Where it lies: an ending instead of a preposition
Sinhala has no prepositions 'in' or 'at' — there is an ending. For native words in -ය and -ව it is -ේ: රෝහල → රෝහලේ ('at the hospital'), කුස්සිය → කුස්සියේ ('in the kitchen'), බැංකුව → බැංකුවේ ('at the bank'). For example: “මම ඔෆිස් එකේ ඉන්නවා” — I am at the office. A rule from the Sinhala course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Sinhala has no prepositions 'in' or 'at' — there is an ending. For native words in -ය and -ව it is -ේ: රෝහල (rōhala) → රෝහලේ ('at the hospital'), කුස්සිය (kussiya) → කුස්සියේ ('in the kitchen'), බැංකුව (bæṁkuva) → බැංකුවේ ('at the bank').
For borrowings that live with the tag එක (eka), the ending lands not on the word but on the එක itself: බස් එක (bas eka) → බස් එකේ (bas ekē), ඔෆිස් එක (ofis eka) → ඔෆිස් එකේ (ofis ekē). That is convenient: one form to memorize, එකේ (ekē), and it works with every English loanword at once.
-ට (-ṭa) stands apart: it is 'to where', direction. ගෙදර (gedara) — 'at home', ගෙදරට (gedaraṭa) — 'home'; රෝහලේ — 'at the hospital', රෝහලට (rōhalaṭa) — 'to the hospital'. English 'in/to' covers both senses, the Sinhala endings do not, and mixing them up means saying 'I am going at the hospital'.
The word ගෙදර is an exception met every day: it already means 'at home', and no -ේ is ever added to it.
Table
| Word | Where (-ේ) | To where (-ට) |
|---|---|---|
| රෝහල | රෝහලේ — at the hospital | රෝහලට — to the hospital |
| කුස්සිය | කුස්සියේ — in the kitchen | කුස්සියට — to the kitchen |
| ඔෆිස් එක | ඔෆිස් එකේ — at the office | ඔෆිස් එකට — to the office |
| ගෙදර | ගෙදර — at home | ගෙදරට — home |
By example
- මම ඔෆිස් එකේ ඉන්නවාmama ofis ekē innavāI am at the office
- අපි රෝහලට යනවාapi rōhalaṭa yanavāWe are going to the hospital
- යතුර මේසය උඩ තියෙනවාyatura mēsaya uḍa tiyenavāThe key lies on the table
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
Where it lies: how does it work in Sinhala?
Sinhala has no prepositions 'in' or 'at' — there is an ending. For native words in -ය and -ව it is -ේ: රෝහල → රෝහලේ ('at the hospital'), කුස්සිය → කුස්සියේ ('in the kitchen'), බැංකුව → බැංකුවේ ('at the bank').
What does it look like in an example sentence Sinhala?
“මම ඔෆිස් එකේ ඉන්නවා” (mama ofis ekē innavā) — I am at the office. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.