O/L Sinhala: proverbs in past papers and their meanings, 2012 to 2025

The 14 O/L Sinhala Paper I papers we have contain 32 proverb questions (ප්‍රස්තාව පිරුළු), and the topic was asked in every one of the 14 sittings. In 22 questions you get a meaning and pick the proverb; in 8 you get the proverb and pick its meaning. Some proverbs come back in later years.

This page is Paper I (MCQ) only. Papers II and III are not included. The counts are the questions tagged with that topic.

Proverb questions, year by year

The table runs from 2012 to 2025. The last column is every question on that paper. The year links to its own page.

Every sitting has between 1 and 3 proverb questions.

The two question formats

22 questions give a meaning. The choices are proverbs, and you pick the one that fits the meaning.

8 give the proverb. The choices are meanings, and you pick its meaning. That format appears only in the 2012, 2015 and 2018 papers.

2 more work differently: question 2 in 2022 and question 3 in 2025. Each gives a sentence with a proverb in bold, and you pick what the bold part means.

If the question gives a meaning in plain words, the answer is a proverb. If it gives a proverb, the answer is a meaning. The other question types on Sinhala Paper I are in the question types that appear every year.

Every proverb the papers tested, with its meaning

Below is each question's proverb with its correct meaning, and nothing else: no question wording and no other choices. The list runs year by year.

The proverbs and meanings are in Sinhala, spelled exactly as the paper printed them. That is why both වාගේ and වගේ appear in the list.

Proverbs that came back

13 proverbs appear in more than one sitting. Some years the proverb is in the question or is the answer. Other years it is one of the wrong choices. The papers sometimes spell the same proverb differently; the table shows one paper's spelling.

A meaning came back too. All 3 meanings below are about wasted effort, and each time a different proverb was the answer.

• 2013: නිෂ්ඵල උත්සාහයක් දැරීම
  බීරි අලියාට වීණා ගායනා කිරීම
• 2014: නිශ්ඵල උත්සාහයක් දැරීම
  ගලෙන් පට්ටයක් ගැලවීම
• 2019: නිෂ්ඵල ක්‍රියාවක නිරත වීම
  අටුව කඩා පුටුව හදන්නා වාගේ

These are facts about past papers. They are no guarantee that any of these proverbs will be on the 2026 paper.

The hard ones

3 of the 32 questions are marked hard. In 2 of them the proverb is given and you pick its meaning.

• 2015: ආඩි හත්දෙනාගේ කැඳ හැලිය වගේ
• 2015: ඇටිකෙහෙල් කෑ උගුඩුවා වගේ
• 2024: අතු කඩා මොර කන්නවා වගේ.

The hardest topics on the paper are in the hardest O/L Sinhala MCQ topics.

How to learn them before 9 December 2026

Learn each proverb and its meaning as a pair. When you see the proverb, say the meaning. When you see the meaning, say the proverb. The paper asks both ways.

All 32 proverb questions are in the journey. The journey starts at the beginning. Topic-only practice is not possible. Practise in the O/L Sinhala journey.

The weeks up to the exam are in the 8-week plan, which has a week for proverbs.

The 2026 O/L Sinhala paper is on Wednesday, 9 December 2026. The times that day:

• Papers I and II together, 08:30 – 11:40
• Paper III, 13:00 – 15:00

That date and those times are the Department of Examinations time table, issued on 6 October 2026. The official copy is on doenets.lk. The day is written up in the paper-day guide.

What this page is not

Not a list of every Sinhala proverb. It covers only the proverbs asked in O/L Paper I, with their meanings.

No stories behind the proverbs. There is no PDF. Not a prediction about the 2026 paper.

You cannot practise a single topic on its own. The app starts the Sinhala journey from the beginning.

Paper I (MCQ) only. Papers II and III are not included. English medium is not here. The questions are the Sinhala-medium paper.

Wizder is not affiliated with the Department of Examinations. Every sitting is on the O/L Sinhala past papers page.

One more, to try yourself

Common questions