කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා
“කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” (kohēda kiyalā æhuvā) — she asked me where in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'. In a live sentence: “එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” — She asked me where the shop is. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ක, ො, හ, ෙ, ද, ක, ි, ය, ල, ා, ඇ, හ.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා |
| Read in Latin letters | kohēda kiyalā æhuvā |
| Translation | she asked me where |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවාkohēda kiyalā æhuvāshe asked me where
Why it looks that way
Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'
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.
- එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවාeyā kaḍē kohēda kiyalā æhuvāShe asked me where the shop is
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 “she asked me where” in Sinhala?
«කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා», read “kohēda kiyalā æhuvā”. In a live sentence: “එයා කඩේ කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” — She asked me where the shop is. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ක, ො, හ, ෙ, ද, ක, ි, ය, ල, ා, ඇ, හ.
How is “කොහෙද කියලා ඇහුවා” written in Latin letters?
kohēda kiyalā æhuvā. 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?
Sinhala doesn't change the question in reported speech: the question word stays as it was, and the saying tag, meaning 'having said', ties it to 'asked'. 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.