කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා
“කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” (kohēda kiyalā æhuvā) — she asked me where in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. The card teaches a construction, not a word. Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'. In a live sentence: “එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” — She asked me where the shop is. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා |
| Read in Latin letters | kohēda kiyalā æhuvā |
| Translation | she asked me where |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවාkohēda kiyalā æhuvāshe asked me where
Why it looks that way
The card teaches a construction, not a word. Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'
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.
- එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවාeyā kaḍē kohēda kiyalā æhuvāShe asked me where the shop is
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 “she asked me where” in Sinhala?
«කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා», read “kohēda kiyalā æhuvā”. In a live sentence: “එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” — She asked me where the shop is. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ක, ො, හ, ෙ, ද, ක, ි, ය, ල, ා, ඇ, හ.
How is “කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” written in Latin letters?
kohēda kiyalā æhuvā. 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?
The card teaches a construction, not a word. Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'. 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.