පරිප්පු
“පරිප්පු” (parippu) — lentils in Sinhala. Noun, level A1. Yellow lentils are the island's most frequent curry: it stands on the table every day and costs little. In a live sentence: “පරිප්පු නැති දවසක් නෑ” — There is no day without lentils. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ප, ර, ි, ප, ්, ප, ු. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | පරිප්පු |
| Read in Latin letters | parippu |
| Translation | lentils |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- පරිප්පුparippulentils
Why it looks that way
Yellow lentils are the island's most frequent curry: it stands on the table every day and costs little
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.
- පරිප්පු නැති දවසක් නෑparippu næti davasak nǣThere is no day without lentils
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 “lentils” in Sinhala?
«පරිප්පු», read “parippu”. In a live sentence: “පරිප්පු නැති දවසක් නෑ” — There is no day without lentils. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ප, ර, ි, ප, ්, ප, ු.
How is “පරිප්පු” written in Latin letters?
parippu. 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?
Yellow lentils are the island's most frequent curry: it stands on the table every day and costs little. 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.