කතා නොකර ඉන්නවා
“කතා නොකර ඉන්නවා” (katā nokara innavā) — to keep quiet in Sinhala. Verb, level A2. Literally 'to be, not saying': colloquial Sinhala has no verb 'to be silent'. The bookish one is off a library sign. In a live sentence: “එයා කතා නොකර හිටියා” — He kept quiet. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ත, ා, න, ො, ක, ර, ඉ, න, ්, න, ව. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කතා නොකර ඉන්නවා |
| Read in Latin letters | katā nokara innavā |
| Translation | to keep quiet |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
- කතා නොකර ඉන්නවාkatā nokara innavāto keep quiet
Why it looks that way
Literally 'to be, not saying': colloquial Sinhala has no verb 'to be silent'. The bookish one is off a library sign
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 කතා නොකර හිටියාeyā katā nokara hiṭiyāHe kept quiet
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 keep quiet” in Sinhala?
«කතා නොකර ඉන්නවා», read “katā nokara innavā”. In a live sentence: “එයා කතා නොකර හිටියා” — He kept quiet. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A2; written with the characters ක, ත, ා, න, ො, ක, ර, ඉ, න, ්, න, ව.
How is “කතා නොකර ඉන්නවා” written in Latin letters?
katā nokara innavā. 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 be, not saying': colloquial Sinhala has no verb 'to be silent'. The bookish one is off a library sign. 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.