Lesson 12: Learn to say, "I earn $ 123,456,789 a second!"
Many Burmese people seem to be fascinated with nun2-but | numbers.
Even in this modern day with scientific knowledge, it is not unusual for
Myanmar people to consult astrologers and choose the most auspicious dates for important personal occasions and business undertakings.
Some have even developed their own "system" to predict the winning lottery numbers!!
Here's a tip to prevent you from the culture shock. In a recent edition of the Lonely Planet's Myanmar Travel, one of the authors noted that Myanmar people tend to exaggerate with numbers. Perhaps, this is the culture where losing credibility is deemed not so important as in some other parts of the world. To be fair, let's face it. You will always find people who like to brag a little.
kjwa3 means to brag.
de2 -- this
koun2 -- reference to a guy or an animal
nga1-kjwa3 -- braggart
beare3 -- affirmation ending word
de2
koun2
nga1-kjwa3
beare3 -- What a braggart!
If you look at it from the positive angle, this is freedom like nowhere else in the world. You are free to exaggerate all you want
(about yourself, that is) -- regardless of what you say is true or not. That's why the spoken language is called
za1-ga3
where ka3
in a sense means to exaggerate. The tradition probably goes back to generations -- long before "spin-doctors" came onto the stage of American
politics.
In any case, earning 123,456,789 dollars a second is a bit too much -- just a tiny bit too much. How about 123,456 kyats a month? We will learn to say 1,2,3 up to 99,999,999 in Burmese. In case you don't know, "9" was considered a lucky number by a late well-known Burmese individual. In those days, Burma had strange currency denominations such as 45 kyats and 90 kyats, which had the digits all add up to number 9.
Reference Tables for Burmese Numerals
First, let's start with the very basic from 1 to 9.
1-9 ↑↓ | Myanmar Script ↑↓ | Pronunciation ↑↓ |
---|---|---|
1 | ၁ ![]() |
tit |
2 | ၂ ![]() |
hnit |
3 | ၃ ![]() |
thone3 |
4 | ၄ ![]() |
lay3 |
5 | ၅ ![]() |
nga3 |
6 | ၆ ![]() |
chout |
7 | ၇ ![]() |
khoon2-nit |
8 | ၈ ![]() |
shit |
9 | ၉ ![]() |
ko3 |
To say 1,2,3 in the multiple of 10's such as 10,20,30, etc., the general format is to add the word hseare2 after 1,2,3. However, there are slight changes in the pronunciations of 1,2 and 7 in the spoken language.


To say 1,2,3 in the multiple of 100's such as 100, 200, 300, etc., the general format is to add the
word ya2
after 1,2,3. Note the similarities with the 10's in the pronunciation of 1,2 and 7.
To say 1,2,3 in the multiple of 1000's such as 1000, 2000, 3000, etc., the general format is to add the
word htoun2
after 1,2,3.
Just remember the four zero's word in Burmese. It is called thoun3.
Note that it is pronounced in the 3rd tone. Don't confuse this word with the thousand,
htoun2,
which is in the second tone.
If you are used to expressing those numbers in terms of thousands in your language, you will need to re-adjust the learning. Try to see 2,0000 figure instead of 20,000.
The higher numbers are expressed in thain3. Remember, it has five trailing zero's. It is used as a base for even higher numbers in the multiple of 10, 100, and 1000 to that base.
Place the word thain3 after the numbers from 1 to 19. ta1-thain3 means, 1,00000 = 100,000 = one hundred thousand in English.
hseare2-dthain3 means 10X the thain3 = 10,00000 = 1,000,000 = one million in English.
Place the word thain3 before the numbers from 20 onwards. For example, thain3 hna1-hsare2 means 20X the thain3 = 20,00000 = 2,000,000 = 2 million in English.
thain3 ta1-toun2 means 1000X the thain3 = 1000,00000 = 100,000,000. One thousand thain3 is one hundred million.
If you have numbers with 3,4,5,9, and 10 in front the zero, you may hear people soften the words to sound like dthain3.
So, how would you say 654321 in Burmese? Here is a formula. You always start with the highest multiple of 10X. The above number has 6 digits (with the place for 5 trailing zeros), so start with thain3. It is pretty much straight forward as shown below:
chout-thain3 -- 6,00000 +
nga3-dthoun3 -- 50000 +
lay3-htoun2 -- 4000 +
thone3-ya2 -- 300 +
hna1-hseare1 -- 20 +
tit -- 1
654,321 = ၆၅၄၃၂၁
There is one small detail. The word "hseare2", which is used for 10X as in 10, 20, 30 .... 80, 90 is pronounced in the first tone as hseare1 when it is followed by a single digit number from 1 to 9 such as in the above example.
Numbers between 10 and 100 with non-zero last digit
thone3-zeare1 -- 30 +
lay3-- 4
chout-hseare1 -- 60 +
shit-- 8
ko3-zeare1 -- 90 +
ko3 -- 9
34 - 68 - 99 ( ၃၄ ၊ ၆၈ ၊ ၉၉ ။ )
OK, quiz time! How would you then say "11"?
That was a trick question. No, it's not
ta1-hseare1 -- 10 +
tit -- 1
In spoken Burmese, just omit ta1 in ta1-hseare1 (10 +) for numbers from
11 to 19 like examples below:
hseare1 -- 10 +
tit -- 1
hseare1 -- 10 +
nga3 -- 5
hseare1 -- 10 +
ko3 -- 9
11 - 15 - 19 ( ၁၁ ၊ ၁၅ ၊ ၁၉ ။ )
Millions and Billions
thun3 is the word for "million". chout-thun3 means six million. However, in the business world, you will hear people speak in terms of thain3 figure with 5 zero's instead. Six million is sixty thain3, or thain3 chout-hseare2. And, people usually round up the big numbers so you don't need to worry about saying the smaller numbers that follow the thain3 number such as htoun2 and ya2.
Present Myanmar government uses the term bi2-la1-yan2 "Billion" to announce the budget and expenses. This bi2-la1-yan2 is the American usage of billion equivalent to one thousand million. I need to clarify this because the British billion is a million million, and Americans call this a trillion.
The Burmese language newspaper "The Mirror" uses the term bi2-la1-yan2-na2 for billionaire.
Trillions
A million million or a trillion is a difficult concept to visualize. Let's see how many zero's behind it.
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000 = 1 million
10,000,000 = 10 million
100,000,000 = 100 million
1,000,000,000 = a billion (1,000 million)
10,000,000,000 = 10 billion
100,000,000,000 = 100 billion
1,000,000,000,000 = a trillion (1,000 billion)
The Burmese language uses the English loaned word Trillion as hta1-ri2-li2-yan2. For example, for the fiscal year 2015-2016, Myanmar government tax revenue is estimated to be 6.387 hta1-ri2-li2-yan2 Kyat.
"Half" Numbers
There is one other common usage that you should know.
khweare3 means half.
In terms of math, there is an additional half value to the multiplier. For example,
nga3 dthoun3 khweare3 means 55000. Let's do some math:
nga3 means 5
thoun3 means you need to multiply by 10000. ( 5 * 10000 = 50000)
khweare3 refers to the half of whatever multiplier you use, in this case,
(1/2 * 10000= 5000).
Add this 5000 to 50000. (50000+5000= 55000)
So, khweare3 is the same as "half" in English when you say "A million and a half."
Another example on "half" numbers
chout thain3 khweare3 means 6,50000.
thain3 means you need to multiply by 1,00000. ( 6 * 1,00000 = 6,00000)
khweare3 refers to the half of the multiplier you use; in this case,
(1/2 * 1,00000= 50000).
Add this 50000 to 6,00000. (6,00000 + 50000 = 6,50000)
A Review of numbers big and small
English ↑↓ | Burmese | Pronunciation ↑↓ |
---|---|---|
1 | ၁ | tit |
2 | ၂ | hnit |
3 | ၃ | thone3 |
4 | ၄ | lay3 |
5 | ၅ | nga3 |
6 | ၆ | chout |
7 | ၇ | khoon2-nit |
8 | ၈ | shit |
9 | ၉ | ko3 |
10 | ၁၀ | ta1-hseare2 |
15 | ၁၅ | hseare1-nga3 |
200 | ၂၀၀ | hna1-ya2 |
3000 (3,000) |
၃၀၀၀ | thone3-htoun2 |
40000 | ၄၀၀၀၀ | lay3-dthoun3 |
500000 (5,00000) |
၅၀၀၀၀၀ | nga3-dthain3 |
6000000 (60,00000) |
၆၀၀၀၀၀၀ | thain3 chout-hseare2 |
6000000 (6,000,000) |
၆၀၀၀၀၀၀ | chout-thun3 |
Now it's about time to exaggerate a little
So, finally, you should be able to say that you earn 123,456 kyats (a second, a minute, or whatever exaggeration you preferred.)
ta1 thain3 -- 1,00000 +
hna1 thoun3 -- 20000 +
thone3 htoun2 -- 3000 +
lay3 ya2 -- 400 +
nga3 seare1 -- 50 +
chout -- 6
kjut -- Kyat
ta1 set-kun1 -- 1 second
yah1 deare2 -- to receive + affirmative.
ta1-thain3 hna1-thoun3 thone3-htoun2 lay3-ya2 nga3-seare1 chout kjut ta1 set-kun1 yah1 deare2