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English to Sinhala translator

English to Sinhala translation, in written or spoken Sinhala

Sinhala, sometimes called Sinhalese in English, is written in two quite different styles. Notices, letters, bank messages and news use literary Sinhala, with its own verb endings and the neutral ඔබ for 'you'. Messages between friends and family use spoken Sinhala, which has simpler verbs and says ඔයා. On this page, Formal gives you the written style and Informal the spoken one, so choose before you translate: moving a text from one to the other means rewriting almost every verb.

Below are two English to Sinhala translations the page produced, a bank notice about a new debit card and an Avurudu message to a friend, printed exactly as they came back. Each is followed by what a Sri Lankan reader would notice. After them come the ways Sinhala handles 'you', the Sinhala names of towns like Kandy and Galle, the festival words that should never be translated, and a spelling detail that breaks Sinhala text when it is pasted into the wrong place.

Why is my Sinhala translation so formal?

Because written Sinhala is formal by nature. Notices, letters and most printed text use literary Sinhala, with forms like ලබාගත හැකිය and the pronoun ඔබ, which nobody uses in conversation. For a message to a friend or relative, set the register to Informal: the translator then writes spoken Sinhala, with ඔයා, spoken verbs such as යනවා, and everyday words.

Real English to Sinhala translations from this page

Each one was run through the translator above and printed exactly as it came back, with a note on what to look for.

A bank message about a card

English42 words

Dear customer, your new debit card is ready and can be collected from the Kandy branch from Monday. Please bring your national identity card. The old card will stop working on 31 October. Never share your PIN with anyone, including bank staff.

Sinhala · Formal44 words

හිතවත් පාරිභෝගික මහත්මයාණෙනි/මහත්මියණෙනි, ඔබගේ නව ඩෙබිට් කාඩ්පත සූදානම් කර ඇති අතර සඳුදා සිට මහනුවර ශාඛාවෙන් ලබාගත හැකිය. කරුණාකර ඔබගේ ජාතික හැඳුනුම්පත රැගෙන එන්න. පැරණි කාඩ්පත ඔක්තෝබර් 31 දින සිට ක්‍රියා නොකරනු ඇත. බැංකු කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය ඇතුළුව කිසිවෙකු සමඟවත් ඔබගේ PIN අංකය කිසිවිටෙක බෙදා නොගන්න.

Translated by this tool on 30 September 2026 and printed unedited.

This is correct written Sinhala of the kind a bank sends. The opening හිතවත් පාරිභෝගික මහත්මයාණෙනි/මහත්මියණෙනි covers both sir and madam, since the English gave no gender, and the verbs are literary throughout: ලබාගත හැකිය, 'can be obtained', and ක්‍රියා නොකරනු ඇත, 'will not function'.
Kandy became මහනුවර, its Sinhala name, rather than a Sinhala spelling of 'Kandy'. That is the name a Sinhala reader knows the city by, and a transliteration would have looked like a foreigner's letter.
The banking terms are the standard ones: ජාතික හැඳුනුම්පත for national identity card, ශාඛාව for branch, and ඩෙබිට් කාඩ්පත for debit card, with debit kept as an English loan and card as කාඩ්පත. PIN stayed in Latin letters as PIN අංකය, 'PIN number', a common way to write it in Sinhala.
The warning at the end is clear and firm: බැංකු කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය ඇතුළුව, 'including bank staff', comes first, then කිසිවෙකු සමඟවත් ... කිසිවිටෙක බෙදා නොගන්න, 'never share with anyone at all'. The one thing an editor might touch is ඔබගේ, which appears three times; Sinhala often leaves 'your' out where the meaning is already clear.

A New Year message to a friend

English37 words

Happy Avurudu, machan! Are you going to your village for the New Year? We are making kavum and kokis at home this year. Come over after the auspicious time and we'll play some games like old times.

Sinhala · Informal27 words

සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා, මචං! මේ අලුත් අවුරුද්දට ඔයා ගමේ යනවද? මේ අවුරුද්දේ අපි ගෙදර කවුම් සහ කොකිස් හදනවා. නැකතට පස්සේ මෙහෙ එන්න, ඉස්සර වගේ සෙල්ලම් කරමු.

Translated by this tool on 30 September 2026 and printed unedited.

The greeting is the one Sri Lankans actually use: සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා, 'may it be a happy new year'. Machan stayed as මචං, the same slang in Sinhala as in Sri Lankan English, which keeps the tone of the original.
The rest is spoken Sinhala, which suits a friend: ඔයා for 'you', the spoken question ගමේ යනවද, the spoken words මෙහෙ ('here') and පස්සේ ('after'), and සෙල්ලම් කරමු, 'let's play'. ගමේ on its own points to the home village, so 'your village' did not need ඔයාගේ.
'The auspicious time' became නැකත, the exact word for the Avurudu times fixed by astrologers, which is better than any literal translation. Kavum and kokis were kept as food names, as they should be, though the sweet is more often spelled කැවුම්, with the ැ vowel sign, than කවුම් as written here.
Two small things a Sri Lankan might change. සහ in කවුම් සහ කොකිස් is the written 'and'; speech links nouns with -යි ... -යි instead. And එන්න is a polite, neutral 'come'; between close friends who call each other machan, වරෙන් is the more matey form, though එන්න is not wrong.

Written Sinhala and spoken Sinhala

Most languages have a formal style and a casual one. Sinhala goes further: its written and spoken forms differ in grammar, not only in vocabulary. In literary Sinhala the verb changes with the subject, so 'I go' and 'he goes' end differently. In spoken Sinhala one form, යනවා, serves every subject. Written Sinhala also has its own words for everyday things like 'here' and 'after'.

The two samples on this page sit at the two ends. The bank message is entirely literary; the Avurudu message is entirely spoken. The table puts the forms side by side.

English	Written Sinhala	Spoken Sinhala
can be collected	ලබාගත හැකිය	ගන්න පුළුවන්
will not work	ක්‍රියා නොකරනු ඇත	වැඩ කරන්නේ නැහැ
I go	මම යමි	මම යනවා
he goes	ඔහු යයි	එයා යනවා
here	මෙහි	මෙහෙ
Mum and Dad	අම්මා සහ තාත්තා	අම්මයි තාත්තයි

Mixing the two in one text is something a Sinhala reader notices at once. A literary verb in a message to a friend sounds like a newspaper, and a spoken one in a bank notice looks careless. If you leave the selector on Match source tone and your English sits somewhere in between, check which style the result chose, and switch to Formal or Informal if it is not the one you want.

ඔබ, ඔයා and the Sinhala habit of avoiding 'you'

Sinhala has more words for 'you' than a Formal and Informal switch can show, and in speech people often avoid all of them. ඔබ is the written word: right in the bank notice, odd if said aloud to the person in front of you. In conversation Sri Lankans tend to address people by a title or a kinship word, calling an older man අයියා or a teacher සර් or මිස්, and keep ඔයා for friends and family.

Word	Where you meet it	Careful with
ඔබ	Notices, letters, adverts, bank messages	Sounds distant said to a friend
ඔබතුමා / ඔබතුමිය	Letters and speech to someone senior	Too heavy for everyday use
ඔයා	Friends, family, colleagues your age	Too familiar for a customer
උඹ	Very close friends	Rude to anyone else
අයියා, අක්කා, මල්ලී, නංගී	Older brother, older sister, younger brother, younger sister, and people of that age	Used instead of 'you', not with it

The translator writes ඔබ on Formal and ඔයා on Informal. If your English is written to one particular person, such as an aunt or a customer you know by name, you may get a warmer result by putting their name or title into the English where you would have written 'you'.

Sinhala place names: Kandy is මහනුවර

Several Sri Lankan towns have English names that are not the names Sinhala speakers use. The bank sample handled Kandy correctly, and the same rule applies across the island: a Sinhala text should use the Sinhala name, not a Sinhala spelling of the English one.

English	Sinhala
Kandy	මහනුවර (often just නුවර in speech)
Colombo	කොළඹ
Galle	ගාල්ල
Jaffna	යාපනය
Trincomalee	ත්‍රිකුණාමලය
Nuwara Eliya	නුවරඑළිය

Names of branches, streets and companies are a different case. If a bank calls a branch by an English name in every language, select that name in your English and press Keep, so it comes through exactly as the bank writes it.

Avurudu, nakath and other words to keep as they are

Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Avurudu, falls in April and brings its own vocabulary. Nakath (නැකත) are the auspicious times, worked out in advance by astrologers, for rituals such as lighting the hearth, the first meal of the new year and anointing with oil. Kavum are oil cakes and kokis are crisp fried rice-flour snacks, and both sit on the Avurudu table next to kiribath, milk rice. None of these has an English equivalent.

A good English to Sinhala translation turns them back into their own words rather than translating an English description. The sample did exactly that with නැකත, and it kept the greeting in its fixed form, සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා. If your English already uses a Sri Lankan English word such as machan, Avurudu or kiribath, leave it in rather than explaining it; the sample shows the Sinhala word coming straight back.

Pasting Sinhala: the invisible joiner and Singlish

Sinhala script uses an invisible character, the zero-width joiner, to build some letter combinations. In ක්‍රියා, from the bank sample, the joiner sits between the virama and ර, so the ර is written as the small combined stroke called the rakaransaya. Without the joiner the same letters show as ක්රියා, with a visible virama and a full ර, which a Sinhala reader sees as a spelling error. Some older systems, text-message gateways and design tools drop the joiner, so check a line containing ්‍ර or ්‍ය before you print a notice or send it in bulk. Downloading the translation as a Word file or PDF keeps the characters as they are.

Sinhala typed in Latin letters, often called Singlish, is common in chats. It has no fixed spelling, and the translator writes Sinhala in Sinhala script, as both samples show. If your reader prefers Singlish, read the script version and type it out the way they would.

Mistakes to check before you send

Written verbs in a text to a friend

Endings like හැකිය and නොකරනු ඇත in a message to a friend sound like a notice. Switch to Informal for spoken Sinhala.

ඔයා in a notice or a letter to a customer

Spoken Sinhala in a bank, school or office notice looks unprofessional. Use Formal, which writes ඔබ and literary verbs.

English town names spelled in Sinhala

A Sinhala reader expects මහනුවර, not a spelling of Kandy. Check every place name against the table above.

Festival words explained instead of named

If the Sinhala describes 'an auspicious time' or 'oil cakes' in a phrase, replace it with නැකත or කැවුම්.

Broken letters after pasting

If ක්‍රියා turns into ක්රියා with a visible virama, the joiner was dropped. Paste again from the translator or use the Word download.

A public notice in Sinhala only

Sri Lankan notices meant for the whole public usually appear in Sinhala, Tamil and English. If your readers include Tamil speakers, run the same English through English to Tamil as well.

Birth and marriage certificates, deeds, court papers and documents for an embassy or immigration office should be translated by a sworn translator; use this page for notices, emails and messages, and to understand documents you receive.

English to Sinhala translation questions

Is Sinhala the same as Sinhalese?

Yes. Sinhala and Sinhalese are two English names for the same language, written in Sinhala script. Sinhala is the name used in Sri Lanka today and on this translator; Sinhalese is the older English form and is also used for the people.

How do I wish someone a happy Sinhala New Year?

The usual greeting is සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා, 'may it be a happy new year', which is what the translator produced in the sample above. It is a fixed phrase, so it works for friends, family and cards alike.

How do I say 'you' to a friend in Sinhala?

ඔයා is the usual word for friends and family, and the Informal register uses it. ඔබ is for writing and sounds distant said to a friend, while උඹ is only for very close friends and is rude to anyone else.

What is the Sinhala name for Kandy?

මහනුවර (Mahanuwara), often shortened to නුවර in speech. The translator used මහනුවර in the bank sample above. Galle (ගාල්ල) and Jaffna (යාපනය) are two more towns whose Sinhala names differ from the English.

Why do some Sinhala letters look broken after I paste them?

Combinations like ්‍ර and ්‍ය depend on an invisible joiner character. Some apps and older systems drop it and the letters fall apart. Copy the text again from the result, or download it as Word or PDF, and check it before sending.

Should a Sri Lankan notice also be in Tamil?

If it is meant for the general public, usually yes. Sinhala and Tamil are both official languages of Sri Lanka and English is used alongside them, so government and bank notices commonly appear in all three. The English to Tamil page handles the Tamil version.

How can I check a Sinhala translation if I can't read it?

Press Use as source to put the Sinhala into the input box, translate it back into English and compare the meaning with your original. Where a sentence has drifted, click it in the result for up to three alternative wordings, or press Retranslate.

Written and checked by the AI Writing Assistant team. Last reviewed 30 September 2026.