ගණන් හදනවා
“ගණන් හදනවා” (gaṇan hadanavā) — to work out in Sinhala. Verb, level A2. Literally 'to make the count'. The familiar 'to count' is counting in general, while this is summing up: at the shop they say it before naming the sum. In a live sentence: “ඔක්කොම ගණන් හදලා කියන්නම්” — I'll work it all out and tell you. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ග, ණ, න, ්, හ, ද, න, ව, ා.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | ගණන් හදනවා |
| Read in Latin letters | gaṇan hadanavā |
| Translation | to work out |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
- ගණන් හදනවාgaṇan hadanavāto work out
Why it looks that way
Literally 'to make the count'. The familiar 'to count' is counting in general, while this is summing up: at the shop they say it before naming the sum
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.
- ඔක්කොම ගණන් හදලා කියන්නම්okkoma gaṇan hadalā kiyannamI'll work it all out and tell you
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 work out” in Sinhala?
«ගණන් හදනවා», read “gaṇan hadanavā”. In a live sentence: “ඔක්කොම ගණන් හදලා කියන්නම්” — I'll work it all out and tell you. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A2; written with the characters ග, ණ, න, ්, හ, ද, න, ව, ා.
How is “ගණන් හදනවා” written in Latin letters?
gaṇan hadanavā. 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 'to make the count'. The familiar 'to count' is counting in general, while this is summing up: at the shop they say it before naming the sum. 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.