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Khmer Numbers: Counting, Khmer Digits and Prices

Khmer numbers from zero to ten million: why six is 'five-one', the Thai-derived tens, the Khmer digits ០ to ៩, and reading prices in riel and dollars.

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Key takeaways

  • Khmer one to five are muŏy, pir, bei, buŏn and brăm; Wikipedia traces them to proto-Austroasiatic.
  • Six to nine are built on five: 6 is brămmuŏy, literally five plus one, and 9 is brămbuŏn.
  • Ten is dáb, twenty is mphey, and the tens from 30 to 90 were borrowed by way of Thai, according to Wikipedia.
  • Khmer has words for 10,000 (mœn) and 100,000 (sên), and kaôdĕ usually means ten million.
  • Wikipedia notes that 4,000 riels to the dollar is widely used in retail, with change given in riel.

Khmer counting has one surprise near the start and then settles into a pattern that anyone who has met Thai or Lao numbers will recognise. Learn five words, the trick that builds six to nine, and a set of place-value words, and you can read a price tag in Phnom Penh. Romanisations below follow UNGEGN, one of the systems Wikipedia tabulates alongside IPA; romanisation hides vowel detail, so check each word with audio.

One to five, and the five that builds six to nine

Number Khmer digit Khmer word UNGEGN
0 ០ សូន្យ sony
1 ១ មួយ muŏy
2 ២ ពីរ pir
3 ៣ បី bei
4 ៤ បួន buŏn
5 ៥ ប្រាំ brăm
6 ៦ ប្រាំមួយ brămmuŏy
7 ៧ ប្រាំពីរ brămpir
8 ៨ ប្រាំបី brămbei
9 ៩ ប្រាំបួន brămbuŏn
10 ១០ ដប់ dáb

Wikipedia describes the spoken numbers as biquinary: base 5 and base 10 both appear. Six is literally "five-one", seven "five-two", and so on to nine. It also traces one to five to proto-Austroasiatic, and zero to Sanskrit śūnya. Two small notes from the same source: before a classifier, muŏy is reduced to something like mə in ordinary speech, and brăm in six to nine may be pronounced closer to pəm.

Ten, twenty and the tens borrowed through Thai

From ten the system turns decimal. Eleven is dáb muŏy, ten plus one; fifteen is dáb brăm. Wikipedia adds a colloquial alternative for the teens, using dândáb after the unit: fifteen can be brăm dândáb.

Twenty is its own word, mphey (ម្ភៃ), which Wikipedia explains as a contraction of "one" plus an older word for twenty. The tens after that look very different:

Number Khmer word UNGEGN
30 សាមសិប samsĕb
40 សែសិប sêsĕb
50 ហាសិប hasĕb
60 ហុកសិប hŏksĕb
70 ចិតសិប chĕtsĕb
80 ប៉ែតសិប pêtsĕb
90 កៅសិប kausĕb

These, Wikipedia says, were borrowed from a southern Middle Chinese variety by way of a Tai language, most likely Thai, which is why sam sip, ha sip and the rest sound so close to Thai numbers. The pieces cannot be split in Khmer: sê does not mean four on its own and sĕb does not mean ten. In informal speech the sĕb can be dropped, so 81 can be pêt muŏy instead of pêtsĕb muŏy.

Hundreds, ten-thousands and the word kaôdĕ

Number Khmer word UNGEGN
100 មួយរយ muŏy rôy
1,000 មួយពាន់ muŏy poăn
10,000 មួយម៉ឺន muŏy mœn
100,000 មួយសែន muŏy sên
1,000,000 មួយលាន muŏy léan
10,000,000 មួយកោដិ muŏy kaôdĕ

Like Thai, Khmer has single words for 10,000 (mœn) and 100,000 (sên). Wikipedia lists the first five as borrowings from Thai and kaôdĕ from Sanskrit and Pali koṭi. It also flags an ambiguity: kaôdĕ usually means ten million, but in some areas it is used colloquially for a billion, so speakers sometimes say dáb léan, "ten million", to be clear. Dialects also vary above a thousand; dáb poăn, literally "ten thousand", is listed as an alternative to muŏy mœn.

A worked example: four numbers you will hear

  1. 27: twenty, then five-two, so mphey brămpir.
  2. 36: thirty, then five-one, so samsĕb brămmuŏy.
  3. 4,100: four thousands and one hundred, so buŏn poăn muŏy rôy.
  4. 15,000: one ten-thousand and five thousands, so muŏy mœn brăm poăn.

Ordinals put ti (ទី) first: ti muŏy, first; ti pir, second, the same pattern Wikipedia compares with Thai thi and Vietnamese thứ.

The Khmer digits ០ to ៩

Khmer has its own digits, ០ ១ ២ ៣ ៤ ៥ ៦ ៧ ៨ ៩, used in the same positional way as Arabic numerals: ២៧ is 27. Wikipedia notes that they have been in use since at least the early 7th century and that a Khmer inscription gives the earliest extant material evidence of zero as a numerical figure. Thai and Lao digits descend from the same source and still look alike. If the digits render as boxes on your phone, Khmer fonts on Android explains why, and the Khmer script explained covers the rest of the writing system.

Riel, dollars and asking the price

The riel (រៀល, sign ៛) is Cambodia's currency. Wikipedia lists banknotes from 100៛ to 50,000៛ in frequent use, while coins of 50 to 500 riels are rarely seen. It also notes that the US dollar works as a de facto currency: the riel remains in common use in the provinces, cities and tourist areas use the dollar heavily, and a rate of 4,000 riels to the dollar is widely used in retail, with change for fractions of a dollar given in riel. At that rate, $2.50 is 10,000 riels, muŏy mœn riĕl.

To ask the price, Wiktionary lists ប៉ុន្មាន as interrogative "how much?, how many?". Its example sentence uses the same word to ask the time, so it is worth learning early.

Learning Khmer numbers in the app

Learn Cambodian, Speak Khmer teaches consonants, vowels and numbers with pronunciation help, romanised spelling and tracing practice, and its Cambodia travel sections cover currency and market bargaining. It is free with ads and optional in-app purchases, and it is one of our language-learning apps. For the neighbouring system, see Lao numbers and prices.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How do you count from one to ten in Khmer?
In UNGEGN romanisation: muŏy (1), pir (2), bei (3), buŏn (4), brăm (5), brămmuŏy (6), brămpir (7), brămbei (8), brămbuŏn (9), dáb (10). Zero is sony, from Sanskrit. Romanisation is only a guide, so check each word against audio.
Why is six 'five-one' in Khmer?
Wikipedia describes the spoken Khmer numbers as biquinary, using both base 5 and base 10. Six to nine are formed by adding one to four to brăm, five, so seven is literally five plus two. From ten upwards the system is decimal.
What does mphey mean in Khmer?
Mphey is twenty. Wikipedia explains it as a contraction of 'one' plus an older word for twenty. Twenty-seven is therefore mphey brămpir, twenty plus five-two.
Are prices in Cambodia given in riel or US dollars?
Both. Wikipedia notes that the riel remains in common use in the provinces while cities and tourist areas use the US dollar heavily, and that a rate of 4,000 riels to the dollar is widely used in retail, with change for fractions of a dollar paid in riel.

Sources

  1. Khmer numerals (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  2. Cambodian riel (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. ប៉ុន្មាន (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed

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