Numbers are some of the best Thai words worth learning. You'll encounter numbers constantly when using Thai in everyday life - from checking prices and telling the time to giving your phone number or understanding an address. Being able to recognize and say basic numbers can make everyday interactions in Thailand much easier.
The good news is that Thai numbers are relatively easy to build once you know the basics. Learn the numbers from zero to ten first, and you'll soon be able to work out much larger numbers from the same handful of building blocks.
Thai has its own full set of ten digits, used exactly like the Arabic ones: base ten, the same place value, written left to right. Arabic digits are the everyday default now, but the Thai ones are still all around: government paperwork, temple and palace signs, the Royal Gazette, house numbers, and the mastheads of the older newspapers.
If you're a beginner, pay very close attention to the pronunciation. If possible, try practicing the first few numbers with another person to get the pronunciation down before memorizing the rest.
You can usually get by for years in Thailand without ever needing to read Thai numerals - but if you would like to learn them, our Thai Numerals Zip game can help.
Practice listening:
Once you know the first ten numbers, you can start building larger numbers from them.
Thai Numbers 10 - 19 (The Teens)
The numbers from 10 to 19 all revolve around สิบ[สิบ], the Thai word for "ten". Just add the ones digit after it - สิบ[สิบ] plus ห้า[ห้า] gives you สิบห้า[สิบ-ห้า], "fifteen".
Rule 1: For the number 11, Thai uses a special word for "one" when it appears at the end of a number: it changes to เอ็ด[เอ็ด]. So 11 is สิบเอ็ด[สิบ-เอ็ด], not สิบหนึ่ง[สิบ-หฺนึ่ง]. This holds for every number above ten that ends in the digit 1, not just eleven - for example 31 is สามสิบเอ็ด[สาม-สิบ-เอ็ด] and 71 is เจ็ดสิบเอ็ด[เจ็ด-สิบ-เอ็ด].
Thai Numbers 20 - 29 (The Twenties)
The numbers from 20 to 29 all revolve around ยี่สิบ[ยี่-สิบ], the Thai word for "twenty". Just add the ones digit after it - ยี่สิบ[ยี่-สิบ] plus ห้า[ห้า] gives you ยี่สิบห้า[ยี่-สิบ-ห้า], "twenty-five".
Rule 2: For the number 20, Thai uses a special word for "two" when it's the tens digit: it changes to ยี่[ยี่]. So 20 is ยี่สิบ[ยี่-สิบ], not สองสิบ[สอง-สิบ]. This holds for every number where the tens digit is 2, not just twenty - for example 120 is หนึ่งร้อยยี่สิบ[หฺนึ่ง-ร้อย-ยี่-สิบ] and 220 is สองร้อยยี่สิบ[สอง-ร้อย-ยี่-สิบ].
Thai Numbers 30 - 99 (The Rest of the Tens)
From 30 onward, every multiple of ten is completely regular: just the digit word followed by สิบ[สิบ], with no more special rules to remember - สาม[สาม] plus สิบ[สิบ] gives you สามสิบ[สาม-สิบ], "thirty". The same pattern carries all the way up to เก้าสิบ[เก้า-สิบ], "ninety".
Past ninety-nine, Thai stops introducing new number words altogether - what changes instead is the place-value word you multiply by. A new one appears at each of these five points, and once you know them you can read any number in Thai.
