🌿 Pronunciation and Romanization

In this course, you’ll see Sinhala words written in three ways:

1️⃣ Sinhala Script – (e.g., අඹ)
2️⃣ Romanization – Sinhala sounds written in English letters (e.g., amba)
3️⃣ English Translation – (e.g., mango)

To help you pronounce Sinhala correctly, we use a special custom romanization in Lingo crown Sinhala recourses. For anyone who is not interested in studying the alphabet. Here, you’ll learn how to read it and why some sounds are extra important.

🔑 The Most Important Pronunciation Points

There are four things you must pay special attention to when pronouncing Sinhala:

✅ 1. Double Consonant Sounds

• Example: kanna (කන්න) – to eat

• The nn is held a little longer.

• If you say kana instead of kanna, it becomes a different word or may not be understood.

Practice Example:
කන්න
(kanna)
to eat

✅ 2. Long Vowels

• In our romanization, double vowels = long vowel.

• Example: aa = ආ, ii = ඊ.

• Long vowels change meaning.

Practice Example:
හා
(haa)
yes

✅ 3. ae Sound (ඇ)

• Different from “a.”

• Like the “a” in cat.

Practice Example:
ඇත
(aeta)
there is

✅ 4. e Sound (එ)

• Like “e” in bed.

• Different from ae.

Practice Example:
එක
(eka)
one / it

🎯 Tip: Always pronounce double consonants and long vowels carefully. If you shorten them, you might say something completely different!

Absolutely! Here’s a clean, Tutor LMS–friendly consonant table using your custom romanization conventions.

I’ll organize it in a way that’s easy to read and clear for beginners, and keep the examples short and relevant.

✨ Other Consonant Sounds in Our Romanization

✅ Note: This table shows basic consonant sounds without vowel combinations.
Examples show the consonant plus “a” (අ) sound to help you hear it.

✅ Notes:

• ta (ට) and tha (ත) are different sounds.

  • ට (ta) – retroflex, tongue curled back

  • ත (tha) – dental, tongue to teeth

• Same for da (ඩ) and dha (ද).

• wa (ව) is the W/V sound, often sounds between English w and v. For the Sinhala person’s ear, both of them sound the same. In our lessons, we use ‘wa’ for this sound.

✅ Tip for Learners:
When you read Sinhala in this course, always look carefully at:

• Whether the vowel is long or short.

• Whether there are double consonants.

• Whether the consonant is retroflex (ta/da) or dental (tha/dha)

🎧 How to Practice Pronunciation

In This Lesson:

• You will see the Sinhala word + romanization + English meaning.

• You can click audio buttons to hear each word.

• Try repeating aloud 3 times.

📝 Important Reminder

If you’d like to learn to read the Sinhala alphabet, we have a separate course called:
👉 Learn the Sinhala Alphabet Step by Step
You can find it on the All Courses Page.

✨ Examples for Practice

Here are a few examples showing double consonants, long vowels, ae and e sounds:

Double Consonants

එක eka = one

එක්ක ekka = with

Notice how the meaning changes with the double consonant

Long Vowel:

දනවා dhanawa = burning sensation

දානවා dhaanawa = put

✅ Practice reading them slowly. Focus on the differences in sounds.

💬 Discussion Prompt 

Which sound feels most challenging to pronounce so far? Share in the comments!
(go to the beginning of this post and check the right side)