Lingoflyමුණ ගැහෙනවා
- මුණ ගැහෙනවාmuṇa gæhenavāto meet (by chance)
“මුණ ගැහෙනවා” (muṇa gæhenavā) — to meet (by chance) in Sinhala. Verb, level A1. Hamba venavā is 'to run into'. Muṇa is the face: to meet is to come face to face, and that is how people describe a chance meeting. Meeting a guest at the station is another verb. In a live sentence: “ඊයේ එයාව මුණ ගැහුණා” (īyē eyāva muṇa gæhuṇā) — Yesterday I met him by chance. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Sinhala course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Sinhala | මුණ ගැහෙනවා (muṇa gæhenavā) |
| Read in Latin letters | muṇa gæhenavā |
| Translation | to meet (by chance) |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Hamba venavā is 'to run into'. Muṇa is the face: to meet is to come face to face, and that is how people describe a chance meeting. Meeting a guest at the station is another verb
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 meet (by chance)” in Sinhala?
«මුණ ගැහෙනවා» (muṇa gæhenavā), read “muṇa gæhenavā”. In a live sentence: “ඊයේ එයාව මුණ ගැහුණා” (īyē eyāva muṇa gæhuṇā) — Yesterday I met him by chance. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1; written with the characters ම, ු, ණ, ග, ැ, හ, ෙ, න, ව, ා.
How is “මුණ ගැහෙනවා” (muṇa gæhenavā) written in Latin letters?
muṇa gæhenavā. 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?
Hamba venavā is 'to run into'. Muṇa is the face: to meet is to come face to face, and that is how people describe a chance meeting. Meeting a guest at the station is another verb. 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.