Language Guide: Numbers in Cambodia (like a Pro!)

Learn Kmer (Cambodian) numbers the easy way.  This guide is practical.  You will learn how to speak what is most important in day-to-day life.

GemsOfTravel will walk through the steps of what you need to know and how to remember it, adding in complexity along the way.

We teach things not in logical order, but in order of importance starting with the most common words first.  There is a lot to remember in a new foreign language, so start at the top first and work towards the bottom as you progress.

About The Language

Khmer (“come-eye”) is the language of Cambodia.

Perhaps to the layman, you can call it the “Cambodian language”, but locals don’t call it that – it’s called “Kmer”.

Furthermore, the name “Cambodia” is pronounced “C-ah-m-poo-chee-ugh”, which is different from the English pronunciation “Cam-bow-dee-ah”.

Khmer is not a tonal language.  That makes things much easier! 👍🙂

However, it’s got some different sounds that you are not familiar with, so your pronunciation may not be 100% perfect.

GemsOfTravel will get your pronunciation “close enough”.

You will become better over time with real world experience. Real-world experience is needed for you to hear, speak, and practice the language.

Getting Started & Practicing

The majority of your conversations will be:

(1) “How much does this cost?
(2) Using the numbers – listening and speaking numbers.

👉 These are the first things you should learn!

This simple method will help you learn the numbers fast – speaking & listening, both.

Also, do not rely on pronunciations on google translate as they are not always correct.

To practice:

(1) Speak : Ask “how much” (in Khmer, the Cambodian language)
(2) Listening skill :  They will respond with a number.
(3) Speaking skill :  Repeat the number back to them, as a question to confirm the price.

Speaking:  Asking “How Much Does It Cost?”

Q: -> “How much does this cost?”

A: -> Now, they will reply with a number in Khmer (a.k.a. Cambodian)!

Speaking & Listening:  Numbers And Currency

⭐ This guide teaches you in order of what you need to know for real-world usage.  It skips some numbers, teaching the most used ones first.

Yea, it seems weird, we know.

It will feel strange doing this, but trust us – it makes sense.

Learning everything at once is a bit much, so learning bit-by-bit is a smart approach.  By doing this you will learn the speaking and listening of numbers much faster.

⭐ A quick glance:

👉 Prioritize learning:

The above is the logical order for learning Khmer (Cambodian) numbers. It is in the order of what you’ll use on a daily basis.

Khmer uses Roman numeral-like number structure for numbers 1 through 10.  In this way, it is different than the other Southeast Asian languages.

For example, 6 is “five one”…. 7 is “five two”.

As long as you know 1 – 5, you can say 6 – 9 … easy!

The number script (see below) is nearly identical to Thai number script, but pronounced differently.

⭐ It is common for locals to pronounce 5 (“Bpram”) as a “P” sound.

This just makes it easy to say the number 5.

Saying 5 as “P” is only used for number 6, but sometimes you’ll hear it for 8 and 9 … but, not 7.

⭐ As for “7” … Sometimes, as special word for 7 is used, pronounced “Pil” (“P” sound + “ugh” + “L” sound).

The currency of Cambodia is the Khmer Riel.  Riel is pronounced “Real” (as in real, not counterfeit).

The currency is mostly in the thousands (~4,000 VND is $1 USD).

There are 100 Riel bills that get used often, too, though.

Khmer people rarely say “Riel” along with the price. So, no need to say the currency Riel for a price … just say the number!

Cost of daily items will be in the thousands or tens of thousands.

The word for 1000 is “Poan”.

When speaking the currency, the word “thousand” gets used before the word “hundred” in Khmer.

Huh, why!?  Because, the currency and most pricing in Cambodia is in the thousands.  There are 100 KHR bills, but they are not used often.  Therefore, for most everyday life purchases, speaking the numbers & currency will be in thousands, then ten-thousands (more on ten-thousand, below).

As mentioned above, for currency the word “thousand” gets added at the end, almost as a replacement for the word of the currency, Riel.  We say this, because only the number (without the word thousand) is spoken for simplicity, most of the time.

Therefore, the price of “five thousand Riel” (5,000 Riel)
-> will shorten to  “five thousand” (5,000)

30,000 VND -> 5,000

Some typical prices:

Larger purchases or rental costs will be in the thousands or tens of thousands.

Khmer people use a special word designated for 10,000 = “Meun” (same as Thai), and spoken as “one ‘ten-thousand’ (Muay Meun)”.

To say “10,000” you say “one + the word for ‘ten-thousand’. You do not say “ten (Dob) thousand (Poan)”!

This is hard & confusing for Westerners. Essentially, they have 4 decimal places instead of 3.

-> 1,0000 (ten-thousand = 4 decimal places) instead of 1,000 (thousand = 3 decimal places)

Quick detour!  The word for twenty is confusing, because it deviates for some reason.

The number 20 has it’s own special word, Mpei (pronounced “M-Pay”)

Khmer uses the number “10” to construct other numbers…. such as 15 (spoken as “ten” “five”).

The issue is that when construction 20/30/40/…/80/90 the word for “ten” is different🤯.

Yes, Khmer uses 2 different words for “ten” 🤯.

(1) Dap = “ten” for 10-19
(2) Sup = “ten” for 30/40/50/60/70/80/90

Note: 20 has it’s own special word, which does not use either word for “ten”.

The word for ten is “dob” when used for numbers 10 through 19.

However, for 20 through 99 the word for ten changes.  As noted in “Caveat #2 – The Number 20”, ten is not used to construct the number 20.

For number 30 through 99 the word “Sup” is used, which sounds very similar to the Thai word for ten, “Sib”.

Whew!  There are a lot of deviations within Khmer – Roman numeral style numbers and changes in the words for twenty and ten.  Now, the numbers 3 through 9 change when construction numbers 30 through 90.

For the most part, these Khmer numbers sound nearly identical (with a slight variation) to spoken Thai numbers.

These are not common when using the currency for buying things, because currency is in the thousands and ten-thousands.

As previously mentioned, the word for ‘ten-thousand’ is it’s own special word, so the use of (1) “Dob” and (2) “Sup” are do not apply to pricing.

Now, it transitions to using “Sup” for constructing 30/40/50/60/70/80/and 90.

🚨 When speaking the word for 100, it is pronounced by “one hundred” (not “hundred” by itself as is in Thai).

Just for practice… 220 uses the words for “2” (Khmer) and also “20” (has it’s own special word).

Just for practice… 333 uses the words for “3” (Khmer) and also “30” (Thai lone-word) with “3” (Khmer) at the end as part of “33”.

Here’s a little harder example… 888.

Conclusion

There you have it! This will get you started with numbers in Khmer.

Thai is NOT a tonal language 🙂👍, so your pronunciation may not be 100% perfect. This makes speaking easier than Thai and Vietnamese.

However, the numbers are more complicated 👎, having several caveats 👎, which will lead to confusion 🤯.

GemsOfTravel is not an expert in Khmer language.  There may be regional variations and slang as to speaking the numbers.  But, if you stick with our lesson, then you’ll be off to a great start and understood!