Thailand's largest photos and videos site!
Over 3400 pages, 2800 photos, 100 videos. 1.4+ million pages served

Popular: Thailand PHOTOS Index Thailand VIDEOS Index Thailand E-BOOKS & Articles E-books for Sale Thailand BLOGS Thai Restaurants

Travel Activities: Things to do in Thailand Articles: Thai People and Culture General: Thailand Reference Info

Time in Thailand, Speaking Thai and Getting it Right

Time in Thailand is one of the most difficult things to pick up on your journey. You will need to really study it to learn it well. OR, you can use this little trick or 'lifehack' to make it easy.

The difficult way of telling time in Thailand is described below.

The easy trick to telling time in Thailand is here >

Difficult way below... In the column on the right you should pronounce those in English as best you can. A 'd' and 't' together are just that - start out to say a 'd' and then go right into the 't'. Another tip is that Thais don't say the last syllable of their words. They are unaspirated. The sound just stops without the extra puff of air at the end of most english words.

Hours	Pronounce as...
0100 (1 am.)	dtee (l) neung
0200 (2 am.)	dtee (r) song
0300 (3 am.)	dtee (r) sahm
0400 (4 am.)	dtee (l) see
0500 (5 am.)	dtee (f) hah
0600 (6 am.)	(l) Hohk mong (h) chow
0700 (7 am.)	(l) jet mong (h) chow
0800 (8 am.)	(l) bpaat mong (h) chow
0900 (9 am.)	(f) gow mong (h) chow
1000 (10 am.)	(l) sip mong (h) chow
1100 (11 am.)	(l) sip et mong (h) chow
1200 (12 pm. or Noon)	Tee-ung
1300 (1 pm.)	(l) by mong
1400 (2 pm.)	(l) by (r) song mong
1500 (3 pm.)	(l) by (r) sam mong
1600 (4 pm.)	(l) by (l) see mong (l) see mong yen
1700 (5 pm.)	(f) ha mong (f) hah mong yen
1800 (6 pm.)	(l) hoke mong yen (f) yahm (f) kahm
1900 (7 pm.)	(l) noong (f) toom
2000 (8 pm.)	(r) song (f) toom
2100 (9 pm.)	(r) sam (f) toom
2200 (10 pm.)	(l) see (f) toom
2300 (11 pm.)	(f) hah (f) toom
2400 (12 am. or, Midnight)	Tee-ung Koon

Thai is a tonal language meaning there are different tones that affect most words. Here is a quick overview:

(l) - Low tone - just said in a lower tone voice without inflection or emotion
(h) - High tone words are said with a lot of air in the word. Meaning, loudly and to me they are a bit shorter usually as well.
(r) - Rising tone. Think of how the French language uses a rising tone on the end of their sentences when they are speaking english. The word sounds almost like a question. But more accurately the word starts out in a regular - no tone sound and then rises toward a high tone sound at the end.
(f) - Falling tone. This one for me was the most difficult to pronounce and hear when other people say it. Opposite of rising tone.

If you need to add 30 minutes to any of the above - just add "(f) Kroong" to the end of the hour.

To add 15 minutes add, (l) sip (f) hah nah tee. (nah tee means minutes)

To add 45 minutes add, (l) see (l) sip (f) hah nah tee.

If you are looking for an easy way (trick) to telling time in Thailand - to use Thai to speak the time - here is a link: Telling Time in Thailand the easy way>

If you want to know what time it is in Thailand if you are in another country, go here...

Thailand Time >

Thanks for stopping in - and enjoy the site!
If you have something to send us that you think might help others
know more about Thailand - SEND IT!

Main links: Thailand Videos Thailand photos Thailand News Thailand Hotel Reservations Weather

About - Contact - Submit Articles, Information, Links - Site Map - Home