Numbers in Thai: Count from 1 to 1000 (with Pronunciation)

Thai numbers are one of the best first wins in the language. The system is almost perfectly logical, there are only a handful of irregularities, and once you know ten words you can build every number up to a million. The catch, as always with Thai, is the tones. Say "hâa" (five) with the wrong tone and you might be saying something else entirely. So learn the tone with the word, from day one, not as a fix later.

Here is everything you need, starting with the table you came for.

Thai Numbers 1 to 10

Two pronunciation notes before you move on. First, "bpàet" (8) starts with a sound between English "b" and "p", a hard unaspirated consonant that does not exist in English. Second, the tone marks on the transliteration matter: ǔ is rising, ù is low, û is falling. If you memorize "song" instead of "sǒong", you have learned half the word.

The fastest way to get these into your mouth is to hear them from a native speaker and repeat immediately, matching the pitch contour, not just the consonants. That is exactly what shadowing is for, and numbers are the ideal shadowing material because they are short, high-frequency, and you will hear them constantly in Thailand.

Fun fact for Thai learners: 5 is "hâa", so Thais type "555" to mean "hahaha". You will see it everywhere online.

11 to 20: One Rule and Two Exceptions

Thai builds teens exactly the way you would hope: ten + unit. Eleven is "ten one", twelve is "ten two", and so on. There is one twist: the final 1 in any compound number is pronounced "èt", not "nùeng".

Twenty is the second exception. Instead of "sǒong-sìp" (two-ten), Thai uses "yîi-sìp". "Yîi" is an old word for two that survives only here. Every other multiple of ten is regular.

The Tens: 20 to 90

To build any two-digit number, stack the unit after the ten: 35 is "sǎam-sìp-hâa", 78 is "jèt-sìp-bpàet". The "èt" rule applies to every number ending in 1: 21 is "yîi-sìp-èt", 31 is "sǎam-sìp-èt", 91 is "gâo-sìp-èt". Never "yîi-sìp-nùeng".

100, 1000, and Beyond

Note that Thai has dedicated single words for 10,000 and 100,000, like Chinese and unlike English. You will not need "mùuen" on day one, but you will hear it fast when people talk about rent or salaries.

In careful speech, 100 is "nùeng rói" (one hundred), but in everyday conversation Thais usually drop the "nùeng" and just say "rói". Same with "phan" for 1,000.

Composing Any Number

The system is strictly left to right, largest unit first, no "and", no inversions:

• 245 = sǒong rói sìi-sìp hâa (two hundred four-ten five)
• 517 = hâa rói sìp-jèt
• 999 = gâo rói gâo-sìp gâo
• 1,250 = nùeng phan sǒong rói hâa-sìp
• 3,401 = sǎam phan sìi rói èt

That last one shows the "èt" rule again: any number ending in 1 uses "èt". One more quirk: 101 is "rói èt", and by coincidence "rói èt" is also how Thais refer to something as "a hundred and one", exactly like English.

The composition rules take five minutes to understand and a few weeks to produce without hesitation. Understanding is not the bottleneck; retrieval speed is. This is where spaced repetition earns its keep: drill the ten base words plus "yîi-sìp", "èt", "rói", and "phan" until they surface instantly, then practice composing random numbers out loud. Hyperpolyglot handles both halves of that, native audio for the tones and SRS scheduling for the retention, on iOS, Android, and Web.

Numbers in Real Life: Prices and Bargaining

The question you will hear and ask most: "thâo rài?" (เท่าไหร่), how much? The answer comes back in baht, and here is the practical trap: Thais fire off prices at full speed. "Sǎam rói hâa-sìp" (350) sounds like a single blurred word when a market vendor says it.

Three survival tips:

1. Learn to hear prices, not just say them. Listen to native audio of prices at natural speed and shadow it. Your ear needs "hâa-sìp" as one chunk, not two words to decode.
2. Round numbers dominate. Street food is 40 to 80 baht, taxi rides 100 to 200, market goods priced in steps of 10 or 50. Master the tens and hundreds and you cover 95 percent of transactions.
3. Bargaining phrases. "Lót nòi dâi mái?" (can you lower it a bit?) plus a counter-offer in Thai works wonders. Quoting your price in Thai instead of holding up fingers signals you are not a fresh arrival, and the price often drops on the spot.

Vendors will also show you the number on a calculator when things stall. That is normal, not rude.

Thai Numerals (๑๒๓) vs Arabic Numerals

Thai has its own numeral glyphs, ๐๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๘๙, and you can see them in the first table. Do you need to read them? Mostly no. Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) dominate daily life: prices, phone numbers, license plates, menus, addresses.

You will meet Thai numerals in a few specific places:

• Official and religious documents, government forms, temple inscriptions
• Dual pricing signs at some attractions, where the Thai-numeral price (for locals) is lower than the Arabic-numeral price. Reading ๔๐ and knowing it says 40 can be genuinely useful.
• Lottery tickets and traditional contexts like Thai banknotes, which carry both.

Learn to recognize them passively in an afternoon; there are only ten shapes. Just do not prioritize writing them.

Keep Reading

Numbers are a great entry point, but they are chapter one. For the full picture of tones, script, and a study plan, read how to learn Thai. And to understand why drilling numbers with a scheduling algorithm beats rereading a list, see our guide to spaced repetition for language learning.