Shops and hotels in Sinhala
Open, closed, a bag, the wifi password: the checkout and the front desk. Play the ten Sinhala words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Sinhala phrases in this lesson
- ඔබ ළඟ... තිබේද?o-BA lan-ga... ti-BEY-da
- Do you have...?
- ... කොහෙද?... ko-HE-da
- Where is...?
- විවෘතයිvi-vru-TA-yi
- Open
- වසා ඇතwa-SAA AE-ta
- Closed
- බෑගයක් ද?BAG-ya-yak DA
- A bag?
- හුඟක් ගණන්HUN-gak GA-nan
- Too expensive
- මට බුකින් එකක් තියෙනවාma-TA BU-kin E-kak ti-YE-na-waa
- I have a reservation
- උදේ කෑම ඇතුළත්ද?u-DAY KAE-ma ae-tu-LAT-da
- Is breakfast included?
- වයිෆයි පාස්වර්ඩ් එක මොකක්ද?WAI-fai PAAS-ward E-ka mo-KAK-da
- What's the wifi password?
- මට ... පුළුවන්ද?ma-TA ... pu-LU-wan-da
- Can I...?
The essential phrase for tracking down a specific item. Fill in the item name after "langa." A simpler street version is just "... thibenawada?" which works perfectly in informal settings.
Attach any item or place name before "koheda" and you have a working question. The "da" ending is the Sinhala question marker. This structure works for finding anything in a shop or neighborhood.
Plastic bags are charged separately at most Sri Lankan supermarkets following environmental regulations. The upward intonation on "da" marks it as a question, a key grammatical feature of spoken Sinhala.
Literally "a lot of price". Bargaining is normal at markets.
Breakfast is often hoppers or string hoppers with curry.
Literally "am I able to ...?".