හරි යනවා
“හරි යනවා” (hari yanavā) — to come off well in Sinhala. Verb, level B1. The verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the dative: 'it went right to me'. There's no active 'I succeeded'; the negation is 'it didn't go right'. In a live sentence: “මට වැඩේ හරි ගියා” — This business came off well for me. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters හ, ර, ි, ය, න, ව, ා.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | හරි යනවා |
| Read in Latin letters | hari yanavā |
| Translation | to come off well |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
- හරි යනවාhari yanavāto come off well
Why it looks that way
The verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the dative: 'it went right to me'. There's no active 'I succeeded'; the negation is 'it didn't go right'
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.
- මට වැඩේ හරි ගියාmaṭa væḍē hari giyāThis business came off well for me
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 come off well” in Sinhala?
«හරි යනවා», read “hari yanavā”. In a live sentence: “මට වැඩේ හරි ගියා” — This business came off well for me. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level B1; written with the characters හ, ර, ි, ය, න, ව, ා.
How is “හරි යනවා” written in Latin letters?
hari yanavā. 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 verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the dative: 'it went right to me'. There's no active 'I succeeded'; the negation is 'it didn't go right'. 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.