Let's Learn Sinhalese in English 11

Now that you know about (plain) tenses, you can learn how to use helping/auxiliary verbs with them. There are a few helping verbs in Sinhala. You place the helping verb after the normal present tense verb. The tense verb may be modified a little. Note that tense does not change in structure because in any tense you will find a “nava:” verb at the end (but the effect of tense is there in the meaning indeed).

You can use helping verbs with “be sentences” too. There is a common pattern here. When you use a helping verb with a “be sentence” having an adjective or a noun or a prepositional part, you should include “viya” or “venna/venda/vennata” just before the helping verb, and you must keep the adjective or noun as is (without any suffix). Optionally, when you use a helping verb with a “be sentence” having a prepositional part, you should include “inna/innata/inda” just before the helping verb. You will understand this more clearly with examples given below.

Buy the complete book online now.

Let’s learn helping verbs now one by one.

     1.      yuthui/o:na – must/should/ought to (required to do something)

     Here, the “Xnava:” part (“X represents any vowel sound) of a “nava:” verb is removed and “-iya” is appended. When that “nava:” verb’s beginning syllable rhymes like “na” (that is, there is a vowel sound “a”), then that syllable is changed to “nae” too; if it rhymes like “no”, then it is changed to “ne”. After this you just put “yuthui”.

    You can put “o:na”, but the verb is modified to infinitive form of the tense verb (that you learned before). Actually this form is better because it is easier to make, and some verbs can support this method only.

      venava: -> viya yuthui or venna/vennata/venda o:na (must be/happen/become)

      loku venava: -> loku viya yuthui or loku venna/venda/vennata o:na (must grow/become large)

      penenava: -> peniya yuthui or penenna/penennata/penenda o:na (must seem)

      vaetenava: -> vaetiya yuthui or vaetenna/vaetenda/vaetennata o:na (must fall)

      selavenava: -> selaviya yuthui or selavenna/selavenda/selavennata o:na (must be shaken)

      kiyavanava: -> kiyaviya yuthui or kiyavanna/kiyavanda/kiyavannata o:na (must read)


      paninava: -> paeniya yuthui or paninna/paninda/paninnata o:na (must jump)

      balanava: -> baeliya yuthui or balanna/balanda/balannata o:na (must look)

      navanava: -> naeviya yuthui or navanna/navanda/navannata o:na (must bend)

      baninava: -> baeniya yuthui or baninna/baninda/baninnata o:na (must scold)

      ravanava: -> raeviya yuthui or ravanna/ravannata/ravanda o:na (must frown)


      solavanava: -> selaviya yuthui or solavanna/solavanda/solavannata o:na (must shake)

      hoyanava: -> heviya yuthui or hoyanna/hoyanda/hoyannata o:na (must search)

There are irregular forms too. Specially the verb “karanava:” must be remembered because you find thousands of verbs having it; so all such verbs ending with “karanava:” behave in the same manner. Again remember that the “o:na” helping verb with the infinitive is same everywhere in form; so it is common and easy.

      karanava: -> kala yuthui or karanna/karannata/karanda o:na (must do)

      sellam karanava: -> sellam kala yuthui or sellam karanna/karanda/karannata o:na (must play)

      call karanava: -> call kala yuthui or call karanna/karannata/karanda o:na (must call)

      kanava: -> kae: yuthui or kanna/kannata/kanda o:na (must eat)

      bonava: -> biya yuthui or bonna/bonda/bonnata o:na (must drink)

      yanava: -> ya: yuthui or yanna/yanda/yannata o:na (must go)

      enava: -> a: yuthui or enna/enda/ennata o:na (must come)

      kiyanava: -> kiva/kiya yuthui or kiyanna/kiyanda/kiyannata o:na (must tell)

      uyanava: -> iviya yuthui or uyanna/uyanda/uyannata o:na (must cook)

      nidiyanava: -> nidiya yuthui or nidayanna/nidiyannata/nidiyanda o:na (must sleep)

      gannava: -> gatha yuthui or ganna/ganda/gannata o:na (must take)

      thiyenava: -> thibiya yuthui or thibenna/thibennata/thibenda o:na (must have/be there)

Now let’s see how to make sentences.

      Eya: heta potha kiyaviya yuthui.
      Eya: heta potha kiyavanna o:na.
      (He/She must read the book tomorrow.)

      Mama e:ka balanna o:na.
      Mama e:ka baeliya yuthui.
      (I should see/look at it.)

      Oya: adha bath uyanna o:na.
      Oya adha bath iviya yuthui.
      (You ought to cook rice today.)

      Gaha kapiya yuthui.
      Gaha kapanna o:na.
      (The tree should be cut.)

      Eya: potha kiyavamin/kiyava kiyava sitiya yuthui.
      Eya: potha kiyavamin/kiyava kiyava sitinna o:na.
      (She/He must be reading the book.)

In the perfect tenses, there is another popular method. Here, you put “thibuna:” at the end of the perfect tense verb, and the verb itself is changed to the infinitive. Optionally, you may append “-ta” to the doer.

      Mama e:ka balala: thibiya yuthui.
      Mama e:ka balala: thiyenna o:na.
      Mama/Mata e:ka balanna thibuna: . (when you suffix “-ta” to  mama, it becomes “mata”)
      (I should have seen it.)

      Eya: liyumak liya: thibiya yuthui.
      Eya: liyumak liya: thiyenna o:na.
      Eya:/Eya:ta liyumak liyanna thibuna: .
      (He/She should have written a letter.)

      Lamaya: sellam karamin/kara kara sitiya yuthui.
      Lamaya: sellam karamin/kara kara sitinna/inna o:na.
      Lamaya:/Lamaya:ta sellam karamin/kara kara inna/sitinna thibuna: .
      (The child should have been playing.)

      Gaha kapamin/kapa kapa sitiya yuthui.
      Gaha kapamin/kapa kapa inna/sitinna o:na.
      (The tree must be being cut.)

      Gaha kapala: thibiya yuthui.
      Gaha kapala: thiyenna o:na.
      Gaha kapanna thibuna: . (here “gaha” is not the doer, so “-ta” cannot be suffixed)
      (The tree should have been cut.)

      Mama lassanai. -> mama lassana viya yuthui.
                             -> mama lassana venna o:na.
                                (I should be/become beautiful.)

      Eya: kreedakayek. -> eya: kreedakayek viya yuthui.
                                  -> eya: kreedakayek venna o:na.
                                      (He should be/become a sportsman.)

      Api bus eke: . -> api bus eke: viya yuthui.
                               -> api bus eke: venna o:na.
                               -> api bus eke: inna o:na. (this form can only be used with “o:na”)
                                  (We should be in the bus.)

You can easily form the other variants of this sentence pattern. To form the positive question, append “-dha” at the end of the helping verb (“yuthuidha” is often simplified to “yuthudha”). To make the negative statement, put “naehae” after the helping verb (“yuthui” becomes “yuthu” here). To make the negative question, put “naedhdha” after the helping verb. In fact, you already knew those methods. Right?

      Eya: potha kiyaviya yuthuidha/yuthudha?
      Eya: potha kiyavanna o:nadha?
      (Should he/she read the book?)

      Eya: potha kiyaviya yuthu naehae.
      Eya: potha kiyavanna o:na naehae.
      (He/She should not read the book.)

      Eya: potha kiyaviya yuthu naedhdha?
      Eya: potha kiyavanna o:na naedhdha?
      (Should he/she not read the book?)

      Eya: potha kiyaviya yuthui ne:dha?
      Eya: potha kiyavanna o:na ne:dha?
      (He/She should read the book. Shouldn’t he/she?)

      Eya: potha kiyiya yuthu naehae ne:dha?
      Eya: potha kiyavanna o:na naehae ne:dha?
      (He/She should not read the book. Shouldn’t he?)

      Gaha kapamin/kapa kapa thibiya yuthudha?
      Gaha kapamin/kapa kapa thiyenna o:nadha?
      (Should the tree be being cut?)

      Gaha kapala: thibiya yuthu naehae.
      Gaha kapala: thiyenna o:na naehae.
      (The tree should not have been cut.)

     2.      puluvan – can

    Here too you put “puluvan” after the tense verb. The tense verb takes the infinitive form. Moreover, you should append “-ta” to the doer.

      Sherinta lassanata natanna puluvan. (Sherin can dance beautifully.)

      Sherinta lassanata natamin/nata nata inna puluvan. (Sherin can be dancing beautifully.)

      Eya:ta lassana venna puluvan. (She/He can be/become beautiful.)

      Apita pilotla: venna puluvan. (We can be/become pilots.)

      Mata panthiye: inna puluvan. (I can be in the class.) (With prepositional part, you have to use  “inna” only.)

    To make the negative statement, just replace “puluvan” with “baehae”. To make the positive question, append “-dha” to “puluvan”. And to make the negative question, append “-dha” to “baehae” (and often “baehaedha” is simplified to “baerida”).

      Sherinta natanna baehae. (Sherin cannot dance.)

      Sherinta natanna puluvandha? (Can Sherin dance?)
     
      Sherinta natanna baridha? (Can Sherin not dance?)
  
      Sherinta natanna puluvan ne:dha? (Sherin can dance. Can’t she?)

      Sherinta natanna baehae ne:dha? (Sherin cannot dance. Can she?)

     3.      puluvan vuna: - could (was able to)

     You do the same changes to the tense verb as you did in “puluvan” (can).

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan una: . (Doris could dance beautifully.)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri una: . (Doris could not dance beautifully.)

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan una:dha? (Could Doris dance beautifully?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri una:dha? (Could Doris not dance beautifully?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan una: ne:dha? (Doris could dance beautifully. Couldn’t she?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri una: ne:dha? (Doris could not dance beautifully. Could she?)


      Dorista natamin/nata nata inna puluvan una: . (Doris could/was able to be dancing.)


      Eya:ta e:ka ivara karala: thiyanna puluvan una: . (He/She could/was able to have finished it.)


      Gahak kapanna puluvan una: . (A tree could be cut.)


      Sherinta lassana venna puluvan una: . (Sherin could/was able to be/become beautiful.)

      Apita pilotla: venna puluvan una: . (We could/was able to be/become pilots.)

      Mata panthiye: inna puluvan una: . (I could/was able to be in the class.)

     You can make the future time sentence of “puluvan” (can/be able to) with “puluvan ve:vi” (will be able to). As you can see “ve:vi” is the future time form of “venava:”.

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan ve:vi. (Doris will be able to dance beautifully.)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri ve:vi. (Doris will not be able to dance beautifully.)

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan ve:vidha? (Will Doris be able to dance beautifully?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri ve:vidha? (Will Doris not be able to dance beautifully?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna puluvan ve:vi ne:dha? (Doris will be able to dance beautifully. Won’t she?)

      Dorista lassanata natanna baeri ve:vi ne:dha? (Doris will not be able to dance beautifully. Will she?)


      Dorista natamin/nata nata inna puluvan ve:vi. (Doris will be able to be dancing.)


      Eya:ta e:ka ivara karala: thiyanna puluvan ve:vi. (He/She will be able to have finished it.)


      Gahak kapanna puluvan ve:vi. (A tree will be able to be cut.)


      Sherinta lassana venna puluvan ve:vi. (Sherin will be able to be/become beautiful.)

      Apita pilotla: venna puluvan ve:vi. (We will be able to be/become pilots.)

      Mata panthiye: inna puluvan ve:vi. (I will be able to be in the class.)

  Next Lesson...