Lingoflyසාමාන්ය දොස්තර
- සාමාන්ය දොස්තරsāmānya dostarafamily doctor
“සාමාන්ය දොස්තර” (sāmānya dostara) — family doctor in Sinhala. Noun, level B1. Literally an 'ordinary doctor': dostara, 'doctor', plus sāmānya, 'ordinary'. In private clinics he's 'the GP'. In a live sentence: “මුලින්ම සාමාන්ය දොස්තර හම්බ වෙන්න” (mulinma sāmānya dostara hamba venna) — First go see the family doctor. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ස, ා, ම, ා, න, ්, ය, ද, ො, ස, ්, ත… A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | සාමාන්ය දොස්තර (sāmānya dostara) |
| Read in Latin letters | sāmānya dostara |
| Translation | family doctor |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally an 'ordinary doctor': dostara, 'doctor', plus sāmānya, 'ordinary'. In private clinics he's 'the GP'
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 “family doctor” in Sinhala?
«සාමාන්ය දොස්තර» (sāmānya dostara), read “sāmānya dostara”. In a live sentence: “මුලින්ම සාමාන්ය දොස්තර හම්බ වෙන්න” (mulinma sāmānya dostara hamba venna) — First go see the family doctor. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ස, ා, ම, ා, න, ්, ය, ද, ො, ස, ්, ත…
How is “සාමාන්ය දොස්තර” (sāmānya dostara) written in Latin letters?
sāmānya dostara. 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?
Literally an 'ordinary doctor': dostara, 'doctor', plus sāmānya, 'ordinary'. In private clinics he's 'the GP'. 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.