ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවා
“ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවා” (lǣlla ḷanga uttara denavā) — to answer at the board in Sinhala. Phrase, level A1. You know 'to give an answer'. Laṁga puts a person next to a thing, and so gives 'at the board' too. In a live sentence: “අද මම ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දුන්නා” — Today I answered at the board. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ල, ෑ, ල, ්, ල, ළ, ඟ, උ, ත, ්, ත, ර.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවා |
| Read in Latin letters | lǣlla ḷanga uttara denavā |
| Translation | to answer at the board |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
- ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවාlǣlla ḷanga uttara denavāto answer at the board
Why it looks that way
You know 'to give an answer'. Laṁga puts a person next to a thing, and so gives 'at the board' too
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.
- අද මම ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දුන්නාada mama lǣlla ḷanga uttara dunnāToday I answered at the board
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 answer at the board” in Sinhala?
«ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවා», read “lǣlla ḷanga uttara denavā”. In a live sentence: “අද මම ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දුන්නා” — Today I answered at the board. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters ල, ෑ, ල, ්, ල, ළ, ඟ, උ, ත, ්, ත, ර.
How is “ලෑල්ල ළඟ උත්තර දෙනවා” written in Latin letters?
lǣlla ḷanga uttara denavā. 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?
You know 'to give an answer'. Laṁga puts a person next to a thing, and so gives 'at the board' too. 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.