රාජ්යය
“රාජ්යය” (rājyaya) — the state in Sinhala. Noun, level A2. raj-ya-ya; the jy is 'j' plus 'ya' in one syllable, and the ending has two ya sounds. In a live sentence: “රාජ්යය පාසැල්වලට උදව් කරනවා” — The state helps schools. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ර, ා, ජ, ්, ය, ය. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | රාජ්යය |
| Read in Latin letters | rājyaya |
| Translation | the state |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- රාජ්යයrājyayathe state
How to pronounce it
raj-ya-ya; the jy is 'j' plus 'ya' in one syllable, and the ending has two ya sounds
Why it looks that way
The state as structure and power. The country as land and people is the familiar raṭa, and 'I love my country' is said only through it
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.
- රාජ්යය පාසැල්වලට උදව් කරනවාrājyaya pāsælvalaṭa udav karanavāThe state helps schools
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 “the state” in Sinhala?
«රාජ්යය», read “rājyaya”. raj-ya-ya; the jy is 'j' plus 'ya' in one syllable, and the ending has two ya sounds. In a live sentence: “රාජ්යය පාසැල්වලට උදව් කරනවා” — The state helps schools. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ර, ා, ජ, ්, ය, ය.
How is “රාජ්යය” written in Latin letters?
rājyaya. 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 state as structure and power. The country as land and people is the familiar raṭa, and 'I love my country' is said only through it. 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.