Lingoflyකාබන් පා සටහන
- කාබන් පා සටහනkāban pā saṭahanacarbon footprint
“කාබන් පා සටහන” (kāban pā saṭahana) — carbon footprint in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. A calque from English: the native words mean 'a footprint', and carbon is taken as is. A young turn that lives in reports and advertising only. In a live sentence: “ගුවන් ගමනක කාබන් පා සටහන ලොකුයි” (guvan gamanaka kāban pā saṭahana lokuyi) — A flight has a big carbon footprint. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ා, බ, න, ්, ප, ා, ස, ට, හ, න.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කාබන් පා සටහන (kāban pā saṭahana) |
| Read in Latin letters | kāban pā saṭahana |
| Translation | carbon footprint |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
A calque from English: the native words mean 'a footprint', and carbon is taken as is. A young turn that lives in reports and advertising only
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.
- ගුවන් ගමනක කාබන් පා සටහන ලොකුයිguvan gamanaka kāban pā saṭahana lokuyiA flight has a big carbon footprint
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 “carbon footprint” in Sinhala?
«කාබන් පා සටහන» (kāban pā saṭahana), read “kāban pā saṭahana”. In a live sentence: “ගුවන් ගමනක කාබන් පා සටහන ලොකුයි” (guvan gamanaka kāban pā saṭahana lokuyi) — A flight has a big carbon footprint. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ක, ා, බ, න, ්, ප, ා, ස, ට, හ, න.
How is “කාබන් පා සටහන” (kāban pā saṭahana) written in Latin letters?
kāban pā saṭahana. 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?
A calque from English: the native words mean 'a footprint', and carbon is taken as is. A young turn that lives in reports and advertising only. 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.