බදු කාර්යාලය
“බදු කාර්යාලය” (badu kāryālaya) — the tax office in Sinhala. Noun, level B1. The familiar badda, tax, here in the badu shape before another noun. The office's full name is longer and is printed on the receipt. In a live sentence: “බදු කාර්යාලය සිකුරාදා වහනවා” — The tax office closes on Friday. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters බ, ද, ු, ක, ා, ර, ්, ය, ා, ල, ය. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | බදු කාර්යාලය |
| Read in Latin letters | badu kāryālaya |
| Translation | the tax office |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
- බදු කාර්යාලයbadu kāryālayathe tax office
Why it looks that way
The familiar badda, tax, here in the badu shape before another noun. The office's full name is longer and is printed on the receipt
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.
- බදු කාර්යාලය සිකුරාදා වහනවාbadu kāryālaya sikurādā vahanavāThe tax office closes on Friday
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 tax office” in Sinhala?
«බදු කාර්යාලය», read “badu kāryālaya”. In a live sentence: “බදු කාර්යාලය සිකුරාදා වහනවා” — The tax office closes on Friday. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters බ, ද, ු, ක, ා, ර, ්, ය, ා, ල, ය.
How is “බදු කාර්යාලය” written in Latin letters?
badu kāryālaya. 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 familiar badda, tax, here in the badu shape before another noun. The office's full name is longer and is printed on the receipt. 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.