So you want to learn Sinhala in English or Tamil? Foreigners visiting Sri Lanka, Sri Lankans living abroad or Tamils in the country want to study Sinhala quick and easy way.
About Sinhala Language
Sinhala is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 16 million Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka.
Sinhala is also known as Sinhalese or Singhala. The native name of the language is සිංහල (Sinhāla), which comes from Sanskrit and could be translated as “lion-seizer”, “lion-killer” or “lion blood”. Writing Sinhala would be little bit hard for a foreigner but still speaking Sinhala would be easy if you know the basics.
We bring you three ways to learn online learn Sinhala Language in English or Tamil.
- #1. Websites
- #2. Dictionaries
- #3. Mobile Phone and Desktop Apps
#1. Online websites to Learn Sinhala
Learn Sinhala.com
This site contains videos, books, lessons and other resources help you learn Sinhala vocabulary and language quickly.
http://www.learnsinhala.com/
Learn Sinhala at mylanguages.org site
If you’re trying to learn Sinhala, then this website contains courses on adjectives, adverbs, articles, gender (feminine, masculine…), negation, nouns, numbers, phrases, plural, prepositions, pronouns, questions, verbs and vocabulary excercises to help you with your Sinhala grammar. This site contains free Sinhala lessons.
http://mylanguages.org/learn_sinhala.php
The Lazy But Smart Sinhala Blog by Dilshan Jayasinha
This blog site and YouTube videos contain Sinhala videos which will teach you Sinhala phrases, Sinhala lessons which will help you to start to speak the language fast. Most popular Sinhala words and Sri Lankan phrases are included here.
Watch first video here:
Learn Sinhala free at Live Lingua
Live Lingua site contians Free Foreign Service Institute Sinhala resources. You can read the Sinhala ebooks online, listen to the Sinhala audios and practice your Sinhala pronunciation with their online recorder or download the files to use whenever you want. There are several Sinhala course you can select at this site.
https://www.livelingua.com/project/fsi/Sinhala/
Download Sinhala Basic Course Book pdf (112 pages) for free
https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/FSI%20-%20Sinhala%20Basic%20Course%20-%20Module%201%20-%20Student%20Text.pdf
About Sinhala Language at omniglot.com site
This site contains basic introduction to Sinhala language and links to other Sinhala learning resources.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sinhala.htm
SAMANTHA -Learn Spoken Sinhala Tourist Guide 
This site contains resources to learn spoken Sinhala for tourists to Sri Lanka: words and phrases, video tutorials, tips on pronunciation of words and phrases. It contains frequently used words and words which needs you to survive with a Sinhalese if you are visiting Sri Lanka.
www.spokensinhala.com/
#2. Online Sinhala Dictionaries
Madura Online
Madura English-Sinhala Dictionary contains over 230,000 definitions. Include glossaries of technical terms from medicine, science, law, engineering, accounts, arts and many other sources. This facilitates use as thesaurus. Translate from English to Sinhala and vice versa. Can use wildcards to increase the flexibility of search. This is very useful tool for students and professionals in their academic and day to day work.
http://maduraonline.com/
You can also download Madura dictionary to your computer
http://download.cnet.com/Madura-English-Sinhala-Dictionary/3000-2279_4-10571464.html
Department of Official Languages
This official govenment site contains English to Sinhala and English to Tamil Glossaries on technical terms on various subject ares. This is very useful tool for students and professionals for their academic work.
http://giclk.info/live/web/index.php?option=com_glossary&view=results&Itemid=303
Tri-Lingual Online Dictionary in Sinhala,Tamil & English
Sinhala, English and Tamil Tri-lingual dictionary created by Department of Official Languages, is now available as online web based system and as a desktop application. You can search සිංහල, தமிழ் or English words. You can type words using built-in key pad or enter Unicode words. It is based on the official printed version of the dictionary
https://studentlanka.com/2012/09/17/tri-lingual-dictionary/
Goolge Translator to translate to Sinhala
You can use Google Translator to translate English or Tamil to Sinhala
Translate from English to Sinhala click here
Translate from Tamil to Sinhala – Click here
Sinhala online Dictionaries, mobile-phone apps and download books
This blog post brings you more options on Sinhala Online Dictionaries and Mobile Apps
Sinhala online Dictionaries, mobile-phone apps and download books
#3. Mobile Apps for Learning Sinhala
Learn Sinhala Tamil 1.0 Android App
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icta.LearnSinhalaTamil&hl=en
Sinhala Dictionary Offline – Android Apps on Google Play
Sinhala Dictionary Offline is a free English to Sinhala / Sinhala to English Dictionary with a database of more than 160,000 words for Android version 2.1 and above.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sachith.com.dictionary.offline
Bhasha English-Sinhala Dictionary on the App Store for iPhone
With this iPhone app you can get unlimited instant language translations from English to Sinhala with your iPhone for FREE. This Bhasha English-Sinhala Dictionary is Sri Lanka’s Official Sinhala-English Dictionary app for SmartPhones brought to you by Bhasha Lanka (Pvt) Ltd in partnership with Language Technology Research Laboratory, Sri Lanka.
Bhasha English-Sinhala Dictionary provides you offline dictionary service for English to Sinhala word translations where you do not need any Internet connection to use the dictionary.
https://itunes.apple.com/lk/app/bhasha-english-sinhala-dictionary/id592018752?mt=8
I hope you were able to find Sinhala learning website, dictionary or mobile-phone app by reading this post. If you know better resources to learn Sinhala, then please make a comment below.
A very helpful article, thank you.
Thanks for these resources. I’ll select and use one or few to learn Sinhala.