Khmer numbers look like a long list until you notice the structure. There are genuinely only ten words to learn below a hundred, because six through nine are not separate words at all — they are five plus something.
One to ten
| Number | Khmer | Sounds like | Literally |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | មួយ | muoy | one |
| 2 | ពីរ | pii | two |
| 3 | បី | bei | three |
| 4 | បួន | buon | four |
| 5 | ប្រាំ | pram | five |
| 6 | ប្រាំមួយ | pram-muoy | five-one |
| 7 | ប្រាំពីរ | pram-pii | five-two |
| 8 | ប្រាំបី | pram-bei | five-three |
| 9 | ប្រាំបួន | pram-buon | five-four |
| 10 | ដប់ | dop | ten |
Five words plus a rule gets you to nine. That is a smaller memory load than almost any European language, and the pattern is completely regular — there is no irregular six or eight waiting to catch you out.
The same addition principle continues past ten. Eleven is dop-muoy, ten-one; fifteen is dop-pram, ten-five; sixteen is dop-pram-muoy, ten-five-one. A three-part number is not a mistake, it is how sixteen is said, and learners who expect a single word for it hear the sequence as two numbers.
The tens
| Number | Khmer | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | ម្ភៃ | mphey |
| 30 | សាមសិប | saam-sep |
| 40 | សែសិប | sae-sep |
| 50 | ហាសិប | haa-sep |
| 60 | ហុកសិប | hok-sep |
| 100 | មួយរយ | muoy-roy |
| 1,000 | មួយពាន់ | muoy-poan |
From thirty upwards the tens are built with -sep and are borrowings from Thai, which is why they abandon the base-five logic. Twenty is its own word and does not follow either pattern, so it has to be learned separately.
The digits
| Digit | Khmer | Digit | Khmer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | ០ | 5 | ៥ |
| 1 | ១ | 6 | ៦ |
| 2 | ២ | 7 | ៧ |
| 3 | ៣ | 8 | ៨ |
| 4 | ៤ | 9 | ៩ |
These are the fastest useful thing to learn in the Khmer script. They appear on market price boards, moto numbers, building numbers and official forms, and unlike the consonant series they can be learned in an afternoon without touching the rest of the writing system.
Money, which is where it all gets used
Cambodia runs on two currencies at once. US dollars handle larger amounts and riel handles change below a dollar, at a rate fixed in practice at about 4,000 riel to the dollar. That means the numbers you will hear most are thousands — muoy-poan, pii-poan — and a traveller who knows one to ten but stops there will still be lost at the first market stall. Learn poan and roy alongside the units, not after them.
Read Khmer words offline
The free English-Khmer Dictionary shows Khmer script with meanings, available without a connection.
Open the dictionary appFrequently asked questions
Why is six called five-one in Khmer?
Khmer counts on a base-five pattern inherited from an older stage of the language. One to five have their own words; six through nine are formed by adding one to four onto five. Several other South-East Asian languages show traces of the same system, but Khmer keeps it fully visible.
Do I need to learn the Khmer digits?
For markets and menus, yes. Khmer numerals appear on price tags, bus numbers, house numbers and official documents alongside Western ones, and they take about an hour to learn — much less than the rest of the script.
Is there a separate set for counting objects?
Khmer uses classifiers, so a number is usually followed by a classifier matching the kind of thing counted. Learners can get a long way with the general classifier and the number alone, and be understood, before taking on the full set.