දුම්රිය සේවකයා
“දුම්රිය සේවකයා” (dumriya sēvakayā) — train attendant in Sinhala. Noun, level A1. There is no attendant per carriage here: an English 'guard' walks the train, and the papers call him a railway employee. In a live sentence: “දුම්රිය සේවකයා ටිකට් බැලුවා” — The train attendant checked the tickets. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ද, ු, ම, ්, ර, ි, ය, ස, ේ, ව, ක, ය. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | දුම්රිය සේවකයා |
| Read in Latin letters | dumriya sēvakayā |
| Translation | train attendant |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- දුම්රිය සේවකයාdumriya sēvakayātrain attendant
Why it looks that way
There is no attendant per carriage here: an English 'guard' walks the train, and the papers call him a railway employee
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.
- දුම්රිය සේවකයා ටිකට් බැලුවාdumriya sēvakayā ṭikaṭ bæluvāThe train attendant checked the tickets
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 “train attendant” in Sinhala?
«දුම්රිය සේවකයා», read “dumriya sēvakayā”. In a live sentence: “දුම්රිය සේවකයා ටිකට් බැලුවා” — The train attendant checked the tickets. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ද, ු, ම, ්, ර, ි, ය, ස, ේ, ව, ක, ය.
How is “දුම්රිය සේවකයා” written in Latin letters?
dumriya sēvakayā. 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?
There is no attendant per carriage here: an English 'guard' walks the train, and the papers call him a railway employee. 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.