Numbers and classifiers
❃ Numbers and classifiers
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တစ်၊ နှစ်၊ သုံး
[ Tit, hnit, thone ] -
One, two, three.
-
လေး၊ ငါး၊ ခြောက်
[ Lay, nga, chauk ] -
Four, five, six.
-
ခုနစ်၊ ရှစ်၊ ကိုး၊ ဆယ်
[ Khun nit, shit, ko, se ] -
Seven, eight, nine, ten.
-
ဆယ့်တစ်၊ ဆယ့်နှစ်
[ Se tit, se hnit ] -
Eleven, twelve.
-
နှစ်ဆယ်၊ သုံးဆယ်
[ Hna se, thone ze ] -
Twenty, thirty.
-
တစ်ရာ
[ Ta ya ] -
One hundred.
-
တစ်ထောင်
[ Ta htaung ] -
One thousand.
-
တစ်သောင်း
[ Ta thaung ] -
Ten thousand.
-
လူတစ်ယောက်
[ Lu ta yauk ] -
One person.
-
လူနှစ်ယောက်
[ Lu hnit yauk ] -
Two people.
-
သုံးခွက်
[ Thone khwet ] -
Three cups / glasses.
-
လေးပုလင်း
[ Lay ba lin ] -
Four bottles.
-
ငါးခု
[ Nga khu ] -
Five items (general).
-
ပထမ၊ ဒုတိယ
[ Pa hta ma, du ti ya ] -
First, second.
-
တစ်ဝက်
[ Ta wet ] -
Half.
-
အများကြီး
[ A mya gyi ] -
A lot.
-
နည်းနည်း
[ Ne ne ] -
A little.
-
လောက်ပြီ
[ Lauk bi ] -
Enough.
-
မလောက်ဘူး
[ Ma lauk bu ] -
Not enough.
-
ထပ်ပေးပါ
[ Htat pay ba ] -
More please / Give me more.
Counting in Burmese presents a fascinating linguistic shift for speakers of European languages, but it feels incredibly familiar and logical to those who speak Asian languages like Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. In Myanmar, numbers are almost never used entirely on their own when you are counting objects, animals, or people; they must always be paired with a specific "measure word" or classifier. You cannot simply translate the phrase "two coffees" or "three people" directly word-for-word. Instead, the grammatical structure requires you to state the noun first, followed by the number, and finally the appropriate classifier. For instance, to order drinks at a lively local teahouse, you would say ကော်ဖီနှစ်ခွက် (coffee hnit khwet) [kɔ̀fì n̥ɪʔ kʰwɛʔ], which literally translates to "coffee two cups", using the classifier ခွက် (khwet) specifically designated for cups or glasses. When referring to human beings, the classifier ယောက် (yauk) [jaʊʔ] is absolutely mandatory, so "one person" elegantly becomes လူတစ်ယောက် (lu ta yauk) [lù tə jaʊʔ]. For general, inanimate objects where you might not know the exact specific measure word, you can safely and politely rely on the universal classifier ခု (khu) [kʰḛ]. Learning these classifiers is not just a grammatical necessity; it is a profound entry point into understanding how the Burmese categorize the world around them. Things are grouped by their physical shape, their nature, or their social standing in society. Monks and sacred Buddhist objects, for example, have their own highly elevated classifiers to denote deep spiritual respect and reverence. While it might seem initially daunting to memorize all these categories, locals will be incredibly forgiving if you make a linguistic mistake. Simply using the general classifier *khu* combined with a warm smile and a gesture is often more than enough to negotiate successfully and make friends at any bustling market in Myanmar.
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