• 79 letters

Sinhala Hodiya Letters

Tap a Sinhala letter to copy it: the hodiya in order, with vowel strokes and a Latin spelling under each.

Sinhala Hodiya Letters

අSinhala aU+0D85Ready to copy

79 letters. Tap one to copy it.

Vowels 18

Consonants 41

Vowel strokes on ක 20

Next step Next script: the Tamil letters chart

How it works

The Sinhala hodiya, all the Sinhala alphabet letters in their order: 18 vowels, 41 consonants, then every vowel stroke shown on ක. Each letter is marked pure set or mixed set.

Read the full guide

Two sets, one hodiya

The pure set, the śuddha or Eḷu hodiya, has 12 vowels and 24 consonants and can write every native sound of modern Sinhala. The mixed set, the miśra, is the pure set and 23 letters more, most of them for loanwords from Sanskrit, Pali or English.

Writing Sinhala letters

Sinhala runs from left to right and has no capitals. A consonant is read with a until a stroke changes it: ක is ka, කි is ki, ක් is a bare k. Almost no letter has a straight line, because straight strokes split the dried palm leaves the script was once written on.

  • Letter names end in -yanna: අ is ayanna, ක is kayanna.
  • ඦ is part of the standard alphabet but is not used in modern or old Sinhala.
  • The strokes for u and ū change shape on ක: කු, කූ.

Questions and answers

How many letters are in the Sinhalese alphabet?

59 on this page: 18 vowels and 41 consonants. The pure set has 36 of them and the mixed set adds the other 23. The marks ං and ඃ are shown on ක.

What is the Sri Lanka alphabet called?

The Sinhala script, or Sinhalese script. The Sinhalese people and most Sri Lankans use it to write the Sinhalese language, and it also writes Pali and Sanskrit.

Where does Sinhalese writing come from?

It is one of the Brahmic scripts, a descendant of the Brahmi script of ancient India, and is thought to derive from the Grantha script.

Are Sinhala characters in Unicode?

Yes, since Unicode 3.0, in the Sinhala block from U+0D80 to U+0DFF. The list under the chart gives the code point of each letter.

All 79 letters

Vowels 18

  • Sinhala a U+0D85 Sinhala letter ayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 1 of 18; IPA a. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. It has no stroke: a consonant with no mark is already read with it, as in ක ka.
  • Sinhala ā U+0D86 Sinhala letter aayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 2 of 18; IPA aː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ා, as in කා kā.
  • Sinhala ai U+0D93 Sinhala letter aiyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 15 of 18; IPA aj. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෛ, as in කෛ kai.
  • Sinhala au U+0D96 Sinhala letter auyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 18 of 18; IPA au. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෞ, as in කෞ kau.
  • Sinhala e U+0D91 Sinhala letter eyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 13 of 18; IPA e. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෙ, as in කෙ ke.
Show all 79 letters (74 more)

Vowels, continued

  • Sinhala ē U+0D92 Sinhala letter eeyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 14 of 18; IPA eː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ේ, as in කේ kē.
  • Sinhala i U+0D89 Sinhala letter iyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 5 of 18; IPA i. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ි, as in කි ki.
  • Sinhala ī U+0D8A Sinhala letter iiyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 6 of 18; IPA iː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ී, as in කී kī.
  • Sinhala l̥ U+0D8F Sinhala letter iluyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 11 of 18; IPA li. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෟ, as in කෟ kl̥.
  • Sinhala l̥̄ U+0D90 Sinhala letter iluuyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 12 of 18; IPA liː. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෳ, as in කෳ kl̥̄.
  • Sinhala o U+0D94 Sinhala letter oyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 16 of 18; IPA o. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ො, as in කො ko.
  • Sinhala ō U+0D95 Sinhala letter ooyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 17 of 18; IPA oː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෝ, as in කෝ kō.
  • Sinhala r̥ U+0D8D Sinhala letter iruyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 9 of 18; IPA ru. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෘ, as in කෘ kru.
  • Sinhala r̥̄ U+0D8E Sinhala letter iruuyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 10 of 18; IPA ruː. In the mixed set only, the miśra. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෲ, as in කෲ krū.
  • Sinhala u U+0D8B Sinhala letter uyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 7 of 18; IPA u. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ු, as in කු ku.
  • Sinhala ū U+0D8C Sinhala letter uuyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 8 of 18; IPA uː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ූ, as in කූ kū.
  • Sinhala æ U+0D87 Sinhala letter aeyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 3 of 18; IPA æ. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ැ, as in කැ kæ.
  • Sinhala ǣ U+0D88 Sinhala letter aeeyanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Vowel 4 of 18; IPA æː. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha. After a consonant it is written as the stroke ෑ, as in කෑ kǣ.

Consonants 41

  • Sinhala ba U+0DB6 Sinhala letter alpapraana bayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 28 of 41; IPA ba. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala bha U+0DB7 Sinhala letter mahaapraana bayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 29 of 41; IPA ba. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ca U+0DA0 Sinhala letter alpapraana cayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 7 of 41; IPA tʃa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala cha U+0DA1 Sinhala letter mahaapraana cayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 8 of 41; IPA tʃa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala da U+0DAF Sinhala letter alpapraana dayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 22 of 41; IPA da. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ḍa U+0DA9 Sinhala letter alpapraana ddayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 16 of 41; IPA ɖa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala dha U+0DB0 Sinhala letter mahaapraana dayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 23 of 41; IPA da. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ḍha U+0DAA Sinhala letter mahaapraana ddayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 17 of 41; IPA ɖa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala fa U+0DC6 Sinhala letter fayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 41 of 41; IPA f. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ga U+0D9C Sinhala letter alpapraana gayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 3 of 41; IPA ga. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala gha U+0D9D Sinhala letter mahaapraana gayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 4 of 41; IPA ga. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ha U+0DC4 Sinhala letter hayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 39 of 41; IPA ɦa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ja U+0DA2 Sinhala letter alpapraana jayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 9 of 41; IPA dʒa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala jha U+0DA3 Sinhala letter mahaapraana jayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 10 of 41; IPA dʒa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala jña U+0DA5 Sinhala letter taaluja sanyooga naaksikyaya. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 11 of 41; IPA d͡ʒɲa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ka U+0D9A Sinhala letter alpapraana kayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 1 of 41; IPA ka. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala kha U+0D9B Sinhala letter mahaapraana kayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 2 of 41; IPA ka. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala la U+0DBD Sinhala letter dantaja layanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 34 of 41; IPA la. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ḷa U+0DC5 Sinhala letter muurdhaja layanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 40 of 41; IPA ɭa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ma U+0DB8 Sinhala letter mayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 30 of 41; IPA ma. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala m̆ba U+0DB9 Sinhala letter amba bayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 31 of 41; IPA ᵐba. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala na U+0DB1 Sinhala letter dantaja nayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 24 of 41; IPA na. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ña U+0DA4 Sinhala letter taaluja naasikyaya. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 12 of 41; IPA ɲa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ṅa U+0D9E Sinhala letter kantaja naasikyaya. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 5 of 41; IPA ŋa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ṇa U+0DAB Sinhala letter muurdhaja nayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 18 of 41; IPA ɳa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala n̆da U+0DB3 Sinhala letter sanyaka dayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 25 of 41; IPA ⁿd̪a. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala n̆ḍa U+0DAC Sinhala letter sanyaka ddayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 19 of 41; IPA ᶯɖa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala n̆ga U+0D9F Sinhala letter sanyaka gayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 6 of 41; IPA ᵑɡa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala n̆ja U+0DA6 Sinhala letter sanyaka jayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 13 of 41; IPA ⁿd͡ʒa. In the mixed set only, the miśra. Part of the standard alphabet, but not used in modern or old Sinhala.
  • Sinhala pa U+0DB4 Sinhala letter alpapraana payanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 26 of 41; IPA pa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala pha U+0DB5 Sinhala letter mahaapraana payanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 27 of 41; IPA pa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ra U+0DBB Sinhala letter rayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 33 of 41; IPA ra. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala sa U+0DC3 Sinhala letter dantaja sayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 38 of 41; IPA sa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala śa U+0DC1 Sinhala letter taaluja sayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 36 of 41; IPA ʃa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ṣa U+0DC2 Sinhala letter muurdhaja sayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 37 of 41; IPA ʃa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ta U+0DAD Sinhala letter alpapraana tayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 20 of 41; IPA ta. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ṭa U+0DA7 Sinhala letter alpapraana ttayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 14 of 41; IPA ʈa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala tha U+0DAE Sinhala letter mahaapraana tayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 21 of 41; IPA ta. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala ṭha U+0DA8 Sinhala letter mahaapraana ttayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 15 of 41; IPA ʈa. In the mixed set only, the miśra.
  • Sinhala va U+0DC0 Sinhala letter vayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 35 of 41; IPA ʋa. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.
  • Sinhala ya U+0DBA Sinhala letter yayanna. Sinhala block, Unicode 3.0. Consonant 32 of 41; IPA ja. In the pure Sinhala set, the śuddha.

Vowel strokes on ක 20

  • Sinhala k U+0D9A U+0DCA Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala sign al-lakuna. The hal kirīma takes the vowel away and leaves the bare k; IPA k.
  • Sinhala kā U+0D9A U+0DCF Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign aela-pilla. ක ka and ආ ā make kā; IPA kaː.
  • Sinhala ka, anusvara U+0D9A U+0D82 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala sign anusvaraya. The anusvara, one small circle, often called binduva.
  • Sinhala ka, visarga U+0D9A U+0D83 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala sign visargaya. The visarga, two small circles; part of the mixed set.
  • Sinhala kai U+0D9A U+0DDB Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign kombu deka. ක ka and ඓ ai make kai; IPA kaj.
  • Sinhala kau U+0D9A U+0DDE Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign kombuva haa gayanukitta. ක ka and ඖ au make kau; IPA kau.
  • Sinhala ke U+0D9A U+0DD9 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign kombuva. ක ka and එ e make ke; IPA ke.
  • Sinhala kē U+0D9A U+0DDA Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga kombuva. ක ka and ඒ ē make kē; IPA keː.
  • Sinhala ki U+0D9A U+0DD2 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign ketti is-pilla. ක ka and ඉ i make ki; IPA ki.
  • Sinhala kī U+0D9A U+0DD3 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga is-pilla. ක ka and ඊ ī make kī; IPA kiː.
  • Sinhala kl̥ U+0D9A U+0DDF Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign gayanukitta. ක ka and ඏ l̥ make kl̥; IPA kli.
  • Sinhala kl̥̄ U+0D9A U+0DF3 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga gayanukitta. ක ka and ඐ l̥̄ make kl̥̄; IPA kliː.
  • Sinhala ko U+0D9A U+0DDC Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign kombuva haa aela-pilla. ක ka and ඔ o make ko; IPA ko.
  • Sinhala kō U+0D9A U+0DDD Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign kombuva haa diga aela-pilla. ක ka and ඕ ō make kō; IPA koː.
  • Sinhala kru U+0D9A U+0DD8 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign gaetta-pilla. ක ka and ඍ r̥ make kru; IPA kru.
  • Sinhala krū U+0D9A U+0DF2 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga gaetta-pilla. ක ka and ඎ r̥̄ make krū; IPA kruː.
  • Sinhala ku U+0D9A U+0DD4 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign ketti paa-pilla. ක ka and උ u make ku; IPA ku.
  • Sinhala kū U+0D9A U+0DD6 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga paa-pilla. ක ka and ඌ ū make kū; IPA kuː.
  • Sinhala kæ U+0D9A U+0DD0 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign ketti aeda-pilla. ක ka and ඇ æ make kæ; IPA kæ.
  • Sinhala kǣ U+0D9A U+0DD1 Alpapraana kayanna with Sinhala vowel sign diga aeda-pilla. ක ka and ඈ ǣ make kǣ; IPA kæː.

How this list was compiled: Every character was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt): the code points and the character names in the notes come from that file, names in sentence case. Block names come from Blocks.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Blocks.txt) and the Unicode version each character arrived in from DerivedAge.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/DerivedAge.txt), both version 18.0.0. Other names of a character come from NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). Which letters are Sinhala's: the main and auxiliary exemplar characters of CLDR's Sinhala locale (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/main/si.xml) hold all 18 vowels and 41 consonants. The vowels stand in the order of the Unicode code chart of the Sinhala block; the consonants in the order of CLDR's list, which is the chart's order with ඥ before ඤ, and ඦ, which CLDR keeps in its auxiliary list, after them. Which set a letter belongs to, the pure Sinhala set (śuddha) or the mixed set only (miśra), the Latin spelling of each letter, its sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet, each vowel stroke on ක, the marks, and the note that one letter is not used follow Wikipedia's Sinhala script article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhala_script), restated in this site's own words. The names ending in -yanna in the notes are the Unicode character names. A tile name is the word Sinhala and the Latin spelling; the grouping is this site's own. Each tile was drawn on 2026-10-08 before it was kept, and all of them drew. All sources were read on 2026-10-08. Licence: own work

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