Click image to see the Sinhala words
It may look like I’m having a seizure on this photo, but I assure you I’m not. Let me then explain why I look like a constipated Jim Carrey…
You see, when I sat down to write “Parts Of The Face In Sinhala”, I would’ve never guessed that the biggest difficulty would be finding a photo that shows all the main bits of the face (including the tongue, gums, teeth, etc.).
None of the stock photos were doing it for me so I had no choice but to turn to the one guy who (so far) has not let me down in times like this…
Me.
But as with most things that I jump into without thinking, I soon discovered that this wasn’t going to be that simple…
The first challenge came up when trying to show my tongue while also showing my teeth and gums. Go on, try it. After a few failed attempts I got so frustrated that, for the first in my life, I even started to respect Miley Cyrus who seems to do it so effortlessly.
The second and tougher challenge was, well…, to avoid looking like a complete buffoon. As the above photo shows, I didn’t quite overcome this. But trust me when I tell you that this was the most ‘elegant’ of the lot (gives you an idea of how the rest were).
Alright, make sure you first click the above photo to get a quick overview of the various parts of the face in Sinhala and then continue reading below for the pronunciation.
Parts of the Face in Sinhala
For the ease of reading this post (as well as remembering what you learn in this) I’ve sectioned it as follows:
- The word for FACE in Sinhala
- Eye-related Sinhala words
- Ear-related Sinhala words
- Nose-related Sinhala words
- Mouth-related Sinhala words
- Hair & facial hair in Sinhala
- Other parts of the face in Sinhala
Got it? Now, let’s start with the easiest, the word for FACE in Sinhala, and build up from there.
1. The Word For FACE In Sinhala
| Face | mu∙hu∙nȧ |
2. Eye-Related Sinhala Words
| Eye | æ∙hæ 1 | |
| – Eyes | – æs | |
| Eyebrow | æs bæm∙mȧ | |
| – Eyebrows | – æs bæ∙mȧ | |
| Eyelash | æs pil∙lȧ 2 | |
| – Eyelashes | – æs pi∙li 2 | |
| Eyelid | æs pi∙yȧ∙yȧ | |
| – Eyelids | – æs pi∙yȧ |
Notes:
1 Sometimes, instead of ‘æ∙hæ’ you might also hear the word ‘æ∙sȧ’. It’s just another way of saying “eye”. ‘æ∙hæ’ is more often used when speaking.
2 Another word for “eyelash” is ‘æs pi∙haa∙tu∙wȧ’ (FYI, ‘pi∙haa∙tu∙wȧ’ means “feather”. Kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?). The plural would be ‘æs pi∙haa∙tu’ (“eye lashes”).
Click to play with the Flashcards: Eye-Related Sinhala Words
3. Ear-Related Sinhala Words
| Ear | ka∙nȧ | |
| – Ears | – kan | |
| Earlobe | kan péth∙thȧ | |
| – Earlobes | – kan pé∙thi |
Click to play with the Flashcards: Ear-Related Sinhala Words
4. Nose-Related Sinhala Words
| Nose | na∙ha∙yȧ | |
| Nostril | naas pu∙du∙wȧ | |
| – Nostrils | – naas pu∙du |
Click to play with the Flashcards: Nose-Related Sinhala Words
5. Mouth-Related Sinhala Words
| Mouth | ka∙tȧ | |
| Gums | vi∙dhu∙ru ma∙sȧ 3 | |
| Tongue | dhi∙vȧ | |
| Tooth | dha∙thȧ | |
| – Teeth | – dhath | |
| Lip | tho∙lȧ | |
| – Lips | – thol |
Notes:
3 ‘ma∙sȧ’ = “meat/flesh”.
Click to play with the Flashcards: Mouth-Related Sinhala Words
6. Hair & Facial Hair In Sinhala
| Hair | kon∙dȧ∙yȧ | |
| Beard | ræwu∙lȧ | |
| Mustache | u∙du ræwu∙lȧ 4 |
Notes:
4 You saw from the line above that ‘ræwu∙lȧ’ means “beard”. ‘u∙du’ comes from the word ‘u∙dȧ’ which means either “up” or “upper”. So, the Sinhala word for “mustache” literally translates as “upper beard”. Cool, huh?
Click to play with the Flashcards: Hair & Facial Hair In Sinhala
7. Other Parts Of The Face In Sinhala
| Cheek | kam∙mu∙lȧ | |
| – Cheeks | – kam∙mul | |
| Chin | ni∙kȧ∙tȧ | |
| Forehead | na∙lȧ∙lȧ | |
| Jaw | hak∙kȧ | |
| – Jaws | – ha∙ku |
Click to play with the Flashcards: Other Parts Of The Face in Sinhala
That’s it. Hope you enjoyed yet another post brought to you by the good folks at Lazy But Smart Sinhala… (ahem, that would be me).
If you have any questions & comments on this post or on my ridiculously sexy constipated photo, please leave them below and remember to click ‘notify’ so you’ll know when I’ve responded.
Speak to you soon in the comments below.
Uuu! You never cease to surprise me: first post of the year and so cool! You gave me something to do while I have the flu ;) Thanks
And congrats on the photo, it’s really effective!
Hey Laura, sorry to hear about the flu. Hope it’s on the way out. Glad you liked the post and happy that its effective. Take care of yourself and hope you get well soon.
Hi my dear Dilshan!
You make very good surprise with that new post ! hihihiiii
your dhathá are very white ! congratulation teacher !
Thanks Suzana! My dath and I are happy that you liked the post :)
Wonderfully simple site! What I was looking for! Thank you for the opportunity to learn Sinhala!
Maria
You’re welcome Maria. Thanks for the nice words!
Hi
A most effective way of teaching with the use of a real live flashcard – namely, your lovely, warm face!
Your a gem to know and your work is most appreciated Dilshan!
Keep up your fine work
Savva
Hi Savva, that’s some very kind compliments you’ve given there! I appreciate it very much. Pleased to know that you’re enjoying my posts. Thanks again for the comment and I’ll talk to you soon.
Hi Dilshan
Do you intend to expose all of your body parts? My advice is better not.
Thanks for the Sinhala translation. Very helpful for someone whose
about to fall off the boat. At least I’ll remember the Sinhala names
to each part in the face.
Good luck with your efforts.
Bye for now
Elizabeth
Haha, no Elizabeth, rest assured, everything will be kept neck-up. Glad you found the post helpful. Thanks for the comment. Take care!
OMG! WOW,,,,
:)
Thanks for a great first post for the year. Although I signed up a few months ago I haven’t yet had a chance to properly make the most of this site but am hoping to this year! I went along to Sinhala classes at the end of last year and am continuing this year. However I really want to do a lot more self-study to try speed up my learning. Thanks for what you do on your blog. It is much appreciated.
Hi Erena, thanks for the comment, glad you like the post and the blog. Sinhala classes too? Wow, you’re not kidding around, are you? :) Well done. If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks again for your little note and hope to hear from you again soon.
Wonderful. You are really bright. How I wish I were 40 years younger to start learning sinhala seriously. I’ll be in Colombo on Saturday. I am staying in Sri Lanka for two weeks. If I can meet you, I’ll buy you a drink or invite you to dinner. So long, Claude
Bonjour Claude! Thank you for your very kind words and the invitation to meet up, I appreciate it a lot. I haven’t yet replied your last email which I’ll do sometime this week. We can talk about your trip schedule there. Until then, I wish you a “bon préparation” for your trip. Take care.
I am leaving home. I’ll try to contact you in Sri Lanka. See you, Claude
Dilshan,
Once again,I cannot explain how grateful I am to you for finding time and creating innovative ways to help folks like me to master this beautiful language.
Seema, you’re welcome, I’m very happy that this blog is turning out to be so useful to you. Thanks also for recognizing the effort. I hope to talk to you again soon. Good luck with your Sinhala learning.
Hi ! Dilshan
kohomada?
As is usual, your new blog method surprises me. There’s no question that new face actor will get a promising future and i got an interesting idea by his face.
How can i say ” weird face” in sinhala?
—mona pissu muhuna da? dada muhuna? i dont know that.
please extract my really simple question out of him and also brand names of tooth powder . hahaha
thanks
Hi! Thanks for your comment (and also for your email, which I’ll reply one of these days).
Haha, good question to the face model… Here’s what he said.
“Weird/strange face” = ‘a∙mu∙thu mu∙hu∙nȧ’
“A weird/strange face” = ‘a∙mu∙thu mu∙hu∙nak’
“You have” = ‘o∙yaa∙tȧ thi∙yé∙nȧ∙va’
So…
“You have a weird/strange face” = ‘o∙yaa∙tȧ a∙mu∙thu mu∙hu∙nak thi∙yé∙nȧ∙va’
Regarding the tooth powder, he says it’s a secret (I told you he’s a real jerk)…
u sweety look on pic…..pls else more pics…:D….but super idea on learn ..wish u happy day
Uhh… I don’t think “sweet” is the word that most people will use to describe that pic but I’ll take the compliment anyway :-) Thanks!
Hi Dilshan
kohomada
It seems that there’s some mistake in the page of ‘Parts of The Face In Sinhala’. The
pronunciation for forehead should be ‘nalele’ ,according to your voice , not ‘nelele’.
Please check if it is right.
Thanks for your nice course. I’m going on with it.
Fan
Hi Fan, you’re absolutely right, thank you! I’ve just now corrected it.
Good to hear from you again my friend. Glad that you’re still continuing with the learning. Let me know if you have any questions, alright?
Thanks again for pointing out the error.
Hi Dilshan,
Great post, absolutely love it! Really appreciate the effort you’ve gone put in this and past posts.
I’m very glad I came across your blog…
Hi Elma! Thanks so much, sounds like you’ve really enjoyed it. I’m glad.
BTW, I also have a pending to-be-replied email in my inbox to you. I shall respond to it shorty, I haven’t forgotten about your question. Talk to you soon. Thanks again.
Thank u Mr.Dilshan.
I’m a Sri Lankan and I’m not fluent in Sinhala both spoken and writing. But I hope I can fix this with your help.
You’re welcome Muhaimin and please feel free to call me just “Dilshan” :) I’m happy that my blog can help you a little, at least in spoken Sinhala. Take care and thanks for your comment.
Dear Dilshan.
you have done a fantastic work again. Great! very nice and helpful…waht about if a new lesson we start to learn some basic verbs that would be need for cnversation :) thank you :)
Hi Helena, so many nice words, thank you ! Thanks for the suggestion too. Will look into it in the near future. Speak to you again (and I will reply your email too).
With the new yahoo, difficult to understand. I repeat: I’m leaving home. I’ll try to contact you in SRi Lanka. So long, Claude
Hope to talk to you soon. Bon voyage!
Hi Dilshan,
lol… this “model-like” pic is actually worth to be seen. Thanks again for such an amusing list of vocabularies and explanations to some complex words like in beard and mustache.
As always I really like ur blog and try to learn these words while as often as I find enough time.
As in Helenas comment above, it would be actually a very big pleasure to start with some simple phrases again, like you showed in the first few blogs. Hehe, imagine we would start to talk in Sinhala and would stumble one noun after the other … then the interlocutor would ask sth like: “Hey, where have you learned this wonderful syntax?” – and we would recommend world’s most famous guy for learning Sinhala ;). Seriously: Maybe you could create a little blog where things with other blogs are connected, like:
My eyes are brown, my hair is long, what is the color of, and bla… :-) ?
Nevertheless: Thanks again for your “motivated-effort” in this current blog here – it is as always just great!
Hi Julie, haha, “model-like” pic. Thanks for the feedback about it and more importantly for your suggestion for combining different blog posts. That could be an interesting challenge for me too.
“World’s most famous guy for learning Sinhala”…. hmm… It seems like you’ve discovered my weakness for flattery :) I love it! :)
Take care Julie and I will definitely look into a grammar post soon (perhaps not the next one but in the next couple of one, ok?).
Hello Dilshan! Thanks a lot! I have learnt some new words today such as thola, nikata, veeduru-hama and hakka. You u know all these while I thought rawula was mustache…did not know it was called as beard. So, I told my dad that we have been using to wrong term all these while.
Hello nangi, kohomadha? :)
First lesson: Never tell a Sri Lankan man (especially a Sri Lankan father) that he’s wrong, haha. Funnily enough, before publishing this post, I was running these words by my own father (to make sure I’ve not made a silly mistake) and when it came to “mustache”, he also immediately said “raewula”. Then after we discussed the differences, he agreed that it should be “udu raewula”. Anyway, I’m happy that you learned some new words too.
I also got your email. I’ll reply it very soon. Been super-busy. Take care Shaggy.
Nangi?? That’s very sweeeeeeet of you Dilshan aiya! :) :)
Mame Hondhin inwa! :D
p.s : about the raewula and udu reawula… I have got it! Thanks!
Dear Dilshan,
could I please ask you if I write sms my srilankan boyfriend in latin alphabet if he is able to understand? As he writes sms to his friend in sinhala writing that I do not know :( thank you very much :)helena
Hi Helena, well, it shouldn’t be a problem I think…
The only issue is that since we don’t have a “standard” commonly accepted way of spelling Sinhala words with Latin characters, it might not be understood immediately. But usually the context (and the other words in the phrase) would help explain it better.
For example, the word for “uncle” (the way I spell it) is ‘maa∙ma’ but there are those who might spell it as ‘mama’ (much simpler), which is fine but on it’s own, it could be confused with the word for “I” (which I spell as ‘ma∙mȧ’). This is why the context is important. Know what I mean?
Best thing would be to a give it a try and send your boyfriend a text message. If he replies with “???”, then it probably didn’t work :)
Ayubowan,
after a long time surfing your sites, has been little busy in my studies, now it summer time and a superb time to reload my sinhala memories. Still now not a new podcast, i prefer podcast rather than text. Special meetined thanks for those typical and easy blog. I have a small request can you translate the Sri Lankan Matha song by Bns in english! For me?
Advance thanks bohoma istuti.
Hi Shiju, good to have you back. Hope the studies have been going ok.
Yes, haven’t done a podcast in a while. Will find a juicy topic and do one soon. I miss it too.
Sorry my friend, unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now to translate a song. When things get less busy, I’ll look into it.
Take care and glad to hear from you again.
Hi Dilshan, I jz didn’t want to give u some more asks than I do anyway. But now Shiju above did in a way for me…I would be so happy about a new podcast :)
Would be great :)
TC Julie
Hi Julie,
Understood :)
Take care.
Hi Dilshan
Kohomada
We used to live in Sri Lanka when I was young and I have very fond memories of the 7 years we spent there. I am going back to Sri Lanka with my own family after 30 something years and I am really excited!
I listened to the tutorials on you tube and many of the words came back to me! I must congratulate you for doing them so well. You obviously have a well trained and organized mind. I have a few questions but do not have the time to look through the ebook at this time. Can you please tell me how to say them in Sinhalese?
– I want less sugar (seeni) please.
– Please don’t add sugar
– Just a little sugar.
– I am allergic to gluten.
– Does this food have gluten?
By the way do you have a list of the numbers?
More questions:
1) I remember we needed to bargain (sometimes aggressively) at that time – is it still the same?
2) Is the tap water drinkable?
3) We are looking for a driver for 8-9 days. can you recommend one?
4) I am looking through trip advisor to book our accommodation – can you recommend any in Colombo, Kandy and Galle where we can have a local experience?
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply- appreciate it.
Warm regards….Feri
in addition to my previous mail :
In ‘Parts Of The Face In Sinhala… And Realizing That I Can Never Look Elegant With My Tongue Out’ :
‘ Eyebrow’ and ‘– Eyebrows’ shouldn’t pronuncation be ‘
‘æhi bæm∙mȧ’ and ‘– æhi bæ∙mȧ’ ?
Maybe I missed something in previous lessons, … in that case, let me know please
Regards, Simon
Hi again Simon, both “aehi” and “aes” can be interchanges in both instances. Sorry if it confused you. Hope it’s clear now.