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
Extras
PDF of Numbers in Sinhala
Right-click and choose “Save target as” or “Save link”
this embed finishes early ? seems fine on the youtube link. strange.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Well said. I can only agree:)
Hello Dilshan,
Can you please tell me and how to pronounce
‘I am vegetarian’
Thank-you :)
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?
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)?
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.
Thanks for that Dilshan! Mystery solved :)
Yay
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
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.
nice one I loved it and it taught me a lot
Great, thanks for letting me know, Sabir.
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