පෙනහළු
“පෙනහළු” (penahaḷu) — lungs in Sinhala. Noun, level A2. pe-na-ha-lu; the ḷ is the palate-curled l. In a live sentence: “සිගරට් පෙනහළුවලට නරකයි” — Cigarettes are bad for the lungs. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ප, ෙ, න, හ, ළ, ු. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | පෙනහළු |
| Read in Latin letters | penahaḷu |
| Translation | lungs |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- පෙනහළුpenahaḷulungs
How to pronounce it
pe-na-ha-lu; the ḷ is the palate-curled l
Why it looks that way
Always plural, as in English. One lung has its own shape, but it's hardly ever said
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.
- සිගරට් පෙනහළුවලට නරකයිsigaraṭ penahaḷuvalaṭa narakayiCigarettes are bad for the lungs
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 “lungs” in Sinhala?
«පෙනහළු», read “penahaḷu”. pe-na-ha-lu; the ḷ is the palate-curled l. In a live sentence: “සිගරට් පෙනහළුවලට නරකයි” — Cigarettes are bad for the lungs. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ප, ෙ, න, හ, ළ, ු.
How is “පෙනහළු” written in Latin letters?
penahaḷu. 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?
Always plural, as in English. One lung has its own shape, but it's hardly ever said. 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.