinhala and what comes for free
Hard: a script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language.
Easy: no grammatical gender in everyday speech, free word order.
This is not a verdict on the language but a hint on where to spend effort. The hard parts are best taken a little at a time and often; the easy parts — left alone while they work by themselves.
Frequently asked
Is the grammar of Sinhala complicated?
A script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language is the main difficulty. In return, no grammatical gender in everyday speech, free word order.
Should grammar be learned separately?
Not as a separate course. A rule learned before you need it is forgotten before you meet it. It is more useful to work it out at the moment you stumble over it.