Speak local in Colombo

• ආයුබෝවන්ayubowanHello (and goodbye)
• ස්තූතියිstuh-tee-yiThank you
• සමාවෙන්නsa-maa-wen-naSorry / Excuse me
• ඔව් / නැහැow / neh-hehYes / No
• ඔයාට ඉංග්‍රීසි කතා කරන්න පුළුවන්ද?oyaa-ta ingreesi katha karanna puluwanda?Do you speak English?
• මට තේරෙන්නේ නැහැma-ta the-ren-ne neh-hehI don't understand

Emergency 119Police 119Ambulance 1990Fire 110

English goes a long way in Colombo, and Tamil is widely spoken too, especially in the north and east. A few words of Sinhala are warmly received; the romanisation below is approximate.

Read aloud by your device's own text-to-speech in Sinhala, so accents vary by phone and browser.