How to Type Sinhala on English Keyboard
Type Sinhala using only your English keyboard. Our Singlish system maps English letters to Sinhala characters — just type what you hear and the converter does the rest.
Type English phonetically, get Sinhala Unicode. The most popular way to type Sinhala online today.
Need FM Abhaya / Bhashitha style output? The converter also works with legacy font encoding.
Vowels ස්වර
Sinhala vowels are typed using the corresponding English vowel letters. Long vowels are typed by doubling the letter.
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| අ | a | Short A |
| ආ | aa | Long AA |
| ඇ | ae | Short AE |
| ඈ | aee | Long AEE |
| ඉ | i | Short I |
| ඊ | ii | Long II |
| උ | u | Short U |
| ඌ | uu | Long UU |
| එ | e | Short E |
| ඒ | ee | Long EE |
| ඔ | o | Short O |
| ඕ | oo | Long OO |
| ඓ | ai | Diphthong AI |
| ඖ | au | Diphthong AU |
| ං | x | Anusvāra (final nasal) |
Consonants ව්යඤ්ජන
Sinhala consonants are typed using the closest English letter(s). Add h for aspirated sounds, use capital letters for retroflex sounds.
Gutturals ක වර්ගය
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ක | ka / ca | Velar 'k' |
| ඛ | Ka | Aspirated 'kh' (capital K) |
| ග | ga | Voiced 'g' |
| ඝ | Ga | Aspirated 'gh' (capital G) |
| ඞ | nga | Velar nasal 'ng' |
| ඟ | ga' | Pre-nasalized 'g' |
Palatals ච වර්ගය
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ච | cha | Palatal 'ch' |
| ඡ | CHa | Aspirated 'chh' (capital CH) |
| ජ | ja | Voiced 'j' |
| ඣ | jha | Aspirated 'jh' |
| ඤ | ngja | Palatal nasal 'ñ' |
| ඥ | Z | Special palatal nasal |
| ඦ | ja' | Pre-nasalized 'j' |
Retroflex ට වර්ගය
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ට | ta | Retroflex 'ṭ' |
| ඨ | Ta | Aspirated 'ṭh' (capital T) |
| ඩ | da | Retroflex 'ḍ' |
| ඪ | Da | Aspirated 'ḍh' (capital D) |
| ණ | Na | Retroflex 'ṇ' (capital N) |
| ඬ | da' | Pre-nasalized 'ḍ' |
Dentals ත වර්ගය
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ත | tha | Dental 't' (soft 'th') |
| ථ | THa | Aspirated dental 'th' (capital TH) |
| ද | dha | Dental 'd' (soft 'dh') |
| ධ | DHa | Aspirated dental 'dh' (capital DH) |
| න | na | Dental 'n' |
| ඳ | dha' | Pre-nasalized dental 'd' |
Labials ප වර්ගය
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ප | pa | Labial 'p' |
| ඵ | Pa | Aspirated 'ph' (capital P) |
| බ | ba | Voiced 'b' |
| භ | Ba | Aspirated 'bh' (capital B) |
| ම | ma | Labial 'm' |
| ඹ | ba' | Pre-nasalized 'b' |
Other Consonants
| Sinhala | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ය | ya | Approximant 'y' |
| ර | ra | Trill 'r' |
| ල | la | Dental 'l' |
| ව | wa / va | Labial approximant 'v/w' |
| ශ | sha | Palatal 'ś' |
| ෂ | SHa | Retroflex 'ṣ' (capital SH) |
| ස | sa | Dental 's' |
| හ | ha | Glottal 'h' |
| ළ | La | Retroflex 'ḷ' (capital L) |
| ෆ | fa | Foreign 'f' |
Vowel Signs (Pili) පිලි
When a vowel follows a consonant, it's written as a vowel sign (pili) attached to the consonant. The hal letter (consonant without vowel) is typed by pressing the vowel letter without a.
| Example | Vowel Sign | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ක් | ◌් | k | Hal kirīma — pure consonant |
| කා | ◌ා | kaa | Ā sign |
| කැ | ◌ැ | kae | Æ sign |
| කෑ | ◌ෑ | kaee | Long Æ sign |
| කි | ◌ි | ki | I sign |
| කී | ◌ී | kii | Ī sign |
| කු | ◌ු | ku | U sign |
| කූ | ◌ූ | kuu | Ū sign |
| කෙ | ◌ෙ | ke | E sign |
| කේ | ◌ේ | kee | Ē sign |
| කෛ | ◌ෛ | kai | Ai sign |
| කො | ◌ො | ko | O sign |
| කෝ | ◌ෝ | koo | Ō sign |
| කෞ | ◌ෞ | kau | Au sign |
💡 Tip: Type the consonant key first and then its vowel sequence. The engine places pre-posed Sinhala signs correctly in the output. Example: type
kema → කෙම.
Combined Consonants බැඳි අකුරු
Some common conjuncts can be typed with shortcuts:
| Sinhala | Type |
|---|---|
| ක්ෂ | ksha / ksh |
| ක්ව | kwa / kw / kva / kv |
| ද්ව | dwa / dw / dva / dv |
| ත්ව | twa / tw / tva / tv |
| ප්ල | pla / pl |
| ස්ක | ska / sk |
| ස්ප | spa / sp |
| ස්ට | sta / st |
| ජ්ඥ | jjha / jjh |
| න්ඩ | nda / nd |
| ර්ක | rka |
| ර්ග | rga |
| ර්ථ | rtha |
| ර්ධ | rdha |
Typing Tips උපදෙස්
🔤 Hal Kirīma
To get a pure consonant (hal), just omit the a ending. Type k for ක්, m for ම්.
🔄 Capital Letters
Capital letters give you aspirated sounds. K → ඛ, G → ඝ, T → ඨ, D → ඪ, P → ඵ, B → භ.
🔁 Double Letters
Double vowels for long sounds: aa → ආ, ii → ඊ, uu → ඌ, ee → ඒ, oo → ඕ.
📝 Pre-posed Signs
For combined පෙර තැබෙන පිලි (e, ee, ai, o, oo), type the consonant first and then the vowel sequence. kes → කෙස්.
🎯 Touch Typing
SinKey desktop tool installs a native Sinhala keyboard layout on Windows so you can type Sinhala in any app without visiting the website.
⚡ Quick Picks
Common starting keys: a, aa, ka, ga, dha, wa, x (anusvāra), fa.
💡 Pro Tip: The MyFonts.lk Converter works in real-time. Type or paste Singlish and it instantly transforms to Sinhala Unicode. Switch to Legacy mode if you need FM Bhashitha / FM Abhaya output.
Legacy Font Encoding පැරණි අකුරු
Before Unicode became widespread, Sinhala fonts used custom encodings (FM Abhaya, FM Bhashitha, etc.) where English keys were mapped to Sinhala glyphs. Our converter supports this too:
- Unicode Mode — Converts Singlish to standard Sinhala Unicode. Works everywhere: websites, emails, Office 365, social media.
- Legacy Mode — Converts Singlish to legacy font encoding. Use this when working with older documents that use FM Abhaya / FM Bhashitha fonts.
- Unicode → Legacy reverse — Paste Unicode text and get the legacy encoding equivalent.
- Legacy → Unicode reverse — Convert old legacy encoded text into modern Unicode.
📌 Note: Legacy fonts are installed on your computer. The converter only handles the text encoding. Download legacy fonts from the Fonts page.
SinKey Desktop Tool SinKey මෙවලම
SinKey is a native Windows keyboard layout for Sinhala typing. Once installed, it works in every application — Word, Excel, Chrome, Notepad, Photoshop, etc.
🔧 Auto-install
Downloads as a simple installer. Run it once and your keyboard layout is ready in Windows language settings.
⌨️ System-wide
Switch between English and Sinhala with Alt+Shift or the Windows language bar. No copying/pasting needed.
🔑 License Required
SinKey requires a paid license. Purchase from the License page. Check your license status there after purchase.
📥 Download
Get the latest SinKey installer from the SinKey Tool page. Available for Windows 10 and 11.
Worked Examples උදාහරණ
Let's walk through real Sinhala words and sentences step by step.
Example 1: ආයුබෝවන් (Hello)
Type: ayubowan
a → අ, yu → යු, bo → බො, wan → වන්
Result: ආයුබෝවන්
Example 2: සිංහල (Sinhala)
Type: sinhala
si → සි, x → ං (anusvara), ha → හ, la → ල
Result: සිංහල
Example 3: කොළඹ (Colombo)
Type: kolamba
ko → කො, la → ල, mba → ම්බ
Result: කොළඹ
Full Sentence Example
Input: mama oya lesa sinhala katha karanawa
Breakdown: mama→මම, oya→ඔය, lesa→ලෙස, sinhala→සිංහල, katha→කතා, karanawa→කරනවා
Output: මම ඔය ලෙස සිංහල කතා කරනවා
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I type "බොහොම"?
Type bohoma. The pre-posed 'o' (◌ො) comes first in Singlish: bo → බො, ho → හො, ma → ම.
How do I type "කැමති"?
Type kamethi. ka → ක, me → ැ (Æ sign on ම → මැ), thi → ති.
What's the difference between ත and ට?
tha → ත (dental, soft, like Spanish 't'). ta → ට (retroflex, hard, tongue curled back). These are distinct sounds in Sinhala.
How do I type "අම්මා"?
Type ammaa. a → අ, mm → ම්ම, aa → ා.
How do I combine "ය" with "ක"?
Type kya → ක්ය. The hal + ya combination uses ky + vowel. For example: kya → ක්ය, kyaa → ක්යා.
Can I use this on mobile?
Yes! The Converter works on any device with a browser. For native mobile typing, you may need a third-party keyboard app.
Video Tutorials
Step-by-step video tutorials will appear here after they are published.
Visit the YouTube channelReady to type Sinhala?
Try the live converter, download SinKey, or browse fonts. The online converter and font downloads are free; SinKey requires a paid license.