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Verbs
There is no verb “to be” in Sinhala. To say, “I am well” in Sinhala, one would say, “I well” or මම හොදයි. To say, “the cat is black”, say “cat black.”
Good news about verbs:
In spoken Sinhala, the present tense of a verb is the same as the future tense. The context is what will determine if one is talking in the future.
The verbs in present/future tense do not agree in gender or number to the subject.
Verbs in present/future tense will always end in /nə.va:/ නව
Pronouns precede the verbs, as they do in English. However, objects also precede the verb. In English, the objects follow the verb.
For example: I eat food
මම කෑම කනවා (literally: I food eat)
- Past tense for verbs is formed by dropping the final න
Expressing obligation:
In English, we express a sense of obligation by adding words such as must, have to, should, need to, etc. To create a sense of obligation in Sinhala:
1. Replace the final /və:/ of the present/future tense of the verb with /mə/
2. Add the word /o.ne/ after the verb.
Example: මම කනවා -- I eat
මට කන්නම ඔනෙ -- I must eat
