Ep 4 – Your Age in Sinhala

Episode 4 – Your age in Sinhala

In this episode, we focus on 2 key phrases about your age in Sinhala. More specifically we will learn the following:

  • The remaining personal pronouns (“we”, plural “you”, “they”, and the formal “you”)
  • Their possessives (“our”, plural “your”, “their”, and the formal “your”)
  • Ask someone their age (“What is your age?”)
  • Tell someone your age (“My age is…”)

Video tutorial

Episode 4 – Your Age in Sinhala Tutorial (15:12)

Extras

Episode 4 – Extras (4:00)

 

PDF of Numbers in Sinhala

Right-click and choose “Save target as” or “Save link”

18 Responses to Ep 4 – Your Age in Sinhala

  1. larry t hill May 1, 2013 at 02:52 #

    this embed finishes early ? seems fine on the youtube link. strange.

    • Dilshan Jayasinha May 1, 2013 at 12:00 #

      Hi again,

      Sorry to hear about the issue but both the embed and the Youtube clip work on my side (I’ve tried on different devices – PC, mobile, and iPad -, different browsers, even asked my father and my girlfriend to check on their devices and it all seems to work everywhere).

      Where does the clip end for you? This particular tutorial is longer than the others, so I don’t know if it’s a video buffering delay at your end.

      Let me know.

  2. Kay Abayakoon October 6, 2013 at 08:27 #

    Please can you also do a podcast on bigger numbers too? Like when you are asking prices as they will likely be in the hundreds and thousands. I def need lots of practice with that. Loving your podcasts, I’m looking forward to surprising Nangi and all the extended family of my husbands when I visit them in Sydney next month (We have been living in NZ for the last 13 years). Does make for a great party trick to pop out some nice sayings at the appropriate moment.

  3. Dilshan Jayasinha October 8, 2013 at 08:46 #

    Hi Kay,

    Nice to hear from you again. Yes, I remember that you’re from NZ from one of your previous comments (I think you even mentioned ‘thambili’ in a phrase – which is probably what made your comment stand out).

    A tutorial on numbers is in the works but unfortunately I’m quite certain it won’t be done before you meet your in-laws next month. So for now, here’s a quick run down of some of the bigger numbers. Hopefully, you’ll be able to combine this with the PDF above and notice some patterns:

    200 = dhé see∙yayi
    300 = thun see∙yayi
    400 = haa∙rȧ see∙yayi
    500 = pan see∙yayi
    600 = ha∙yȧ see∙yayi
    700 = hath see∙yayi
    800 = a∙tȧ see∙yayi
    900 = na∙mȧ see∙yayi

    1,000 = ék dhaa∙hayi (or just, “dhaa∙hayi”)
    1,100 = ék dha∙has é∙kȧ seeyayi
    1,150 = ék dha∙has é∙kȧ see∙ya pa∙nȧ∙hayi
    1,250 = ék dha∙has dhé see∙ya pa∙nȧ∙hayi

    2,000 = dhé dhaa∙hayi
    2,100 = dhé dha∙has é∙kȧ seeyayi
    1,150 = dhé dha∙has é∙kȧ see∙ya pa∙nȧ∙hayi

    3,000 = thun dhaa∙hayi
    4,000 = haa∙rȧ dhaa∙hayi
    5,000 = pan dhaa∙hayi
    6,000 = ha∙yȧ dhaa∙hayi
    7,000 = hath dhaa∙hayi
    8,000 = a∙tȧ dhaa∙hayi
    9,000 = na∙mȧ dhaa∙hayi
    10,000 = dha∙ha dhaa∙hayi
    11,000 = é∙ko∙los dhaa∙hayi
    50,000 = pa∙nas dhaa∙hayi
    100,000 = é∙kȧ see∙yȧ dhaa∙hayi or ék lak∙shȧ∙yayi (in English, one ‘lakh’ = 100,000)

    I know it could get a bit confusing so let me know any questions you might have.

  4. Steve August 8, 2014 at 01:01 #

    Hi Dilshan,

    Absolutely loving your blog. I work with many Sri Lankan blokes and they get such a kick out of me using some Sinhala when I can. I plan to travel to Sri Lanka before long and your blog is exactly what I need to get the basics of the language. I am very impressed with the structure of your videos and the flow of each episode. The way you slowly and strategically build upon previous episodes is very cool. I was going to try and give a bit of constructive criticism but I have none. Just keep doing what you are doing, it is excellent!

    Thanks,

    Steve

    • Dilshan Jayasinha August 10, 2014 at 18:55 #

      Wow, Steve that’s some awesome feedback! Thank you! Glad that you’re using whatever you’ve learned on your colleagues. I can only imagine how amused they must be :)

      Thanks again for the kind words. I appreciate it a lot. Take care and speak again soon.

    • Antje October 6, 2015 at 08:31 #

      Well said. I can only agree:)

  5. Martha November 19, 2014 at 10:41 #

    Hello Dilshan,
    Can you please tell me and how to pronounce
    ‘I am vegetarian’
    Thank-you :)

    • Dilshan Jayasinha November 19, 2014 at 18:26 #

      Hi Martha, I can suggest two ways of saying it:

      ma∙mȧ vé∙ji∙tḗ∙ri∙yȧn (“vegetarian”) ké∙nék

      or

      ma∙mȧ mas, maa∙lu, bith∙thȧ∙rȧ mo∙nȧ∙vath kan∙né nǣ = “I don’t eat any meat, fish, or egg”

      Now I know that this 2nd one is a gross generalization but it gets the message across (and there’s a certain vegetarian in my life who would get annoyed at this 2nd phrase of mine if she found out, haha).

      What do you think?

  6. Cass May 22, 2015 at 07:27 #

    Bohoma istuti Dilshan! I just wanted to ask; when you give the numbers there seems to be an ‘i’ on the end, giving ‘ekai, dekai, thunai etc’. I have heard the numbers without this, just ‘eka, deka, thuna’. Is this a particular accent, or do you change the numbers under some circumstances (i.e. if living counting things as in some languages)?

    • Dilshan Jayasinha May 31, 2015 at 17:09 #

      Hi Cass, great question.

      Here’s the deal: It’s not a particular, it’s what you guessed after (it changes according to circumstances).

      ekayi dhékayi thunayi is used when indicating a quantity or value and denotes “is one”, “is two”, “is three”. Just saying the number would be eka, deka. In my own little brainstorming I realized that in everyday life we use the first version more (like when telling the time, counting items, etc.) so I decided to introduce numbers with as ekayi dhekay thunayi. I will do another blog post to show when we use eka dhéka thuna, but for now, you can check out the following post on reading the time in Sinhala that you might find helpful.

  7. Cass June 1, 2015 at 04:29 #

    Thanks for that Dilshan! Mystery solved :)

  8. Antje October 6, 2015 at 08:29 #

    Hi Dilshan,

    I am from Germany and just arrived in SL 3 days ago. Have been looking for sinhala lessons before but haven’t found ‘you’ earlier…. unfortunately :)
    Love your video blogs, especially the summaries in the beginning of every lesson and the little exercises you put in every episode.
    I feel already much more confident and hope you’ll add a lot more episodes and extras to learn.

    Thanks you so very much! I’ll definitely recommend you further and keep practicing and def. will print your book for quick reviews.

    Learning a language helps so much in adapting to a new country and culture and I am so grateful for your support.

    Take care
    Antje

    • Dilshan Jayasinha December 25, 2015 at 14:36 #

      Sorry Antje, didn’t see this comment before. October 6th, guess I was busy with the wedding plans. Hope the settling in is going well. Speak again and sorry for the delay.

  9. sabir October 7, 2019 at 22:59 #

    nice one I loved it and it taught me a lot

  10. Darren April 27, 2020 at 15:08 #

    Hi Dilshan,

    Hope you are still managing this site as its really cool!

    Could you help me by explaining the difference between ekha, dhekha, thunha, and ekhayi, dekhayi, thunhayi?

    Thanks!!!

    Daz

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