Learn Thai, Lesson 9: Numbers, part 2

Learn Thai, Lesson 9: Numbers, part 2

Hi everyone,
Let's continue learning how to say bigger numbers in Thai. In this video you will learn how to say the numbers from a thousand to million in Thai language.

From a thousand to a million we use the same pattern of forming numbers. We put the number before the unit for each one like this:

1-9 + "พัน pan" / "หมื่น mùuen" / แสน sǎen / ล้าน láan.

See, how easy it is?

The Thai word for a thousand is "พัน/หนึ่งพัน  pan/nùeng pan." So, from 2,000-9,000, just say the number before "พัน pan". 

For example:

2,000    sǎwng pan     สองพัน

3,000    sǎam pan       สามพัน

4,000    sìi pan            สี่พัน

5,000    hâa pan          ห้าพัน

......

9,000    gâo pan          เก้าพัน

Next is ten thousand, in Thai we have a word for the "ten thousands" unit, which is "หมื่น mùuen". So 10,000 is just "หมื่น/หนึ่งหมื่น mùuen / nùeng mùuen". Then, to say the number from 20,000 - 90,000, just put the number before หมื่น mùuen. 

For example: 50,000 hâa mùuen  ห้าหมื่น

Then, a hundred thousand is "แสน/หนึ่งแสน sǎen/ nùeng sǎen". Again, add the numbers 2-9 before the unit แสน sǎen to make the numbers 200,000-900,000.

For example: 600,000 hòk sǎen หกแสน

And finally, the word for a million is "ล้าน/หนึ่งล้าน láan/nùeng láan". You can say two million, three million, etc. just by adding the number before  the word ล้าน láan.

For example: 5,000,000 hâa láan ห้าล้าน

I hope you find this lesson helpful, and stay tuned for the next lesson!
Leave a comment below if you have any question.

Learn Thai, Lesson 8: Numbers

Learn Thai, Lesson 8: Numbers

Hi everyone!
One important thing to know when you learn new language is numbers, right? So let's learn the Thai numbers in this new video lesson.

Thai numbers are very easy. You will be able to form bigger numbers after you figure out 1 to 10.

The numbers from 1 to 10 in Thai are:

1. หนึ่ง  nùeng
2. สอง  sǎwng
3. สาม  sǎam
4. สี่      sìi
5. ห้า    hâa
6. หก    hòk
7. เจ็ด  jèt
8. แปด bpàet
9. เก้า   gâo
10. สิบ sìp

From 11 - 19 just put the unit number before สิบ sìp, except for 11. We say สิบเอ็ด sìp-èt for 11 instead of sìp-nùeng. It's the same for all the numbers ending in a "one" – use เอ็ด èt for the last digit.

For numbers from 20 up to 99 just use this formula:

(tens) + สิบ sìp + (ones)

For example, 37 would be สามสิบเจ็ด sǎam-sìp-jèt.

The only exception is for the 20s. We use the word ยี่สิบ yîi-sìp instead of สองสิบ sǎwng-sìp.

For example, 25 is ยี่สิบห้า yîi-sìp-hâa.

The Thai word for 100 is ร้อย ráwy. To say a number like 200 or 300, just put the number you want in front of ร้อย ráwy.

For example, 600 is หกร้อย hòk-ráwy.

See, Thai numbers are easy!

Learn Thai, Lesson 7: Asking Where Something Is

Let's learn how to ask where something is in Thai

Of course, "where?" is one of the most useful words to know if you are traveling some place that you've never been before, especially in a different country.

The word “where?” in Thai is ที่ไหน thîi nǎi. We can make a question with it by using it together with the verb อยู่ yùu, which means "to be located."

So to ask a question where something is in Thai, just put the name of what you're asking for, then follow by yùu thîi nǎi.

"Where is the...?" = ...อยู่ที่ไหน ...yùu thîi nǎi? 

In Thai we have two words for bathroom, ห้องน้ำ hâwng-náam / สุขา sù-kǎa. 

ห้องน้ำ  hâwng-náam is less formal, and used in spoken language. 

สุขา sù-kǎa is more formal, and used for written language.

So, "Where is the bathroom?" in Thai is ห้องน้ำอยู่ที่ไหน “hâwng-náam yùu thîi nǎi ?"

We can ask about the location of any other place or thing just by changing the first part of the sentence. Some other places that you might want to ask about are:

Thai Names for Common Buildings

Bank = ธนาคาร tà-naa-kaan

Drug store = ร้านขายยา ráan kǎai-yaa

Restaurant = ร้านอาหาร ráan aa-hǎan

Airport = สนามบิน sà–nǎam-bin

Post office = ไปรษณีย์ bprai-sà-nii

Embassy = สถานฑูต sà-thǎan-thûut


I hope you enjoyed the lesson and found it useful!
Sawat-dii kha :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 6: Restaurant Phrases

In this lesson, we'll learn some basic phrases for ordering food at a restaurant in Thailand. But you can also practice these phrases at a Thai restaurant in your own country. I'm sure the staff will be surprised!

First, if the restaurant is very busy, maybe the staff didn't notice you yet, and you didn't get a menu. So you can ask for one:

ขอเมนูหน่อย ครับ / ค่ะ khǎw menu nòi khráp/khâ = Can I have a menu?

Then, in many restaurants the waiter or waitress will stand and wait to take your order right away after they hand you the menu, so if you want to take your time looking, you should say:

ขอดูก่อนนะ ครับ / ค่ะ khǎw duu gàwn ná khráp/khá = Can I take a look first?

When you're ready to order something, the formula to use is:

ผม / ดิฉัน เอา...  phǒm / dì-chǎn ao... =  I will take…

Names of Thai Dishes

The names of Thai dishes are often made up of 3 parts:

(Style of cooking) + (Description) + (Type of meat)

For example: แกงเขียวหวานไก่ gaeng-khǐao-wǎan gài = green curry with chicken

Here you can see the three parts:

(แกง gaeng = curry) + (เขียวหวาน khǐao-wǎan = green-sweet) + (ไก่ gài = chicken)

Some common types of cooking are:

ผัด phàt = stir fried
แกง gaeng = curry
ต้ม dtôm = boiled (used for soups)
ยำ yam = spicy and sour salad

And the 3 most common types of meat are:

หมู mǔu = pork
ไก่ gài = chicken
ทะเล thá-lee = seafood

Let's combine the sentence for ordering food with a popular Thai dish:

ผม/ดิฉัน เอาผัดกะเพราหมู phǒm/dì-chǎn ao phàt-gà-phrao mǔu = I'll have stir fried spicy basil leaf with pork.

Rice

Of course, you can't forget the most important part of a Thai meal:

ข้าว khâo = rice

An easy and quick meal is fried rice. You can say different types of fried rice just by changing the last word, for the type of meat:

ข้าวผัด khâo-phàt = fried-rice
ข้าวผัดไก่ khâo-phàt gài = chicken fried-rice
ข้าวผัดทะเล khâo-phàt thá-lee = seafood fried-rice

Paying for Your Meal at a Thai Restaurant

Finally, you'll need to pay for your meal. Thai people heard English speakers from different countries saying either "check" or "bill," so we just combined both words together in one easy phrase:

เช็คบิล chék-bin = Bill please!/Check please!

Or you can ask to pay another way:

เก็บตังค์ ครับ/ค่ะ gèp dtang khráp/khâ = I'll pay now.

Did you get hungry for some Thai food by reading this lesson? I hope you have fun trying out these phrases on your trip to Thailand, or at any Thai restaurant in your own city.

By the way, don't forget to "like" my Facebook page. :)

Learn Thai Tones

Sawat-dii everyone,

I've got a brand new video lesson about the 5 Thai tones.

As you probably know, Thai is a tonal language. So that means when the tone used to say a word changes, the meaning of the entire word changes too. That's why it's very important to learn how to speak the tones correctly.

The 5 tones are: Mid, Low, Falling, High, & Rising

If you try to say a word, but you use a wrong tone, you could accidentally say something very different from what you meant.

For example:

sǔai (rising tone) = beautiful
suai (mid tone) = unlucky

So if you forget the rising tone when you try to tell a girl she is beautiful, you'll really be saying that the's unlucky! Be careful. :)

Please watch the video to practice your tones.

Hope you enjoy the lesson!

Learn Thai, Lesson 4: How are you?

In today's lesson we learn how to say "How are you?" in Thai. For someone who is just starting to learn Thai, I think this lesson will be very useful.

In Thai we don't have the direct words "Yes" or "No" to answer a question. So to indicate "yes" we just repeat the main Verb or Adjective used in the question. For example:

สบายดีไหม  sà-baai dii mǎi = How are you?
สบายดี sà-baai dii = I'm fine.

In Thai, we use ไม่ mâi before the Verb or Adjective to make it negative. For example:

ไม่ค่อยสบาย mâi khâwy sà-baai = I'm not so well.

Thai language is a tonal language, if the tone changes the meaning of the word changes too. For example:

ไหม "mǎi" with a rising tone is a question particle.
ไม่ "mâi" with falling tone is a negative particle.
So be careful not change ไหม "mǎi" to be ไม่ "mâi".

Thai Phrases to ask and answer "How are you?"

สบายดีไหม  sà-baai dii mǎi = How are you?

สบายดี sà-baai dii = I'm fine.

ไม่ค่อยสบาย mâi khâwy sà-baai = I'm not so well.

ไม่ mâi = No, Not

ไหม mǎi = (question particle)

เป็นงัย bpen-ngai = How is it going?

Hope you enjoy the lesson. Please leave a comment if you have any question. :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 3: What's your name?

In this lesson, you will learn how to ask: "What's your name?" and how to answer. When you make new friends in Thailand, of course you want to ask them their name. So, this lesson might be very useful for you.

Thai Words and Phrases to Ask Someone Their Name

คุณชื่ออะไร khun chûue à-rai = What's your name?

คุณ khun = You

ชื่อ chûue  = to name, to call

อะไร à-rai = What?

To Answer with Your Name in Thai

ผมชื่อ... phǒm chûue... = My name is... (for male speakers)

ดิฉันชื่อ... dì-chǎn chûue... = My name is... (for female speakers)

Hope you enjoy the lesson and find it useful. 
Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel too :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 2: Congratulations

This is a special Thai lesson because I talk about my university graduation ceremony.
Graduations in Thailand are a little bit different from those in other countries. The thing that makes Thai graduation ceremonies very unique is that a member of the Thai royal family comes to preside over the graduation. The Prince or Princess hands each student their diploma. It's a great honor for us.

There are many students who have to receive diplomas. So in order for the Prince or Princess to be able to quickly hand them out to everyone we need to be coordinated. We practice for a few days so that everyone can walk with the right timing. It's also important to practice the correct way to hold out our hand to accept the diploma and bow to the royalty as a sign of respect.

In Thai, "Graduation Day" is วันรับปริญญา (wan ráp bpà-rin-yaa).
It's made up of the following 3 words:

วัน (wan) "day"
รับ (ráp) "to receive, to get"
ปริญญา (bpà-rin-yaa) "degree"

Thai Words and Phrases for Congratulations

There are two ways to say "Congratulations" in Thai. The first one is more formal. It is used more in writing than in speaking.

ขอแสดงความยินดีด้วย (khǎaw sà-daaeng khwaam-yin-dii dûuai) "Congratulations"

This phrase is made up of the following words:

ขอ (khǎaw) "to ask for"

แสดง (sà-daaeng) "to show"

ความยินดี (khwaam-yin-dii) "gladness"

ด้วย (dûuai) "also"

The second way to say "Congratulations" is more informal. This is the way you would usually say it when speaking to a friend:

ยินดีด้วย (yin-dii dûuai) "Congratulations" (informal)

I hope you learned something interesting about Thai culture in this lesson.  And I hope you learned a useful phrase. The next time your Thai friends tell you some good news, be sure to wish them "Congratulations" with ยินดีด้วย (yin-dii dûuai).

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. And feel free to ask me any questions about Thai language or culture.

sà-wàt-dii khâ :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 1: Greetings

This is my first video lesson for teaching you how to speak Thai. Of course, the first thing you need to learn in any language is "Hello". So this video lesson is about how to greet somebody and introduce yourself in Thai.

In Thai, we use different words sometimes for male and female speakers. One example is the word "I" or "me". Male speakers will say ผม (phǒm). But female speakers will say ดิฉัน (dì-chǎn) or ฉัน (chǎn).

It is important to be polite when speaking Thai. So we have special words that go at the end of a sentence just to make the sentence sound more polite. This word is different for male and female speakers too. Male speakers can say ครับ (khráp), and female speakers can say ค่ะ (khâ).

Thai is a tonal language. So please watch the video many times and practice speaking the sentences to copy the tones for each word. Here are all the phrases from the video:

Thai Phrases for Greeting

สวัดดี (sà-wàt-dii) "Hello"

สวัดดีครับ (sà-wàt-dii khráp) "Hello" (for men)

สวัดดีค่ะ (sà-wàt-dii khâ) "Hello" (for women)

ผม/ดิฉันชื่อ your name (dì-chǎn/phǒm chûue ___) "My name is ___"

ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักครับ/ค่ะ (yin-dii thîi dâai rúu-jàk khráp/khâ) "Nice to meet you."

ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักเช่นกันครับ/ค่ะ (yin-dii thîi dâai rúu-jàk chên-gan khráp/khâ) "Nice to meet you, too."

เช่นกัน (chên-gan) "Same here"

Thanks for watching the video and visiting my website. I'll have more video lessons ready for you soon. So please subscribe to my YouTube channel.


sà-wàt-dii khâ :)