LingoflyNumbers and counting in Sinhala
56 words in Sinhala on the topic “numbers and counting”: එක (eka) — one, දෙක (deka) — two, තුන (tuna) — three, හතර (hatara) — four. 56 words can be played from recordings.
56 words on the topic
- එකekaoneAlso 'a piece, a unit': tē ekak is 'one tea'. Where English needs 'a' or 'one', Sinhala just tags the noun
- දෙකdekatwoThe vowel sign stands to the left of the letter but is read after it: 'de-ka', not 'ed-ka'
- තුනtunathreeCounting things it takes -k: tunak. Before another word it shrinks to tun-: tun vaṭāvak, 'three times'; tunveni, 'third'; tunsīya, 'three hundred'
- හතරhatarafourIn compounds the stem changes a lot: hataḷiha, 'forty'; hārasīya, 'four hundred'. Counting things: hatarak
- පහpahafiveCounting things: pahak; about clock time: pahaṭa, 'at five'. In compounds it takes the bookish stems pan- or pas-: pansīya, 'five hundred'; pasvana, 'fifth'
- හයhayasixThe spoken haya against the bookish saya: the latter sits on banknotes and in textbooks. Counting things: hayak
- හතhatasevenBefore another word it drops its vowel: hatsīya, 'seven hundred'; hatveni, 'seventh'. Don't confuse it with hatara, 'four' — they are neighbours and sound close
- අටaṭaeightA retroflex ṭ: the tongue at the roof of the mouth, the sound duller than a plain 't'. That is exactly what separates it from ata, 'a hand' — a hard pair by ear
- නවයnavayanineIn counting and in compounds the tail -ya falls off: navasīya, 'nine hundred'; navaveni, 'ninth'. Mind nava, 'new' — the same beginning, a different word
- දහයdahayatenThe tail -ya drops just as in navaya: dahaveni, 'tenth'; daha-aṭa, 'eighteen'. Length decides everything: dāha with a long 'aa' is already a thousand
- කිලෝkilōkilogramCounted through eka: kilō ekak is one kilogram, kilō dekak is two
- බාගයbāgayahalfAt the shop it sounds as bāgayak, 'a half of it': kilō bāgayak, 'half a kilo'
- එකොළහekoḷahaelevenEleven and twelve share the tail -oḷaha, an old word for ten. You can't see dahaya, 'ten', inside it: eka plus -oḷaha
- දොළහdoḷahatwelvedeka plus the same -oḷaha tail. Counting things, the number takes -k: doḷahak, 'twelve of them'. There is no separate word for 'dozen'
- දහතුනdahatunathirteenFrom thirteen on the row turns transparent: dahaya, 'ten', in front, the digit behind. The next numbers are built the same way
- දාහතරdāhatarafourteendaa-ha-ta-ra; the long first vowel is the only thing that keeps fourteen from sounding like four, hatara
- පහළොවpahaḷovafifteenThe odd one out: not dahapaha, but paha in front and the same -oḷaha tail behind, settled into -ḷova. It has to be learned separately
- දහසයdahasayasixteendahaya + haya, but inside the number haya loses its h and sounds like saya. Outside compound numbers that shape never appears
- දාහතdāhataseventeendaa-ha-ta; only that long first syllable separates it from seven, hata — in noise the two get mixed up
- දහඅටdahaaṭaeighteendahaya and aṭa are simply written together, with no fusion at all, and the seam is audible: 'daha-ata'
- දහනවයdahanavayanineteenThe only one in the row where the digit keeps its full tail -ya: not dahanava but dahanavaya
- විස්සvissatwentyIts own word, no relation to dahaya. After it the ten drops the tail: visieka, 'twenty-one'; visideka, 'twenty-two'
- තිහtihathirtyThe tens from thirty to fifty end in -ha and start from the digit: tuna gives tiha. Maṭa avurudu tihayi, 'I am thirty', is the same ten with a -yi tail
- හතළිහhataḷihafortyha-ta-li-ha; the ḷ is an l with the tongue curled back toward the roof of the mouth, duller than the plain l
- පනහpanahafiftyOf paha, 'five', only the opening pa- is left. After this the tens stop being transparent altogether
- හැටhæṭasixtyOf haya, 'six', only the opening hæ is left here. The word is short, and the final ṭa is the retroflex 't', as in aṭa
- හැත්තෑවhættǣvaseventySeventy, eighty and ninety end in -va: hættǣva, asūva, anūva. The long æ in the middle has to be held, or the word won't be recognised
- අසූවasūvaeightyYou can no longer spot aṭa, 'eight', inside: asūva is a word of its own with a long ū
- අනූවanūvaninetynavaya, 'nine', shrank to anū-, just as eight shrank to asū-. The last two tens are easiest to learn as a pair: asūva, anūva
- සීයsīyahundredCareful with sīyā, 'grandfather': the hundred has no long -ā at the end. Counting, people say sīyak, and 'two hundred' is desīya
- දාහdāhathousanddaa-ha; the long 'aa' in the first syllable keeps the thousand apart from daha-, the stem of the ten, dahaya (daha-aṭa, 'eighteen')
- මිලියනයmiliyanayamillionEnglish million with a Sinhala tail -ya; in counting the tail drops: miliyana dahayak. Big sums are more often counted in lakhs — lakshaya, a hundred thousand
- බින්දුවbinduvazeroLiterally 'a dot', and the digit 0 is one too. Phone numbers are usually dictated with the English word for zero; the bookish shunyaya lives in a maths textbook
- පළවෙනිpaḷavenifirstOrdinals are built from the number plus -veni. Only 'first' refuses eka and takes the old stem pala-. Both spellings occur; speech doesn't tell them apart
- දෙවෙනිdeveniseconddeka drops -ka and takes -veni. The bookish devena stands in headlines, the spoken deveni is everywhere else
- තුන්වෙනිtunvenithirdtuna takes the form tun- before -veni. After this the row is even: hataraveni, pahaveni, hayaveni
- කීයක්දkīyakdahow many?Kīyada asks price and time; kīyakda asks the count of things. About people the politer form is kī denāda, about the uncountable — koccarada
- එකක්ekakpiece, unitThere is no separate word for 'a piece': you count by adding -k to the number — ekak, dekak, tunak. Ekak itself is 'one piece'. Kǣlla is a broken-off chunk
- සියයටsiyayaṭapercentLiterally 'per hundred', and it stands BEFORE the number: siyayaṭa dahayak, 'ten percent'. Poliya is interest on a loan — a different word
- දෙසීයdesīyatwo hundredSīya, 'hundred', with the number in front. Counting things adds -k: desīyak; naming a sum adds -yi: desīyayi. The bookish desiya stays on banknotes and notices
- තුන්සීයtunsīyathree hundredtuna takes the form tun- before the hundred, the same one as in tunveni, 'third'. The bookish form is tunsīya
- හාරසීයhārasīyafour hundredhatara, 'four', turns into hāra- before the hundred — the only number in the row that changes this much. Neither 'hatara-sīya' nor 'hata-sīya' will be understood
- පන්සීයpansīyafive hundredpaha, 'five', squeezes to pan-, exactly as in pandāha, 'five thousand'. The five-hundred-rupee note is simply called the pansīyē nottuva
- හයසීයhayasīyasix hundredhaya doesn't change at all: hayasīya. In bookish spelling the six looks different — saya — and the hundred there is sayasīya
- හත්සීයhatsīyaseven hundredhata, 'seven', drops its last vowel: hatsīya. Its neighbour hārasīya, 'four hundred', sounds close, and sellers pronounce both carefully
- අටසීයaṭasīyaeight hundredaṭa stays as it is: aṭasīya. The retroflex ṭ is said with the tongue at the roof of the mouth — that's exactly what keeps it apart from atasīya
- නවසීයnavasīyanine hundrednavaya, 'nine', drops the tail -ya: navasīya. After this the hundreds end and dāha, the thousand, begins
- හතරවෙනිhataravenifourthFrom the fourth on the row becomes even: the whole number plus -veni, with no contractions. The bookish hataravana stands on plates and in headlines
- පහවෙනිpahavenififthThe spoken form takes the full paha, the bookish one the old stem pas-: pasvana. On signs and in timetables you'll meet exactly that one
- හයවෙනිhayavenisixthhaya plus -veni, with no change in the stem. The bookish hayavana is the same word in different clothes
- හත්වෙනිhatveniseventhhata loses its vowel the same way as before the hundred: hatveni. From hataraveni, 'fourth', it differs by just two syllables, and people mix them up constantly
- අටවෙනිaṭavenieighthaṭa plus -veni. A school class is named exactly so: aṭaveni paṁtiya, 'grade eight'
- නවවෙනිnavavenininthnavaya drops its -ya, leaving two va sounds in a row: navaveni is read 'nava-veni', both syllables separate
- දහවෙනිdahavenitenthdahaya drops its -ya, just as navaya does. For the day of the month add -dā: dahavenidā, 'on the tenth'
- සියවෙනිsiyavenihundredthIn the ordinal the hundred takes the bookish stem siya-, not the spoken sī: siyaveni, not 'see-veni'. Beside it lives the similar siyavasa, 'a century' — the same siya-, a different word
- ගණනgaṇananumberA trap: the same word means 'price'. Ganan væḍiyi, 'expensive', is literally 'the number is big'
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How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
What is worth knowing about these words
එක (eka) — one. Also 'a piece, a unit': tē ekak is 'one tea'. Where English needs 'a' or 'one', Sinhala just tags the noun.
දෙක (deka) — two. The vowel sign stands to the left of the letter but is read after it: 'de-ka', not 'ed-ka'.
තුන (tuna) — three. Counting things it takes -k: tunak. Before another word it shrinks to tun-: tun vaṭāvak, 'three times'; tunveni, 'third'; tunsīya, 'three hundred'.
හතර (hatara) — four. In compounds the stem changes a lot: hataḷiha, 'forty'; hārasīya, 'four hundred'. Counting things: hatarak.
Test yourself
First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.
Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one” in Sinhala?
Also 'a piece, a unit': tē ekak is 'one tea'. Where English needs 'a' or 'one', Sinhala just tags the noun
- How do you say “six” in Sinhala?
The spoken haya against the bookish saya: the latter sits on banknotes and in textbooks. Counting things: hayak
- How do you say “kilogram” in Sinhala?
Counted through eka: kilō ekak is one kilogram, kilō dekak is two
- How do you say “fourteen” in Sinhala?
Before hatara the ten lengthens: not dahahatara but dāhatara. Seventeen lengthens the same way
- How do you say “nineteen” in Sinhala?
The only one in the row where the digit keeps its full tail -ya: not dahanava but dahanavaya
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- Study spread over days wins not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “one” in Sinhala?
«එක» (eka), read “eka”. Also 'a piece, a unit': tē ekak is 'one tea'. Where English needs 'a' or 'one', Sinhala just tags the noun. It is one of 56 words in the set “numbers and counting” — the rest are in the table above.
How many numbers do you need to start?
The whole set on this page is 56 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.
Is there audio?
Yes, 56 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.