කල් දානවා
“කල් දානවා” (kal dānavā) — to stall in Sinhala. Verb, level B1. Literally 'to put time', from the same term word as in 'to drag on'. The difference is will: here the person stalls on purpose, there the affair drags by itself. In a live sentence: “දන්තාලේපනය කරන එක කල් දාන්න එපා” — Don't stall the visit to the dentist. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ල, ්, ද, ා, න, ව, ා.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කල් දානවා |
| Read in Latin letters | kal dānavā |
| Translation | to stall |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
- කල් දානවාkal dānavāto stall
Why it looks that way
Literally 'to put time', from the same term word as in 'to drag on'. The difference is will: here the person stalls on purpose, there the affair drags by itself
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.
- දන්තාලේපනය කරන එක කල් දාන්න එපාdantālēpanaya karana eka kal dānna epāDon't stall the visit to the dentist
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 stall” in Sinhala?
«කල් දානවා», read “kal dānavā”. In a live sentence: “දන්තාලේපනය කරන එක කල් දාන්න එපා” — Don't stall the visit to the dentist. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ක, ල, ්, ද, ා, න, ව, ා.
How is “කල් දානවා” written in Latin letters?
kal dānavā. 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?
Literally 'to put time', from the same term word as in 'to drag on'. The difference is will: here the person stalls on purpose, there the affair drags by itself. 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.