Wednesday, July 15, 2009

能爽三食虾

If you want to be serious about shopping and bargaining then it is important to learn Thai numbers. In department stores all prices are marked but in outdoor markets you will have to ask for the price and then try and make it cheaper.

One
nueng
Two
song
Three
sam
Four
see
Five
har

Six
hok
Seven
jed
Eight
bad
Nine
gao
Ten
sib

Eleven
sib et
Twelve
sib song
Thirteen
sib sam

Once you can count 1-11 the rest will be very easy. In fact easier than English. Thai students are very good in learning Math. This is partly due to the way the numbers are named. Take thirty as an example. To us it is just a name but to a Thai student it is three blocks of ten. In Thai thirty is "sam sib" or literally "three tens". Thirty six is "three tens six".

From twelve to nineteen you just repeat the same formula:

14 = 10 + 4 (sib see)
15 = 10 + 5 (sib ha)

Twenty
yee sib
Twenty One
yee sib et
Twenty Two
yee sib song
Twenty Three
yee sib sam

Again, from twenty two to twenty nine you repeat the same formula:

24 = 20 + 4 (yee sib see)
25 = 20 + 5 (yee sib ha)

Thirty
sam sib
Forty
see sib

By now you should be able to count all the way to one hundred.

60 = 6 x 10 (hok sib)
70 = 7 x 10 (jed sib)

One Hundred
nueng roi
Two Hundred
song roi

One Thousand
nueng pun
Two Thousand
song pun

Ten Thousand
nueng muen

http://www.learningthai.com

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