Beginner Sinhala Lesson 8 – Relative phrases I

In English, there is a number of relative pronouns (such as who, what, that, which), which denote a relationship between a verb and a noun which is not the main emphasis of the sentence. For example: The train that comes today – The boy who read the book. In Sinhala there is no relative pronouns, so a special verb form takes place of the relative pronoun in English. There are two forms which we will cover in this lesson – both of which are built upon the present tense verb root.

The first one is the present tense form minus the වා waa. This forms the present relative verb form.  The second one is the present tense verb base, with a පු pu added to the end. This form one of the past relative forms. Lets take the above two English sentences and translate them into Sinhala:

1. අද එන කෝච්චිය
ada ena koochchiya
today that-comes train
The train that comes today.

2. පොත කියවපු කොල්ලා
potha kiyawapu kollaa
book who-read boy
The boy who read the book.

Even though these sentences are a complete idea, they are not complete sentences. Lets complete them.
1. අද එන කෝච්චිය පරක්කුයි
ada ena koochchiya parakkuy
today that-comes train late (is)
The train that comes today is late.

2. පොත කියවපු කොල්ලා ගෙදර යනවා
potha kiyawapu kollaa gedara yanawaa
book who-read  boy      home  is going
The boy who read the book is going home.

Below is small table which shows a sample of verb forms. Notice that all the present relative verb forms are regular. The past tense relative verb forms for common verbs tends to be irregular, with the form for went (ගිය giya) not even closely resembling the present form or ending with the පු pu suffix. The reason will be shown in the next lesson. As a side note, in Sinhala there is only around 15 verbs that can be considered irregular – with five only being truly troublesome.

එනවා (someone) comes enawaa	එන (that/which/who) comes ena	ආපු (that/which/who) came aapu
ගහනවා  (someone) beats gahanawaa	ගහන (that/which/who) beats gahana	ගහපු (that/which/who) beat gahapu
උයනවා (someone) cooks uyanawaa	උයන (that/which/who) cooks uyana	උයපු (that/which/who) cooked uyapu
බලනවා (someone) watches balanawaa	බලන (that/which/who) watches balana	බලපු (that/which/who) watched balapu
දුවනවා (someone) runs duwanawaa	දුවන (that/which/who)  runs duwana	දුවපු (that/which/who) ran duwapu
දෙනවා (someone) gives denawaa	දෙන (that/which/who) gives dena	දීපු (that/which/who) gave diipu
යනවා (someone) goes yanawaa	යන (that/which/who) goes yana	ගිය (that/which/who) went giya
කරනවා (someone) does karanawaa	කරන (that/which/who) does karana	කරපු (that/which/who) did karapu

Now that we have the paradigm for forming relative phrases, lets provide some meaningful examples.

ගහේ නඟින කොල්ලට බලන්න
gahee naGina kollata balanna
Look at the boy who climbs the tree.

අම්මා ගිය කඩේ වහනවා
ammaa giya kadee wahanawaa
The shop Mummy went to is closing.
මම කියවන පොත හොඳයි
mama kiyawana potha honday
The book I am reading is good.

ඔයා ගහපු කොල්ලා එනවා
oyaa gahapu kollaa enawaa
The boy you hit is coming.

අරහේ පියාඹන කුරුල්ලට බලන්න
arahee piyaaBana kurullata balanna
Look at the bird who is flying away.

සින්දු කියපු ඒ කෙල්ල තරඟයේ දිනයි
sindu kiyapu ee kella tharaGayee dinay
That girl who sung will win the competition.

Beginner Sinhala Lesson 7 – Infinitive / Imperative

In the Sinhala language, the infinitive and the imperative are identical – that is the verb stem + න්න “nna”.
The infinitive in English is rendered as “to” + verb. To come, to go, to run are all infinitives. Imperatives are rendered “Come”, “Go”, “Run” which are used as a command. Therefore, in English the verb root and the imperative form is the same – as the infinitive form and the imperative are the same in Sinhala. In Sinhala, the  න්න “nna” form is also the polite form – which is often translated as please + verb. There are impolite forms, which we will also cover. The verb root + පන් “pan” signifies speaking with someone who you know well. It is impolite to use this form with strangers.  The verb root + පිය “piya” has an even more impolite connotation and is never used, except to show anger towards the hearer. It is advisable that foreigners only use  න්න “nna” until they know exactly what they are doing.

Please come එන්න “enna”	Come! වරෙන් “varen”	Come thou!
Please go යන්න “yanna”	Go! පලයන් “palayan”	Go Away! පලාපිය “palapiya”
Please give දෙන්න “denna”	Give දීපන් / දීයන් diipan / diiyan	Give thou දීපිය “diipiya”
Please hit ගහන්න “gahanna”	Hit! ගහපන් “gahapan”	Hit Thou! ගහපිය “gahapiya”
Please eat කන්න “kanna”	Eat! කාපන් “kaapan”	Eat Thou! කාපිය “kaapiya”
Please take ගන්න “ganna”	Take! ගනින් “ganin”	Take Thou! ගනිපිය “ganipiya”
Please do කරන්න “karanna”	Do! කරපන් “karapan”	Do Thou! කරපිය “karapiya”
Please search හොයන්න “hoyanna”	Search! හොයපන් “hoyapan”	Search Thou! හොයපිය “hoyapiya”
Please drink බොන්න “bonna”	Drink! බීපන් “biipan”	Drink Thou! බීපිය “biipiya

From looking at the table one can notice that a number of the verbs have altered corresponding forms. Noticeably the ones that would be commonly used in a rough manner (Go, Come, Give, Take). Of all the forms, the command for come is the most interesting. Its infinitive form is එන්න enna, but its impolite imperative form is varen – which bares no resemblance. What is even more odd is that the only explanation for it is that it derives from tamil “Vaa” where varen means  “I come”. Come, Go , Take and Give are all irregular verbs. The impolite imperative form for go actually derives from the verb පලනවා palanava – “flee” – so that form isn’t stictly irregular. Give’s (දෙන්න) forms are also due to the fact that the past tense root and participle root are different to the present tense root. The other differences between forms are due the past tense form being used in the impolite imperative.

There is also another imperative form that is impolite which is used for more than one person, which is verb root + පල්ලා “pallaa”. For example: කරපල්ලා “karapalla” you all do! දීපල්ලා “diipalla” you all give බීපල්ලා “biipalla” you all drink.

Now its time to demonstrate the above and see the imperative and infinitive in action.
මෙහේ එන්න
mehee enna
Please come here

කන්න එන්න
kanna enna
Please come to eat

ඉස්කෝලෙට යන්න
iskooleta yanna
Please go to school

අරහේ පලයන්
arahee palayan
Go there! (Go away!)

මම කෑම කන්න පටන් ගන්නන්
mama k@@ma kanna patan gannan
I will start to eat food.

කන්න මම ගෙදර යනවා
kanna mama gedara yanawaa
I am going home to eat (to eat, I home go-am)

මේ බීම බීපල්ලා
me biima biipallaa
(You all) drink this drink!

මම ඉගෙන ගන්න ඉස්කෝලේ යනවා
mama igena ganna iskoolee yanawaa
I go to school to learn (I to learn school[to] go-am)
(learn = ඉගෙන ගන්නවා)

Beginner Sinhala – Lesson 5 – Present tense.

The present tense in spoken Sinhala ends in -නවා “nawaa” (which is also the dictionary form of all the verbs in sinhala). The Sinhala verb is composed of the root plus a suffix which denotes tense and aspect. In written Sinhala the verb also agrees in number and person, but for the spoken Sinhala present tense, there is only one common marker.

Below is a list of some common verbs in Sinhala.

Verb Present	Verb root
එනවා enawaa “comes”	එ e
යනවා yanawaa “goes”	ය ya
දෙනවා denawaa “gives”	දෙ de
ගහනවා gahawaa “beats”	ගහ gaha
අරිනවා arinawaa “opens”	අරි ari
අහනවා Ahanawaa “listens”,”asks”	අහ aha
වහනවා wahanawaa “closes”	වහ waha
නානවා naanawa “bathe”	නා naa
බලනවා balanawaa “watches”	බල bala
කරනවා karanawaa “does”	කර kara
කතා කරනවා katha karanava “talks”	(කතා) කර kathaa kara

Sinhala is basically a Subject – Object – Verb (SOV) language (compared to English which is SVO) but the order can change freely – unlike in English. The basic sentence structure is demonstrated below and show the function of the present tense marker (නවා).

මම ටී වී එක බලනවා
mama tee vee eka balanawaa
I watch television

ඔයා මට පොතක් දෙනවා
oyaa mata pothak denawaa
You give me a book

මගේ මල්ලී එනවා
magee malii enawaa
My younger brother comes

එයාල ගෙදර යනවා
eyaala gedara yanawaa
They are going home

මම එයාගෙන් අහනවා
mama eyaagen ahanawa
I ask them (lit, I ask from them)

මගේ අම්මා දොර අරිනවා
magee ammaa dora arinawaa
My Mum opens the door

තාත්ත නානවා
thaaththa naanawaa
Father bathes

එයා කොටුවෙන් ඔයාට ගහනවා
eyaa kotuwen oyaata gahanawaa
He beats you with the stick

The verb “to be” is translated by two seperate verbs in Sinhala – according to whether the subject is living or non-living.
For a living subject, ඉන්නවා “innawaa” is used to express that something “is” For example: මම ගෙදර ඉන්නවා “mama gedara innawa” “I am home”.

For a non living subject, තියෙනවා “thiyenawaa” is used. For example: පොත මෙසේ උඩ තියෙනවා , “potha mesee uda thiyenawa” “The book is on the table”. Here the posposition උඩ, uda is employed to mean on. We will cover this in a later lesson. When a subject and තියෙනවා “thiyenawaa” is expressed without a locational object it is best translated to mean “there is” for example: කාර් එකක් තියෙනවා   “kaar ekak thiyenava” – there is a car.

Examples:

මම ගහේ ඉන්නවා
mama gahee innawaa
I am in the tree

එයා කාර් එකේ ඉන්නවා
eyaa kaar ekee innawa
She is in the car

අපි ගෙදර ඉන්නවා
api gedara innawaa
We are home

ගස් තියෙනවා
gas thiyenawaa
There are trees

මෙහෙ කාර් තියෙනවා
mehe kaar thiyenawaa
There are cars here