Lingoflyමට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා
- මට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණාmaṭa avasthāva læbuṇāI had the chance to
“මට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා” (maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā) — I had the chance to in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'the opportunity fell to me': the receive verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the 'to whom' form. Saying 'I took the opportunity' won't do here. In a live sentence: “මට එයාව හම්බවෙන්න අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා” (maṭa eyāva hambavenna avasthāva læbuṇā) — I had the chance to meet him. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | මට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා (maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā) |
| Read in Latin letters | maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā |
| Translation | I had the chance to |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally 'the opportunity fell to me': the receive verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the 'to whom' form. Saying 'I took the opportunity' won't do here
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 “I had the chance to” in Sinhala?
«මට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා» (maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā), read “maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā”. In a live sentence: “මට එයාව හම්බවෙන්න අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා” (maṭa eyāva hambavenna avasthāva læbuṇā) — I had the chance to meet him. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ම, ට, අ, ව, ස, ්, ථ, ා, ව, ල, ැ, බ…
How is “මට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා” (maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā) written in Latin letters?
maṭa avasthāva læbuṇā. 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 'the opportunity fell to me': the receive verb is involuntary, and the person stands in the 'to whom' form. Saying 'I took the opportunity' won't do here. 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.