THAI NUMERALS

Thai numerals (ตัวเลขไทย) are traditionally used in Thailand, although the Hindu-Arabic numerals (also known as Western numerals) are more common. Apart from the different symbols used for the numerals, the Thai numeration system is exactly the same as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system used in most of the rest of the world.

From ten to a million

These are assembled from the words for the powers of ten. The number one following a power of ten becomes et. The numbers from twenty to twenty nine begin with yi sip.

For example, two hundred and thirty-two is song roi sam sip song. The words roi, phan etc. should never be used without a preceding numeral (unless it is beginning nueng), so two hundred and ten, for example, is song roi sip and not song roi nueng sip, and one hundred is either roi or nueng roi (both are acceptable). The same thing goes for phan, muen, saen, and so forth. Native speakers will sometimes use roi nueng (or phan nueng, etc.) with different tones on nueng to distinguish one hundred from one hundred and one. However, such distinction is often not made, and ambiguity may follow. To resolve this problem, if the number 101 (or 1001, 10001, etc.) is intended, one should say roi et (or phan et, muen et, etc.).

Above a million

Numbers above a million are constructed by prefixing lan with a multiplier. For example, ten million is sip lan, and a trillion (10¹²) is lan lan.

See also

• Thai language
• Thai alphabet