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.
Posted on February 13, 2012, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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