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Thai Numbers and Numerals

Being able to speak and understand numbers in Thai is an essential skill for any traveler in Thailand. Bartering is common when arranging transportation or making purchases at many markets. Even when not bartering, it is important to understand spoken prices, although merchants who frequently see tourists always have a small calculator to show you prices (and even allow you to barter by punching in your offer).

The Thai language requires the use of words called classifiers when you wish to talk about a number of items (nouns). These "counting words" are discussed here.

Although Thai has its own numerals, western digits are more commonly used throughout Thailand so it is less essential to learn the exotic digits. For more examples of Thai numbers, visit our category page: Thai Digits and Numerals

Numerals zero through nine
digitThai
numeral
Thai
word
Phonemic
transcription
0 ศูนย์ suunR (zero)
1 หนึ่ง neungL (one)
2 สอง saawngR (two)
3 สาม saamR (three)
4 สี่ seeL (four)
5 ห้า haaF (five)
6 หก hohkL (six)
7 เจ็ด jetL (seven)
8 แปด bpaaetL (eight)
9 เก้า gaaoF (nine)
Counting ten and beyond
number Thai
word
Phonemic
transcription
10สิบ sipL (ten)
100ร้อย raawyH (hundred)
1,000พัน phanM (thousand)
10,000หมื่น meuunL (ten-thousand)
100,000แสน saaenR (hundred-thousand)
1,000,000ล้าน laanH (million)
1.0E7considered "ten million"
1.0E8considered "hundred million"
1.0E9considered "thousand million"

Using these charts, arbitrary numbers in Thai can be constructed much as they are in English. However, please note the following:
  • Numbers ending in one between eleven and ninety-one use the word เอ็ด   /etL/ instead of หนึ่ง   /neungL/ (one, 1) as in the following:
    หนึ่ง neungLone, 1
    สิบเอ็ดsipL etLeleven, 11
    สามสิบเอ็ดsaamR sipL etLthirty-one, 31
    ร้อยหนึ่งraawyH neungLone hundred one, 101
  • Numbers between twelve and nineteen are not special as they are in English. They are considered "ten-two," "ten-three," etc.
  • If a rule in English is to add -ty to a digit to obtain the tens series, then twenty, thirty, and fifty are exceptions. In Thai, the only special word is ยี่สิบ  /yeeF sipL/ (twenty, 20).
  • Ordinals are formed by prefixing a number with the word ที่   /theeF/ as in the following examples:
    ที่หนึ่งtheeF neungLfirst
    ที่สองtheeF saawngRsecond
    ที่สิบเอ็ดtheeF sipL etLeleventh
  • Note that the words Ten-thousand and hundred-thousand are not compounds as they are in English‚there are unique Thai words for these shown in the chart above.
  • The word หนึ่ง   /neungL/ (one, 1) can be omitted if it occurs at the beginning of any number (other than one, of course).
  • โท   /tho:hM/ is used instead of สอง   /saawngR/ (two, 2) when saying a telephone number, perhaps because this is believed to eliminate confusion between two and three if the connection is poor.
Examples
numberThai
numerals
Thai
spelling
Phonemic transcription
1หนึ่ง neungL
21๒๑ยี่สิบเอ็ดyeeF sipL etL
22๒๒ยี่สิบสองyeeF sipL saawngR
12,345๑๒๓๔๕หมื่นสองพันสามร้อยสี่สิบห้าmeuunL saawngR phanM saamR raawyH seeL sipL haaF
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