Lingoflyඇඟිලි තුඩක්
- ඇඟිලි තුඩක්ængili tuḍaka pinch
“ඇඟිලි තුඩක්” (ængili tuḍak) — a pinch in Sinhala. Noun, level A1. The language never made a word for a pinch: people show 'the tips of the fingers' or just say 'a little salt'. In a live sentence: “ලුණු ඇඟිලි තුඩක් දාන්න” (luṇu ængili tuḍak dānna) — Add a pinch of salt. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ඇ, ඟ, ි, ල, ි, ත, ු, ඩ, ක, ්. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | ඇඟිලි තුඩක් (ængili tuḍak) |
| Read in Latin letters | ængili tuḍak |
| Translation | a pinch |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The language never made a word for a pinch: people show 'the tips of the fingers' or just say 'a little salt'
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.
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 “a pinch” in Sinhala?
«ඇඟිලි තුඩක්» (ængili tuḍak), read “ængili tuḍak”. In a live sentence: “ලුණු ඇඟිලි තුඩක් දාන්න” (luṇu ængili tuḍak dānna) — Add a pinch of salt. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ඇ, ඟ, ි, ල, ි, ත, ු, ඩ, ක, ්.
How is “ඇඟිලි තුඩක්” (ængili tuḍak) written in Latin letters?
ængili tuḍak. 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 language never made a word for a pinch: people show 'the tips of the fingers' or just say 'a little salt'. 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 this 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.