සමීප වෙනවා
“සමීප වෙනවා” (samīpa venavā) — to draw near in Sinhala. Verb, level B1. The bookish pair to the colloquial 'come near'. Sinhala splits these two not by sense but by register: in the paper and the sermon the bookish one, in the yard the other. In a live sentence: “නැව වරායට සමීප වුණා” — The ship drew near the port. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ස, ම, ී, ප, ව, ෙ, න, ව, ා.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | සමීප වෙනවා |
| Read in Latin letters | samīpa venavā |
| Translation | to draw near |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
- සමීප වෙනවාsamīpa venavāto draw near
Why it looks that way
The bookish pair to the colloquial 'come near'. Sinhala splits these two not by sense but by register: in the paper and the sermon the bookish one, in the yard the other
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.
- නැව වරායට සමීප වුණාnæva varāyaṭa samīpa vuṇāThe ship drew near the port
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 “to draw near” in Sinhala?
«සමීප වෙනවා», read “samīpa venavā”. In a live sentence: “නැව වරායට සමීප වුණා” — The ship drew near the port. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ස, ම, ී, ප, ව, ෙ, න, ව, ා.
How is “සමීප වෙනවා” written in Latin letters?
samīpa venavā. 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 pair to the colloquial 'come near'. Sinhala splits these two not by sense but by register: in the paper and the sermon the bookish one, in the yard the other. 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.