ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවා
“ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවා” (foṭō ekak dānavā) — to upload a photo in Sinhala. Phrase, level A2. The same dānavä, 'to put', as with the belt and the post: Sinhala manages with it where English keeps a dozen verbs. In a live sentence: “මම ගමනේ ෆොටෝ එකක් දැම්මා” — I uploaded a photo from the trip. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ෆ, ො, ට, ෝ, එ, ක, ක, ්, ද, ා, න, ව.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවා |
| Read in Latin letters | foṭō ekak dānavā |
| Translation | to upload a photo |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
- ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවාfoṭō ekak dānavāto upload a photo
Why it looks that way
The same dānavä, 'to put', as with the belt and the post: Sinhala manages with it where English keeps a dozen verbs
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.
- මම ගමනේ ෆොටෝ එකක් දැම්මාmama gamanē foṭō ekak dæmmāI uploaded a photo from the trip
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 upload a photo” in Sinhala?
«ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවා», read “foṭō ekak dānavā”. In a live sentence: “මම ගමනේ ෆොටෝ එකක් දැම්මා” — I uploaded a photo from the trip. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters ෆ, ො, ට, ෝ, එ, ක, ක, ්, ද, ා, න, ව.
How is “ෆොටෝ එකක් දානවා” written in Latin letters?
foṭō ekak dānavā. 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 same dānavä, 'to put', as with the belt and the post: Sinhala manages with it where English keeps a dozen verbs. 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.