පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන්
“පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන්” (poḍi poḍḍen) — bit by bit in Sinhala. Adverb, level B1. The familiar 'small', doubled with the -en tail. The familiar 'little by little' the course keeps for gradualness: there about the order of steps, here about the smallness of the portion. In a live sentence: “සල්ලි පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන් එකතු කරනවා” — Bit by bit I'm saving money. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ප, ො, ඩ, ි, ප, ො, ඩ, ්, ඩ, ෙ, න, ්.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන් |
| Read in Latin letters | poḍi poḍḍen |
| Translation | bit by bit |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | B1 |
- පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන්poḍi poḍḍenbit by bit
Why it looks that way
The familiar 'small', doubled with the -en tail. The familiar 'little by little' the course keeps for gradualness: there about the order of steps, here about the smallness of the portion
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.
- සල්ලි පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන් එකතු කරනවාsalli poḍi poḍḍen ekatu karanavāBit by bit I'm saving money
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 “bit by bit” in Sinhala?
«පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන්», read “poḍi poḍḍen”. In a live sentence: “සල්ලි පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන් එකතු කරනවා” — Bit by bit I'm saving money. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adverb, level B1; written with the characters ප, ො, ඩ, ි, ප, ො, ඩ, ්, ඩ, ෙ, න, ්.
How is “පොඩි පොඩ්ඩෙන්” written in Latin letters?
poḍi poḍḍen. 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 familiar 'small', doubled with the -en tail. The familiar 'little by little' the course keeps for gradualness: there about the order of steps, here about the smallness of the portion. 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.