In this lesson, you are going to learn how to tell the time in Thai. Are you ready? To tell time in Thai, we divide each 24-hour period into 2 parts, Day (6 a.m.- 6 p.m.) and Night (7 p.m.- 5 a.m.)
1. For day times, From 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. the word o’clock in Thai is Moong (โมง).
For example:
6 a.m. = Hòk moong (หกโมง)
7 a.m. = Jèt moong (เจ็ดโมง)
8 a.m. = Pàat moong (แปดโมง)
11 a.m. = Sìp èt moong (สิบเอ็ดโมง)
3 p.m. = Sǎam moong (สามโมง)
4 p.m. = Sìi moong (สี่โมง) 5 p.m. = Hâa moong (ห้าโมง)
Exceptions are:
12 p.m. We don’t say 12 “moong” but we say “Thîang” (เที่ยง) which means midday or noon
and 1 p.m. We don’t say 1 “moong” we say “Bàay moong” (บ่ายโมง) which means 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
2. For night times, separate it into 2 parts, before midnight and after midnight.
2.1 Before midnight, from 7 p.m. – 11 p.m. the word o’clock for this session is “Thûm” (ทุ่ม).
For example:
7 p.m. = 1 Thûm (หนึ่งทุ่ม)
8 p.m. = 2 Thûm (สองทุ่ม)
9 p.m. = 3 Thûm (สามทุ่ม)
10 p.m. = 4 Thûm (สี่ทุ่ม)
11 p.m. = 5 Thûm (ห้าทุ่ม)
For 12 a.m., we say “Thîang khuun” (เที่ยงคืน) which means midnight.
2.2 After midnight, from 1 a.m. – 5 a.m. the word o’clock for this session is Tii (ตี). For this session, you have to put the word Tii (ตี) in front of the number.
For example
1 a.m. = Tii 1 (ตีหนึ่ง)
2 a.m. = Tii 2 (ตีสอง)
3 a.m. = Tii 3 (ตีสาม)
4 a.m. = Tii 4 (ตีสี่)
5 a.m. = Tii 5 (ตีห้า)
Telling the time in Thai is not as difficult as you think.
We can summarize telling the time using this table.
Day time
(6 a.m. – 6 p.m.) = Number + Moong (โมง)
6 a.m. = Hòk moong (cháw)(หกโมงเช้า)
7 a.m. = Jèt moong (เจ็ดโมง)
8 a.m. = Pàat moong(แปดโมง)
9 a.m. = Kâw moong(เก้าโมง)
10 a.m. = Sìp moong(สิบโมง)
11 a.m. = Sìp èt moong(สิบเอ็ดโมง)
12 a.m. = Thîang (เที่ยง) (exception)
1 p.m. = Bàay moong(บ่ายโมง) (exception)
2 p.m. = Sǒong moong(สองโมง)
3 p.m. = Sǎam moong(สามโมง)
4 p.m. = Sìi moong(สี่โมง)
5 p.m. = Hâa moong(ห้าโมง)
6 p.m. = Hòk moong (yen) (หกโมงเย็น)
Night time
7 p.m. – 11 p.m. = Number +Thûm (ทุ่ม)
7 p.m. = Nùng thûm (หนึ่งทุ่ม)
8 p.m. = Sǒong thûm (สองทุ่ม)
9 p.m. = Sǎam thûm (สามทุ่ม)
10 p.m. = Sìi thûm (สี่ทุ่ม)
11 p.m. = Hâa thûm (ห้าทุ่ม)
12 a.m. = Thîang khuun (เที่ยงคืน) (exception)
1 a.m. – 5 a.m. = Tii (ตี) + Number
1 a.m. = Tii nùng (ตีหนึ่ง)
2 a.m. = Tii sǒong (ตีสอง)
3 a.m. = Tii sǎam (ตีสาม)
4 a.m. = Tii sìi (ตีสี่)
5 a.m. = Tii hâa (ตีห้า)
To say exact times, you can just add the number followed by the word Naathii (นาที) which means minute. The word Naathii (นาที) is actually optional.
For example:
8.20 a.m. = Pàat moong yîi sìp (naathii) แปดโมงยี่สิบ(นาที)
4.15 p.m. = Sìi moong sìp hâa (naathii) สี่โมงสิบห้า(นาที)
For 30 minutes, we say Khrûng (ครึ่ง)which means half instead of Sǎam sìp (สามสิบ)
For example:
7.30 p.m. = Nùng thûm khrûng (หนึ่งทุ่มครึ่ง)
2.30 a.m. = Tii sǒong khrûng (ตีสองครึ่ง)
Finally, I would like to teach you about the question phrase “What time is it?” in Thai is “Kìi moong?” (กี่โมง)
Let’s look at example:
A: Khǒo thôot khráp, toon níi kìimoong khráp? (ขอโทษครับตอนนี้กี่โมงครับ) Excuse me, what time is it now?
B: Toon níi, sìp èt moong sìi sìp hâa khâ. (ตอนนี้สิบเอ็ดโมงสี่สิบห้าค่ะ) It’s 11.45 a.m. now.
Hope this article will be useful for you. Keep practicing to tell time in Thai by using the table. Good luck (Chok-dee โชคดี) Bye bye. 🙂