Zahlen 1 bis 100

Thai numbers are regular: learn 0 to 10, two special words, and the rest builds itself. Prices, ages, phone numbers and times all use them, so they are worth learning early. Thailand also has its own digits, which you will see on prices at markets and temples and on official documents.

Romanisation used here: long vowels are doubled (aa, ii, ɔɔ) and the tone is marked on the first vowel letter - mid unmarked, low à, falling â, high á, rising ǎ; ph, th, kh are aspirated (with a puff of air, as in "pin"), p, t, k are not (as in "spin"), and j stands for จ.

0 to 10

11 to 100

The two special words: in the units place after a ten, one is เอ็ด (èt), not หนึ่ง (11, 21, 31 ... 101); in the tens place, two is ยี่ (yîi) (20 to 29). Ten on its own is สิบ, not "one ten". The province of Roi Et is literally "one hundred and one": ร้อยเอ็ด (rɔ́ɔi èt).

Bigger numbers, for prices

Thai has its own words for ten thousand and a hundred thousand, so 50,000 baht is ห้าหมื่นบาท (hâa mʉ̀ʉn bàat), "five ten-thousands". A price is number + บาท (bàat): ห้าสิบบาท (hâa sìp bàat) "fifty baht".

Numbers with things

When you count things, the number follows the noun and is followed by a classifier: กาแฟสองแก้ว (kaa-fɛɛ sɔ̌ɔng kɛ̂ɛo) "two coffees" (see the topic on classifiers). With หนึ่ง, the number may also come after the classifier and mean "a, one": กาแฟแก้วหนึ่ง (kaa-fɛɛ kɛ̂ɛo nʉ̀ng) "a coffee". Ordinals add ที่ (thîi): ที่หนึ่ง "first", ที่สอง "second".

For English speakers

No "-teen" and "-ty" endings and no irregular eleven or twelve: the system is closer to Chinese than to English. Keep the tones apart, because สี่ (sìi, low), สิบ (sìp, low with a final p) and สาม (sǎam, rising) are easy to blur at a noisy market. And in Thai texting, 555 means "hahaha", because five is hâa.

Mistakes English speakers make

• *สองสิบ for 20 → ยี่สิบ.
• *สิบหนึ่ง for 11 → สิบเอ็ด.
• *หนึ่งสิบ for 10 → สิบ.
• Putting the number before the noun: *สองกาแฟ → กาแฟสองแก้ว.