Typing Guide

How it works

As you type a word in Latin letters, EasyAkuru shows a numbered suggestion list near the text caret, the way the old Google IME for Windows did: your typed Latin text on top, then up to 9 suggestions per page, starting with the direct transliteration and followed by real Sinhala words that start with what you've typed so far. Pressing Space, Enter, Tab, a punctuation key, or a digit commits the highlighted suggestion and replaces the Latin text already on screen with its Sinhala rendering. For example, typing mama gives මම, and api gives අපි. See Word suggestions below for the full list of keys.

Sinhala is an abugida: a consonant letter already carries a short "a" sound unless a vowel sign replaces it or a virama (hal kirīma, ්) removes it entirely. The rules below follow from that one idea.

The hal (virama) rule

Every consonant keeps its built-in "a" sound unless you type a vowel sign after it or it is followed by another consonant, punctuation, or the end of the word — in which case EasyAkuru automatically adds the virama (්) to cancel the vowel. You never type the virama yourself.

You type	Result	Why
`ka`	ක	consonant + inherent "a" (typed explicitly)
`k`	ක්	consonant with nothing after it: virama added automatically
`gaman`	ගමන්	word-final consonant with no vowel typed: virama added

The inherent vowel is never assumed for you — if you want ම you type ma, not just m. This matches Google Input Tools' and Helakuru's convention, and is why visin gives විසින් and ekak gives එකක්, while mama keeps both its inherent vowels and gives මම.

Independent vowels

Used at the start of a word, or when a vowel follows another vowel.

Latin	Sinhala	Latin	Sinhala
`a`	අ	`e`	එ
`aa`, `A`	ආ	`ee`, `E`	ඒ
`ae`	ඇ	`ai`	ඓ
`aae`, `Ae`	ඈ	`o`	ඔ
`i`	ඉ	`oo`, `O`	ඕ
`ii`, `I`	ඊ	`au`	ඖ
`u`	උ	`R`	ඍ (vocalic r)
`uu`, `U`	ඌ	`RR`	ඎ (long vocalic r)

Dependent vowel signs

Typed right after a consonant; they replace its inherent "a" (the "a" sign itself is never typed — it's the default). For example ki gives කි and koo gives කෝ.

After a consonant	Sign	After a consonant	Sign
`aa`, `A`	ා	`ee`, `E`	ේ
`ae`	ැ	`ai`	ෛ
`aae`, `Ae`	ෑ	`o`	ො
`i`	ි	`oo`, `O`	ෝ
`ii`, `I`	ී	`au`	ෞ
`u`	ු	`R`	ෘ (vocalic r, e.g. `kRShi` → කෘෂි)
`uu`, `U`	ූ	`RR`	ෲ (long vocalic r)

Consonants

Capital letters (T D N L Sh) are how you reach the retroflex sounds — English has no separate letters for dental vs. retroflex consonants, so capitalisation is the convention. A doubled letter is not a shortcut for these; it means gemination instead (see below), so type the capital deliberately.

Latin	Sinhala	Latin	Sinhala	Latin	Sinhala
`k`	ක	`t`, `T`	ට (retroflex)	`p`	ප
`kh`	ඛ	`th`	ත (dental)	`ph`	ඵ
`g`	ග	`thh`	ථ (dental aspirated)	`f`	ෆ
`gh`	ඝ	`Th`	ඨ (retroflex aspirated)	`b`	බ
`nG`	ඞ	`d`	ද (dental)	`bh`	භ
`ch`, `c`	ච	`dh`	ධ (dental aspirated)	`m`	ම
`chh`	ඡ	`D`	ඩ (retroflex)	`y`	ය
`j`	ජ	`Dh`	ඪ (retroflex aspirated)	`r`	ර
`jh`	ඣ	`N`	ණ (retroflex)	`l`	ල
`nY`	ඤ	`n`	න	`L`	ළ (retroflex)
`jny`	ඥ			`v`, `w`	ව
				`Sh`	ෂ (retroflex)
				`sh`	ශ
				`s`	ස
				`h`	හ
				`z`	ස (no native "z" sound; maps to ස)

ඞ/ඤ are spelled nG/nY, not ng/ny — plain n+g and n+y stay ordinary consonant clusters, because they're far more common (ballangee → බල්ලන්ගේ, saamaanya → සාමාන්‍ය).

Sanyaka (prenasalized) consonants

z is otherwise a stand-in for "s", so it's free to prefix the prenasalized stops.

Latin	Sinhala	Example
`zg`	ඟ
`zj`	ඦ
`zD`	ඬ
`zd`	ඳ	`hozda` → හොඳ (good)
`zb`	ඹ

Gemination (doubled consonants)

Doubling a consonant letter spells a genuine geminated consonant — a virama followed by a repeat of the same letter — rather than a shortcut to a retroflex sound. That's why the retroflex sounds have their own dedicated capital letters instead of doubled spellings.

You type	Result
`malli`	මල්ලි (younger brother)
`enne`	එන්නෙ

Conjuncts: rakāraṃśaya and yansaya

A consonant followed by r or y and then a vowel, mid-word, forms a conjunct: the virama is followed by a zero-width joiner and the conjunct consonant, instead of a plain cluster.

Pattern	You type	Result	Note
rakāraṃśaya (consonant + r + vowel)	`krama`	ක්‍රම	method
yansaya (consonant + y + vowel)	`vyaapaaraya`	ව්‍යාපාරය	business
ර + ය (no joiner)	`kaarya`	කාර්ය	work — repaya + ය is a plain cluster, not a yansaya
ර + ය (no joiner)	`aachaarya`	ආචාර්ය	teacher
ර + ය (no joiner)	`suurya`	සූර්ය	sun

Anusvara — `M`

Capital M adds the anusvara (ං) to the end of a syllable that already has its vowel — it attaches rather than replacing anything, unlike a dependent vowel sign.

You type	Result
`laMkaa`	ලංකා (Lanka)
`siMhala`	සිංහල (Sinhala)
`kM`	කං

Syllable break — `q`

q emits nothing; it just ends the current syllable, the same way punctuation would. It exists for the rare cases where the default conjunct/vowel reading is also a real spelling, so only a dictionary could pick correctly:

You type	Result	Without `q`
`kalqyaama`	කල්යාම (plain hal + ය)	`kalyaaNa` → කල්‍යාණ (yansaya)
`vagaquththarakaru`	වගඋත්තරකරු (vowel hiatus across a compound boundary)	`vagau...` would read as the ෞ sign
`avasanqya`	අවසන්ය	would otherwise get an unwanted yansaya

Common words

You type	Result	Meaning
`mama`	මම	I
`api`	අපි	we
`kohomada`	කොහොමද	how / how are you
`karanawaa`	කරනවා	do / doing
`yanawaa`	යනවා	go / going
`kanawaa`	කනවා	eat / eating
`sthuthiyi`	ස්තුතියි	thank you
`aayuboovan`	ආයුබෝවන්	traditional greeting
`koheda`	කොහෙද	where
`mokakda`	මොකක්ද	what
`laMkaawa`	ලංකාව	Sri Lanka
`puluwan`	පුලුවන්	can / possible
`gedara`	ගෙදර	home
`ammaa`	අම්මා	mother
`thaaththaa`	තාත්තා	father

Word suggestions

EasyAkuru's suggestion list works the way the old Google IME for Windows did. As you type, it shows your typed Latin text on top, then a vertical, numbered list of up to 9 suggestions:

The first suggestion is always the literal transliteration of what you typed.
The rest are real Sinhala words that start with what you've typed so far, found with fuzzy "sounds-like" matching — so typing vyaparaya also finds ව්‍යාපාරය (which is properly spelled vyaapaaraya), even without the doubled vowels.
Suggestions are ranked by how common the word is in general, and by how often you have used it before.
If there are more than 9 matches, they continue onto further pages, up to 3 pages (27 suggestions) in total.

Key	Action
`1`–`9`	Pick that numbered suggestion on the current page and commit it
`↑` / `↓`	Move the highlighted suggestion
`Page Down` / `Page Up`, or `=` / `-`	Go to the next / previous page of suggestions
Mouse click	Pick the suggestion you click on and commit it
`Space`, `Enter`, `Tab`, punctuation	Commit the highlighted suggestion, then type the key itself
`Backspace`	Edit the Latin word (deletes the last Latin letter, re-previews)
`Esc`	Keep the raw Latin letters you typed and close the list
`Ctrl` + `Space`	Toggle EasyAkuru on/off entirely, from anywhere

Built-in word list

The real Sinhala words EasyAkuru can suggest come from a built-in word list derived from Sinhala Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikibooks content (CC BY-SA 4.0) plus hand-made lists of everyday and spoken words. This list ships with the app and contains no personal data.

Learning your words

Whenever you commit a word, EasyAkuru counts it in %AppData%\EasyAkuru\word-usage.json on your PC — the Sinhala word, the Latin spelling(s) you typed for it, a use count and when you last used it — a few seconds after you commit it. This never happens in a recognized password field, and nothing is ever sent anywhere. Open EasyAkuru's Settings window and choose Clear learned words to erase this history (or delete the file yourself); EasyAkuru then starts ranking suggestions from scratch again. See the Privacy page for full details.

Need help with installing, enabling, or troubleshooting instead of the typing rules? See the Support page.