කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා
“කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා” (karanna kiyalā illuvā) — he asked me to in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. The same trick: the infinitive of the request, then the saying tag, then 'asked'. The request inside keeps the form it was spoken in. In a live sentence: “එයා මට උදව් කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා” — He asked me to help. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ර, න, ්, න, ක, ි, ය, ල, ා, ඉ, ල.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා |
| Read in Latin letters | karanna kiyalā illuvā |
| Translation | he asked me to |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවාkaranna kiyalā illuvāhe asked me to
Why it looks that way
The same trick: the infinitive of the request, then the saying tag, then 'asked'. The request inside keeps the form it was spoken in
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.
- එයා මට උදව් කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවාeyā maṭa udav karanna kiyalā illuvāHe asked me to help
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 “he asked me to” in Sinhala?
«කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා», read “karanna kiyalā illuvā”. In a live sentence: “එයා මට උදව් කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා” — He asked me to help. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ක, ර, න, ්, න, ක, ි, ය, ල, ා, ඉ, ල.
How is “කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලුවා” written in Latin letters?
karanna kiyalā illuvā. 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 same trick: the infinitive of the request, then the saying tag, then 'asked'. The request inside keeps the form it was spoken in. 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.