Sinhala Letters & Alphabet Guide

Complete reference for Sinhala vowels, consonants and numbers with English pronunciation

About Sinhala Script: Sinhala (also spelled Sinhalese) is written in the Sinhala script, an abugida descended from the ancient Brahmi script. It has 18 core vowels and over 40 consonants. The script is known for its beautiful rounded characters. Sinhala is the official language of Sri Lanka, spoken by over 17 million people.
Vowels Consonants Numbers Translate Now →

Sinhala Vowels — ස්වර (Svara)

SinhalaTransliterationPronunciationExample Word
aas in "about"අම්මා (ammā - mother)
āas in "father"ආකාශය (ākāśaya - sky)
æas in "cat"ඇස (æsa - eye)
ǣlong æ soundඈත (ǣta - far)
ias in "sit"ඉර (ira - sun)
īas in "see"ඊශ්වර (Īśvara - God)
uas in "put"උස (usa - height)
ūas in "food"ඌරු (ūru - pig)
eas in "bed"එළිය (eliya - light)
ēas in "they"ඒ (ē - that)
aias in "kite"ඐ (ai)
oas in "hot"ඔය (oya - river)
ōas in "go"ඕනෑ (ōnæ - needed)
auas in "cow"ඖෂධ (auṣadha - medicine)

Sinhala Consonants — ව්‍යාංජන (Vyāñjana)

SinhalaTransliterationPronunciationExample Word
kak as in "kit"කළු (kaḷu - black)
khakh aspiratedඛේදය (khēdaya - grief)
gag as in "go"ගස (gasa - tree)
ghagh aspiratedඝෝෂා (ghōṣā - noise)
cach as in "chair"චන්ද්‍රය (chandraya - moon)
jaj as in "jar"ජලය (jalaya - water)
ṭaretroflex tටෝපිය (ṭōpiya - hat)
ḍaretroflex dඩොළරය (ḍolaraya - dollar)
ṇaretroflex nණය (ṇaya - debt)
tat (dental)තාරකා (tārakā - star)
dad (dental)දිනය (dinaya - day)
dhadh aspiratedධනය (dhanaya - wealth)
nan as in "not"නගරය (nagaraya - city)
pap as in "pen"පොත (pota - book)
faf as in "fan"ෆෝන් (fōn - phone)
bab as in "bat"බල්ලා (ballā - dog)
bhabh aspiratedභාෂාව (bhāṣāva - language)
mam as in "man"මල (mala - flower)
yay as in "yes"යතුර (yatura - key)
rar (rolled)රත්‍රං (rathraṃ - gold)
lal as in "lip"ලොකු (loku - big)
vav as in "van"වතුර (vatura - water)
śash as in "ship"ශක්තිය (śaktiya - power)
sas as in "sun"සිංහල (Siṃhala - Sinhala)
hah as in "hat"හිරු (hiru - sun)
ḷaretroflex lළමය (ḷamaya - child)
faf as in "fan"ෆෝන් (fōn - phone)

Sinhala Numbers — ගණන් (Gaṇan)

NumberSinhalaPronunciation
0බිංදුවbinduva
1එකeka
2දෙකdeka
3තුනtuna
4හතරhatara
5පහpaha
6හයhaya
7හතhata
8අටaṭa
9නවයnavaya
10දහයdahaya
100සියsiya
1000දාහයdāhaya
About Sinhala: Sinhala belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of two official languages of Sri Lanka (the other being Tamil). The Sinhala script has been used since the 3rd century BCE and is listed in the Unicode standard.

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