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Speak the Sinhala people actually use.

Sri Lankans teaching Sinhala using technology. A free, community-driven project for anyone who wants to speak the language. No ads. No subscriptions. No waiting until tomorrow for your next lesson.

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2,400+ learners saying ආයුබෝවන්
Lesson 2 · The eka trick
7 240
Tap to hear
Car Eka
the car
කාර් එක

car + eka = the car. Stick eka on any English noun. Phone eka. Fan eka. Done.

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sinhalaya ▸ lesson 2 free to learn
zero alphabet drills
free · no ads · no daily limits
āyubōwan hello ආයුබෝවන්
stūtiyi thank you ස්තූතියි
kohomada? how's it going? කොහොමද?
mama yanawā I'm going මම යනවා
kadēṭa to the shop කඩේට
car eka the car කාර් එක
gedara home ගෙදර
suba udǟsanak good morning සුබ උදෑසනක්
rasayi! delicious! රසයි!
hari okay / cool හරි
maṭa tē ekak a tea for me මට තේ එකක්
goḍak hondayi really good ගොඩක් හොඳයි
āyubōwan hello ආයුබෝවන්
stūtiyi thank you ස්තූතියි
kohomada? how's it going? කොහොමද?
mama yanawā I'm going මම යනවා
kadēṭa to the shop කඩේට
car eka the car කාර් එක
gedara home ගෙදර
suba udǟsanak good morning සුබ උදෑසනක්
rasayi! delicious! රසයි!
hari okay / cool හරි
maṭa tē ekak a tea for me මට තේ එකක්
goḍak hondayi really good ගොඩක් හොඳයි
How it works

A crash course, not a textbook.

Most apps teach you to read a script you'll never use with friends. Learn Sinhala teaches the casual, dropped‑consonant, half‑English Sinhala you'll actually hear on the bus.

01
Sounds first

Hear the language before you read it.

We skip the full alphabet at the start. Twelve vowels, then straight into words that stick — spoken the way your aunty actually says them.

a · ā · ä · ǟ
bus · father · cat
අ · ආ · ඇ · ඈ
02
The eka trick

Turn English nouns into Sinhala. Instantly.

Modern spoken Sinhala leans on one tiny marker: eka. Stick it on any noun and you're speaking. Phone eka. Bus eka. Done.

car eka
the car
කාර් එක
03
Real sentences

Ship a full thought by lesson four.

Pronouns + verbs + places + a single suffix and you've got a sentence. No tables, no grammar lecture — just drag‑and‑drop and speak.

mama iskōlēṭa yanawā
I'm going to school
මම ඉස්කෝලේට යනවා
A taste of the app

Your first lesson. Free, like every lesson.

A real screen from the app. Twelve vowels, two pairs compared like a French dictionary, and audio on every row. By lesson two you're already stitching "eka" onto English nouns.

  • Long/short vowel pairs marked ā ī ū ē ō ä — the way dictionaries do it.
  • Sinhala script shown so you start recognising, without being tested on it.
  • Matching, listen‑then‑pick, and drag‑to‑build sentence exercises.
Try lesson 1
1
Say Sinhala out loud
The twelve vowels · 30 XP
Lesson 2 · eka
phone eka
the phone
phone එක
bus eka
the bus
බස් එක
fan eka
the fan
fan එක
TV eka
the TV
TV එක
Checkpoint
Say 6 vowels back · earn a 🔥
Why this, not Duolingo

Built for the way Sinhala is actually spoken.

Not a Duolingo clone. Not a phrasebook. A tight, opinionated crash course with a single goal: get you speaking this weekend.

No download, no app store

Opens in your browser. Add it to your home screen for quick access, and sign in with your free account to keep your progress.

No alphabet gatekeeping

You shouldn't need to memorize 60+ letters before saying 'hello'. We hold the script, you focus on sounds.

Modern, spoken Sinhala

Half‑English hybrids (bus eka, car eka), dropped endings, the real way people under 40 speak.

Learn at your own pace

One lesson or five in a day: you choose. No daily lesson limits, no waiting until tomorrow, and no penalty for taking a break.

Driven by our community

Sri Lankans sharing the Sinhala we speak every day, using technology to help more people learn. Bring your ideas, corrections and encouragement.

Every lesson is free

No ads, subscriptions or paid lesson unlocks. Take as many available lessons as you like today. Your free account saves your progress.

The path

Your pace. Every lesson free.

5 live · more in development

All five available lessons are free to start and repeat today. More lessons are in development, not behind a payment or daily waiting period.

  1. 1
    Say Sinhala out loud
    The twelve vowels
  2. 2
    The 'eka' trick
    Turn English nouns into Sinhala
  3. 3
    Everyday building blocks
    People, verbs, and places
  4. 4
    Build your first sentences
    One full Sinhala, one with eka
  5. 5
    Food, drinks & ordering
    At the kadē, at the café
  6. Numbers and money
    In development · free when released
  7. Getting around the tuk‑tuk way
    In development · free when released
  8. Family and greetings
    In development · free when released
From learners

People who were bad at apps. Until this one.

I finally understood why my cousins say 'phone eka' instead of translating the whole word. The eka trick cracked something open.
N
Nethmi P.
2nd‑gen, Melbourne
Landed in Colombo on Tuesday, ordered tea in Sinhala on Wednesday. Not bad for an app I started on the plane.
A
Alex R.
Traveller, Berlin
Every other app wanted me to learn ක ඛ ග ඝ before ordering rice. This one just let me speak.
D
Dev S.
Heritage learner
FAQ

The questions I'd ask too.

Is every lesson really free?
Yes. Every lesson is free, including new lessons as they are released. No ads, subscriptions, credit cards or paid unlocks. Create a free account to save your progress, then learn at your own pace.
Do I have to learn the Sinhala script?
No. At Learn Sinhala, we teach spoken Sinhala using a Latin transliteration system with long-vowel marks (ā, ī, ū, ē, ō) — the same system you'd find in a dictionary. The Sinhala script appears beside every word so you naturally start recognising characters, but you are never tested on writing it. This spoken-first approach means you can start having real conversations within minutes, not months. It's the method we wish existed when we were kids.
What dialect is this?
We teach modern spoken Colombo Sinhala — the half-English, casual register that people under 40 use every day in Sri Lanka's capital and beyond. This is not formal literary Sinhala, and it's not a remote village dialect. It's the language your cousins text you in: dropped consonants, English nouns dropped mid-sentence, and the famous "eka" trick. At Learn Sinhala, we focus on the Sinhala people actually speak in 2026, not the Sinhala from 1996 textbooks.
Can I use it in my browser?
Yes. Open the app in your browser or add it to your home screen. An internet connection is needed to sign in, load audio and sync your progress.
Why not just use Duolingo?
Because Duolingo does not teach Sinhala, and the apps that do teach it like it's 1996 — full alphabet drills, stiff textbook sentences, no spoken audio, and no recognition of how modern Sinhala actually works. At Learn Sinhala, we skip the alphabet gatekeeping and teach the casual, dropped-consonant, half-English Sinhala you'll hear on the bus and in your ammā's kitchen. This is the crash course we wish existed when we were kids.
Who is behind Learn Sinhala?
We are a community-driven project: Sri Lankans teaching Sinhala using technology. We share everyday spoken Sinhala, listen to learner feedback and welcome corrections and ideas at [email protected].
Do I have to wait until tomorrow for another lesson?
No. There are no daily lesson limits or timers. Start any available lesson and repeat it as often as you like. Lessons marked in development are still being made; they will be free when released.
Free · Community-driven

Your first Sinhala sentence, ten minutes from now.

Create a free account and start speaking. Every available lesson is free, with no ads and no daily lesson limits. Sri Lankans teaching Sinhala using technology — that's it.

Start learning for free How it works
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No daily lesson limits
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