Lingoflyඅමතක වෙනවා
“අමතක වෙනවා” (amataka venavā) — to forget in Sinhala. Verb, level A1. The prefix a- negates mathaka, 'memory'. Literally 'becomes memoryless'. In a live sentence: “මට යතුරු ගෙදර අමතක වුණා” (maṭa yaturu gedara amataka vuṇā) — I forgot the keys at home. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters අ, ම, ත, ක, ව, ෙ, න, ව, ා. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | අමතක වෙනවා (amataka venavā) |
| Read in Latin letters | amataka venavā |
| Translation | to forget |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The prefix a- negates mathaka, 'memory'. Literally 'becomes memoryless'
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 “to forget” in Sinhala?
«අමතක වෙනවා» (amataka venavā), read “amataka venavā”. In a live sentence: “මට යතුරු ගෙදර අමතක වුණා” (maṭa yaturu gedara amataka vuṇā) — I forgot the keys at home. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1; written with the characters අ, ම, ත, ක, ව, ෙ, න, ව, ා.
How is “අමතක වෙනවා” (amataka venavā) written in Latin letters?
amataka venavā. 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 prefix a- negates mathaka, 'memory'. Literally 'becomes memoryless'. 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.