අත් හෝදනවා
“අත් හෝදනවා” (at hōdanavā) — to wash your hands in Sinhala. Phrase, level A2. The familiar 'hands' in the plural plus the wash verb. The same verb serves dishes and clothes. In a live sentence: “කන්න කලින් අත් හෝදන්න” — Before eating, wash your hands. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters අ, ත, ්, හ, ෝ, ද, න, ව, ා. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | අත් හෝදනවා |
| Read in Latin letters | at hōdanavā |
| Translation | to wash your hands |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
- අත් හෝදනවාat hōdanavāto wash your hands
Why it looks that way
The familiar 'hands' in the plural plus the wash verb. The same verb serves dishes and clothes
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.
- කන්න කලින් අත් හෝදන්නkanna kalin at hōdannaBefore eating, wash your hands
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 wash your hands” in Sinhala?
«අත් හෝදනවා», read “at hōdanavā”. In a live sentence: “කන්න කලින් අත් හෝදන්න” — Before eating, wash your hands. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters අ, ත, ්, හ, ෝ, ද, න, ව, ා.
How is “අත් හෝදනවා” written in Latin letters?
at hōdanavā. 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 'hands' in the plural plus the wash verb. The same verb serves dishes and clothes. 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.