Beginner Sinhala – Lesson 9 – Verbs – Past

As far as verb forms go in Sinhala, the past tense form is the most difficult to master. It is here that irregular verb forms become truly irregular and even the regular verbs change their base substantially.
The easiest method I believe is to go through the exceptions first and then cover the rules later.
The verb එනවා “enawaa”  has a past tense of ආවා “aawaa” . The verb root has changed from “e” to “aa”. The එ “e” can be considered its present tense verb root and ආ “aa” the past tense verb root.
The verb යනවා “yanawaa” has a past tense of ගියා “giyaa”. The verb root has changed from ය “ya” to ගි “gi”. Both the verbs are similar to their respective hindi counterparts (aayaa and gayaa) which indicates a strong relationship with sanskrit.
The verb කරනවා “karanawaa” has a past tense of කලා “kalaa” (or colloquially කරා “karaa”). The verb බොනවා “bonawaa” has a past tense of බීවා “biiwa”. බී “bii” is the past tense verb root.
The verb තියෙනවා “thiyenawa” has a past tense of තියුනා “thiyunaa” and තිබුනා “thibunaa” (of which තියුනා “thiyuna” is regular). The verb ඉන්නවා “innawa” has a past tense of හිටියා “hitiyaa”. The verb වෙනවා “wenawaa” has a past tense of වුනා “wunaa” / උනා “unaa”.
The verb දෙනවා “denawaa” has a past tense of දුන්නා “dunnaa” and the verb ගන්නවා “gannawaa” has a past tense of ගත්තා “gaththaa”.

Lets put some of these irregular verb forms into practice.

මම පොතක් දුන්නා
mama pothak dunnaa
I gave a book

ඊයේ ඔයා වැඩ කළා
iiyee oya wAda kalaa
You worked ( වැඩ කරන්න / wAda karanna = to work) yesterday

එයා බත් ගත්තා
eyaa bath gaththaa
He/she took the rice

මිනිහා ආවා… මනිහා ගියා
minihaa aawaa.. minihaa giyaa
The man came… the man went..

 

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

 

Beginner Sinhala Lesson 4 – Pronouns

Beginner Sinhala Lesson 4

Pronouns.

Pronouns in Sinhala are divided into four distinct classes according to distance. මේ “me” indicates that the thing or person being referred to is in close proximity to the speaker. ඔ “o” indicates that the thing or person being referred to is in close proximity to the hearer. Infact in modern Sinhala, words such as ඔයා “Oya”, there person near you, are taking to literally mean “you”. අර “ara” indicates that the thing or person is relatively distant to both the speaker and the listener – “over there”. එ “e” refers to a person or thing that was mentioned earlier in the conversation or something that both are already aware of.

මම mama I	මගේ magee My	මගෙන් magen From / by me	මට mata to me	මාව maawa Me
මෙයා Meyaa ‘This one’	මෙයාගේ Meyaagee ‘This one’ ‘s	මෙයාගෙන් Meyaagen From/by ‘this one’	මෙයාට meyaata to ‘this one’	මෙයාව Meyaawa ‘This one’ (acc)
ඔයා oyaa You	ඔයාගේ oyaagee Your	ඔයාගෙන් oyaagen From / by you	ඔයාට oyaata To you	ඔයාව oyaawa You (acc)
අරයා arayaa ‘That one there’	අරයාගේ arayaagee ‘That one there’ ‘s	අරයාගෙන් arayaagen From /by ‘that one there’	අරයාට arayaata To ‘that one there’	අරයාව arayaawa ‘That one there’ (acc)
එයා eyaa He / She	එයාගේ eyaagee His / Her	එයාගෙන් eyaagen From / by him / her	එයාට eyaata to him / her	එයාව eyaawa him / her
අපි api We	අපේ apee Our	අපෙන් apen From / by us	අපිට apita To us	අපිව apiwa us
ඔයාලා oyaalaa You (plural)	ඔයාලගේ oyalaage Your (plural)	ඔයාලගෙන් From / by you (plural)	ඔයාලට To you (plural)	ඔයාලව you (acc plural)

The plural affix “ලා” can be added to මෙයා, අරයා and එයා (meyaa, arayaa, eyaa) to make them plural in number.

Examples

ඔයාට පොතක් තියෙනවා
oyaata pothak thiyenawaa
‘You have a book’ (lit. to you a book there is)

මගේ කාර් එක
magee kaar eka
‘My car’

එයාගෙන් අහන්න
eyaagen ahanna
‘Ask from him‘

අපි එයාව දැක්කා
api eyaawa d@kkaa
We saw him

මෙයාලගේ කෑම
meyalaage k@@ma
These one’s food