THAI LANGUAGE LESSONS
L9 - Numbers
Sometime early in your Thai language learning you will want to learn the number system. How can you barter at the market if you don't know how to say the prices?
The Thai number system is quite easy and logical.
| one | nurng |
| two | sorng |
| three | sahm |
| four | see |
| five | hah |
| six | hok |
| seven | jet |
| eight | pairt |
| nine | gao |
| ten | sip |
| eleven | sip et |
| twelve | sip sorng |
| thirteen | sip sahm |
| fourteen | sip see |
| fifteen | sip hah |
| twenty | yee sip |
| twenty one | yee sip et |
| twenty two | yee sip sorng |
| twenty three | yee sip sam |
| thirty | sahm sip |
| thirty one | sahm sip et |
| thirty two | sahm sip sorng |
| thirty three | sahm sip sahm |
| forty | see sip |
| fifty | hah sip |
| sixty | hok sip |
| seventy | jet sip |
| eighty | pairt sip |
| ninety | gao sip |
| hundred | roy |
| hundred and one | roy et |
| hundred and two | roy sorng |
| hundred and three | roy sahm |
| two hundred | sorng roy |
| three hundred | sahm roy |
| thousand | pan |
| ten thousand | murn |
| hundred thousand | sairn |
| million | lahn |
First memorise 1 to 10.
From there on, there is a simple pattern with just two oddities:
You will see that 12 to 19 are formed by combining sip (10) and the digit, e.g. 12 is 'sip sorng' (10 + 2). The first oddity is that 11 is 'sip et' rather than 'sip nurng'. This is true throughout the rest of the system, e.g. 101 is 'roy et'.
Next you should see that 30 is 'sahm sip' (i.e. 3 * 10), forty is 'see sip' (4 * 10), etc. The exception is 20 which is 'yee sip' (often abbreviated to 'yip' in Phuket and southern Thailand).
The rest of the system follows the same logical pattern.
100 is 'roy'. You can also say 'nurng roy'.
200 is 'sorng roy'
Notice there is a seperate word for 10,000. You cannot say 'sip pan'. You must say 'murn'.
12,572 is 'murn, sorng pan, hah roy, jet sip sorng'
37,931 is 'sahm murn, jet pan, gao roy, sahm sip et'
125,799 is 'nurng sairn, sorng murn, hah pan, jet roy, gao sip gao'
