නිදහස් වෙලාව
“නිදහස් වෙලාව” (nidahas velāva) — free time in Sinhala. Noun, level A2. nidahas is free, from nidahasa, freedom. Asking when someone is free, people switch to English: 'when free?' In a live sentence: “නිදහස් වෙලාවට පොත් කියවනවා” — In my free time I read books. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters න, ි, ද, හ, ස, ්, ව, ෙ, ල, ා, ව. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | නිදහස් වෙලාව |
| Read in Latin letters | nidahas velāva |
| Translation | free time |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- නිදහස් වෙලාවnidahas velāvafree time
Why it looks that way
nidahas is free, from nidahasa, freedom. Asking when someone is free, people switch to English: 'when free?'
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.
- නිදහස් වෙලාවට පොත් කියවනවාnidahasa velāvaṭa pota kiyavanavāIn my free time I read books
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 “free time” in Sinhala?
«නිදහස් වෙලාව», read “nidahas velāva”. In a live sentence: “නිදහස් වෙලාවට පොත් කියවනවා” — In my free time I read books. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2; written with the characters න, ි, ද, හ, ස, ්, ව, ෙ, ල, ා, ව.
How is “නිදහස් වෙලාව” written in Latin letters?
nidahas velāva. 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?
nidahas is free, from nidahasa, freedom. Asking when someone is free, people switch to English: 'when free?' 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.