Lingoflyතියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම
- තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්මtiyena śaktiyenmaon one's last legs
“තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම” (tiyena śaktiyenma) — on one's last legs in Sinhala. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'with all the strength there is', from śaktiya, 'strength'. The booster -ma at the end means 'all of it, to the bottom'. In a live sentence: “තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම ඉහළට නැග්ගා” (tiyena śaktiyenma ihaḷaṭa næggā) — On one's last legs he climbed up. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ත, ි, ය, ෙ, න, ශ, ක, ්, ත, ි, ය, ෙ…
In short
| Written in Sinhala | තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම (tiyena śaktiyenma) |
| Read in Latin letters | tiyena śaktiyenma |
| Translation | on one's last legs |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally 'with all the strength there is', from śaktiya, 'strength'. The booster -ma at the end means 'all of it, to the bottom'
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 “on one's last legs” in Sinhala?
«තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම» (tiyena śaktiyenma), read “tiyena śaktiyenma”. In a live sentence: “තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම ඉහළට නැග්ගා” (tiyena śaktiyenma ihaḷaṭa næggā) — On one's last legs he climbed up. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ත, ි, ය, ෙ, න, ශ, ක, ්, ත, ි, ය, ෙ…
How is “තියෙන ශක්තියෙන්ම” (tiyena śaktiyenma) written in Latin letters?
tiyena śaktiyenma. 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 'with all the strength there is', from śaktiya, 'strength'. The booster -ma at the end means 'all of it, to the bottom'. 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.