While individuality is very laudable, the Thais could have given us a break by settling for the traditional number system, used by most countries: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0.
But someone got carried away somewhere, and decided to create a unique number system, entirely incomprehensible to the outside eye.
More about Learning the Thai Number System in the Thai Language
Nevertheless, once you get an initial idea of what’s going on, things begin to become clear and logical – thankfully the mathematical principles are the same, as are the combinations of symbols. The thai “symbol for 1” followed by the “thai symbol for 0” also means “10”.
Fully covered in “60 Minutes to Learn the Thai Alphabet”, you’ll begin to recognise the thai numbers in minutes, much to the bemusement of your Thai friends. Once again the system relys on a simple image, that encodes the shape of the thai number, and its meaning. If you can look at a picture, and recall a picture, you can learn the Thai number system in about 5 minutes!
Here is a sample of the numbers. Use the pictures below, to remember the numbers in minutes!
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