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 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.

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