ඇය
“ඇය” (æya) — she in Sinhala. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. The bookish 'she'; speech calls men and women alike eyā. Æya survives in newspapers, songs and film credits. The letter æ is a 'wide a', closer to the vowel of 'cat'. In a live sentence: “ඇය කොළඹ ඉන්නවා” — She is in Colombo. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ඇ, ය. One of 26 words in the set “pronouns” in the Sinhala course.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | ඇය |
| Read in Latin letters | æya |
| Translation | she |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
- ඇයæyashe
Why it looks that way
The bookish 'she'; speech calls men and women alike eyā. Æya survives in newspapers, songs and film credits. The letter æ is a 'wide a', closer to the vowel of 'cat'
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.
- ඇය කොළඹ ඉන්නවාæya koḷamba innavāShe is in Colombo
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- මමmamaIThe very first word you can read in the script with no vowel signs at all: ma + ma. Two identical letters
- ඔයාoyāyouThe neutral 'you' between equals. Elders are addressed by kinship words or by title, never by this pronoun
- ඔහුohuheThe bookish 'he'. In conversation you'll hear eyā far more often — one word for both 'he' and 'she', with no gender at all
- අපිapiweOne form for everything: 'we with you' and 'we without you' are not distinguished. The same person gives the let's-form: yamu, 'let's go'
- මගේmagēmyFrom mama, 'I', with the possessive tail -gē. Every possessive in the course is built with it
- ඔයාගේoyāgēyourThe 'your' for an equal. For an elder it's obāgē, and in speech people generally dodge second-person pronouns altogether
- අපේapēourFrom api, 'we'. Shorter than you'd expect: the vowels melt together
- ඔබලාගේobalāgēyour (plural)The plural -lā plus the possessive -gē. The tails stack one onto another
- එයාගේeyāgēhis, herSpoken Sinhala has no gender: eyāgē works for a man and for a woman alike. For 'their' the plural tail comes along: eyālāgē
- තමන්ගේtamangēone's ownFrom thaman, 'self'. It does the job of English 'own': thamangē is one's own, eyāgē is someone else's
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “she” in Sinhala?
The bookish 'she'; speech calls men and women alike eyā. Æya survives in newspapers, songs and film credits. The letter æ is a 'wide a', closer to the vowel of 'cat'
- How do you say “our” in Sinhala?
From api, 'we'. Shorter than you'd expect: the vowels melt together
- How do you say “he” in Sinhala?
The bookish 'he'. In conversation you'll hear eyā far more often — one word for both 'he' and 'she', with no gender at all
- How do you say “one's own” in Sinhala?
From thaman, 'self'. It does the job of English 'own': thamangē is one's own, eyāgē is someone else's
- How do you say “your” in Sinhala?
The 'your' for an equal. For an elder it's obāgē, and in speech people generally dodge second-person pronouns altogether
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 “she” in Sinhala?
«ඇය», read “æya”. In a live sentence: “ඇය කොළඹ ඉන්නවා” — She is in Colombo. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters ඇ, ය.
How is “ඇය” written in Latin letters?
æya. 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?
The bookish 'she'; speech calls men and women alike eyā. Æya survives in newspapers, songs and film credits. The letter æ is a 'wide a', closer to the vowel of 'cat'. 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.