කුඩු
“කුඩු” (kuḍu) — powder in Sinhala. Noun, level B1. ku-du, both syllables short; the familiar 'small' and 'umbrella' sound different — their second syllable is long. In a live sentence: “රෙදි සෝදන කුඩු ටිකක් අරන් එන්න” — Bring some laundry powder. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ු, ඩ, ු. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කුඩු |
| Read in Latin letters | kuḍu |
| Translation | powder |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
- කුඩුkuḍupowder
How to pronounce it
ku-du, both syllables short; the familiar 'small' and 'umbrella' sound different — their second syllable is long
Why it looks that way
Any powder: laundry, curry, cement. To pound into powder is a verb on it. Careful: in slang the same word means a drug, and at the shop they specify — 'soap powder'
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.
- රෙදි සෝදන කුඩු ටිකක් අරන් එන්නredi sōdana kuḍu ṭikak aran ennaBring some laundry powder
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 “powder” in Sinhala?
«කුඩු», read “kuḍu”. ku-du, both syllables short; the familiar 'small' and 'umbrella' sound different — their second syllable is long. In a live sentence: “රෙදි සෝදන කුඩු ටිකක් අරන් එන්න” — Bring some laundry powder. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ක, ු, ඩ, ු.
How is “කුඩු” written in Latin letters?
kuḍu. 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?
Any powder: laundry, curry, cement. To pound into powder is a verb on it. Careful: in slang the same word means a drug, and at the shop they specify — 'soap powder'. 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.