The 17 words you need to know to count in Thai

Get those special 'Thai speaker prices' by knowing the numbers in Thai

The Thai language has its own set of numerals, although the standard Arabic/Western numerals are much more commonly encountered. You may come across the Thai numerals in government and official documents, legal documents, religious texts, page numbers of textbooks or generally anything related to Thai tradition or history. When doing mathematics, Thai students will typically use the Arabic numerals for doing calculations but will write the answer in Thai numerals.

A common use for the Thai numerals that you're likely to see is in double pricing situations, where a price for Thais is written in Thai numerals whereas the more expensive price for foreigners is written in Arabic numerals. If you can learn the Thai numerals, your chances of being able to only pay the Thai price are much improved!

Counting in Thai is relatively straightforward, and by memorising only 17 words you can count into the millions. Due to the frequent need to haggle prices in Thailand, knowing the numbers and being able to count comes in very useful. The numbers 1-10, shown below, form the basis of all the others.

Numbers 1 to 10

Arabic Numerals
Thai Numerals
Pronunciation
0
ศูนย์ sŏon
1
หนึ่ง nèung
2
สอง sŏng
3
สาม săam
4
สี่ sèe
5
ห้า hâa
6
หก hòk
7
เจ็ด jèt
8
แปด bpàet
9
เก้า gâo
10
๑๐
สิบ sìp

Numbers 11 to 100

Numbers 12 - 19 are the same as 2-9 except with the number ten , สิบ ( sìp ), in front of them. 11 is slightly different, as from 11 onwards whenever หนึ่ง ( nèung , the number 1) is the last word in a number it becomes เอ็ด ( èt ) instead.

Arabic Numerals
Thai Numerals
Pronunciation
11
๑๑
สิบเอ็ด sìp èt
12
๑๒
สิบสอง sìp sŏng
13
๑๓
สิบสาม sìp săam
14
๑๔
สิบสี่ sìp sèe
15
๑๕
สิบห้า sìp hâa
16
๑๖
สิบหก sìp hòk
17
๑๗
สิบเจ็ด sìp jèt
18
๑๘
สิบแปด sìp bpàet
19
๑๙
สิบเก้า sìp gâo

Counting in Thai is relatively straightforward, and by memorising only 17 words you can count into the millions. Due to the frequent need to haggle prices in Thailand, knowing the numbers and being able to count comes in very useful. The numbers 1-10 form the basis of all the others.

For the numbers greater than 19, the multiple of ten is placed before the สิบ sìp at the start of the number. For instance, 30 is สามสิบ săam sìp which if translated literally is just "three ten". Numbers in the twenties are an exception though, as 20 is ยี่สิบ yêe sìp not สอง สิบ sŏng sìp.

Arabic Numerals
Thai Numerals
Pronunciation
20
๒๐
ยี่สิบ yêe sìp
21
๒๑
ยี่สิบเอ็ด yêe-sìp-èt
22
๒๒
ยี่สิบสอง yêe-sìp-sŏng
23
๒๓
ยี่สิบสาม yêe-sìp-săam
30
๓๐
สามสิบ săam sìp
31
๓๑
สามสิบเอ็ด săam-sìp-èt
32
๓๒
สามสิบสอง săam-sìp-sŏng
40
๔๐
สี่สิบ sèe sìp
50
๕๐
ห้าสิบ hâa sìp
60
๖๐
หกสิบ hòk sìp
70
๗๐
เจ็ดสิบ jèt sìp
80
๘๐
แปดสิบ bpàet sìp
90
๙๐
เก้าสิบ gâo sìp
99
๙๙
เก้าสิบเก้า gâo-sìp-gâo

Into the millions

Above that, 100 is ร้อย rói and 1000 is พัน pan.

Arabic Numerals
Thai Numerals
Pronunciation
100
๑๐๐
หนึ่งร้อย nèung rói
200
๒๐๐
สองร้อย sŏng rói
555
๕๕๕
ห้าร้อยห้าสิบห้า hâa-rói-hâa-sìp-hâa
1000
๑๐๐๐
หนึ่งพัน nèung pan
9999
๙๙๙๙
เก้าพันเก้าร้อยเก้าสิบเก้า gâo-pan-gâo-rói-gâo-sìp-gâo

Thai differs from English in that it also has separate words for 10,000 (หมื่น , mèun ) and 100,000 (แสน , săen ) . 1,000,000 is ล้าน ( láan ).

Arabic Numerals
Thai Numerals
Pronunciation
10,000
๑๐ ,๐๐๐
หนึ่งหมื่น nèung mèun
123,456
๑๒๓ ,๔๕๖
หนึ่งแสนสองหมื่นสามพันสี่ร้อยห้าสิบหก nèung săen sŏng mèun săam pan sèe rói hâa sìp hòk
1,999,999
,๙๙๙ ,๙๙๙
หนึ่งล้านเก้าแสนเก้าหมื่นเก้าพันเก้าร้อยเก้าสิบเก้า
nèung láan gâo săen gâo mèun gâo pan gâo rói gâo sìp gâo

In common speech, nèung , the number 1, is frequently dropped when it appears first in a number (except for the number 1 itself, obviously). Similarly, rói , pan , mèun and săen are often dropped when they are the last word in a larger number. For instance, rói can be dropped when it's the last word and the number is greater than 1000 . pan can be dropped when it's the last word and the number is greater than 10,000 etc.

To use the number 1700 as an example: its full pronunciation is nèung pan jèt rói , but in common speech it would often be abbreviated to just pan jèt .

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