හෙම්බිරිස්සාව
“හෙම්බිරිස්සාව” (hembirissāva) — a cold in Sinhala. Noun, level A2. hem-bi-ris-saa-va; the doubled ss stretches and carries the word's stress. In a live sentence: “හෙම්බිරිස්සාවට උණු වතුර බොන්න” — For a cold, drink hot water. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters හ, ෙ, ම, ්, බ, ි, ර, ි, ස, ්, ස, ා. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | හෙම්බිරිස්සාව |
| Read in Latin letters | hembirissāva |
| Translation | a cold |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- හෙම්බිරිස්සාවhembirissāvaa cold
How to pronounce it
hem-bi-ris-saa-va; the doubled ss stretches and carries the word's stress
Why it looks that way
The only word the cold is called aloud. The bookish version is written on the pharmacy box
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.
- හෙම්බිරිස්සාවට උණු වතුර බොන්නhembirissāvaṭa uṇu vatura bonnaFor a cold, drink hot water
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 “a cold” in Sinhala?
«හෙම්බිරිස්සාව», read “hembirissāva”. hem-bi-ris-saa-va; the doubled ss stretches and carries the word's stress. In a live sentence: “හෙම්බිරිස්සාවට උණු වතුර බොන්න” — For a cold, drink hot water. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2; written with the characters හ, ෙ, ම, ්, බ, ි, ර, ි, ස, ්, ස, ා.
How is “හෙම්බිරිස්සාව” written in Latin letters?
hembirissāva. 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 only word the cold is called aloud. The bookish version is written on the pharmacy box. 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.