දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට
“දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට” (dækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭa) — according to a witness in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'so, as the seeing person said': there's no separate word for a witness, and Sinhala describes him with a participle of the familiar see. In a live sentence: “දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට වාහන දෙකක් තිබුණා” — According to a witness, there were two cars there. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට |
| Read in Latin letters | dækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭa |
| Translation | according to a witness |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහටdækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭaaccording to a witness
Why it looks that way
Literally 'so, as the seeing person said': there's no separate word for a witness, and Sinhala describes him with a participle of the familiar see
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට වාහන දෙකක් තිබුණාdækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭa vāhana dekak tibuṇāAccording to a witness, there were two cars there
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “according to a witness” in Sinhala?
«දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට», read “dækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭa”. In a live sentence: “දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට වාහන දෙකක් තිබුණා” — According to a witness, there were two cars there. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ද, ැ, ක, ්, ක, ක, ෙ, න, ා, ක, ි, ය.
How is “දැක්ක කෙනා කියපු විදිහට” written in Latin letters?
dækka kenā kiyapu vidihaṭa. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'so, as the seeing person said': there's no separate word for a witness, and Sinhala describes him with a participle of the familiar see. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.