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.

Numbers from 1 to 9 (Sortable)

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.

NOTE: the word hseare2 may sound like zeare2 for 30, 40, 50 and 90. In general, if you have trailing zero's after, 3,4,5 and 9, people soften the consonant when spoken.

10X Numbers from 10 to 90

10-90	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
10	၁၀	ta1-hseare2
20	၂၀	hna1-hseare2
30	၃၀	thone3-zeare2
40	၄၀	lay3-zeare2
50	၅၀	nga3-zeare2
60	၆၀	chout-hseare2
70	၇၀	khoon2-na1-hseare2
80	၈၀	shit-hseare2
90	၉၀	ko3-zeare2

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.

100X Numbers from 100 to 900

100-900	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
100	၁၀၀	ta1-ya2
200	၂၀၀	hna1-ya2
300	၃၀၀	thone3-ya2
400	၄၀၀	lay3-ya2
500	၅၀၀	nga3-ya2
600	၆၀၀	chout-ya2
700	၇၀၀	khoon2-na1-ya2
800	၈၀၀	shit-ya2
900	၉၀၀	ko3-ya2

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.

1000X Numbers from 1,000 to 9,000

1,000X	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
1,000	၁၀၀၀	ta1-htoun2
2,000	၂၀၀၀	hna1-htoun2
3,000	၃၀၀၀	thone3-htoun2
4,000	၄၀၀၀	lay3-htoun2
5,000	၅၀၀၀	nga3-htoun2
6,000	၆၀၀၀	chout-htoun2
7,000	၇၀၀၀	khoon2-na1-htoun2
8,000	၈၀၀၀	shit-htoun2
9,000	၉၀၀၀	ko3-htoun2

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.

NOTE: thoun3 can be soften to dthoun3 for 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, and 90,000.

10,000X Numbers from 10,000 to 90,000

10,000X	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
10,000	၁၀၀၀၀	ta1-thoun3
20,000	၂၀၀၀၀	hna1-thoun3
30,000	၃၀၀၀၀	thone3-dthoun3
40,000	၄၀၀၀၀	lay3-dthoun3
50,000	၅၀၀၀၀	nga3-dthoun3
60,000	၆၀၀၀၀	chout-thoun3
70,000	၇၀၀၀၀	khoon2-na1-thoun3
80,000	၈၀၀၀၀	shit-thoun3
90,000	၉၀၀၀၀	ko3-dthoun3

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.

Higher Numbers from 100,000 to 100,000,000

100,000X	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
100,000 = 1,00000	၁၀၀၀၀၀	ta1-thain3
1,000,000 = 10,00000	၁၀၀၀၀၀၀	hseare2-dthain3
1,500,000 = 15,00000	၁၅၀၀၀၀၀	hseare1-nga3 dthain3
1,800,000 = 18,00000	၁၈၀၀၀၀၀	hseare1-shit thain3
2,000,000 = 20,00000	၂၀၀၀၀၀၀	thain3 hna1-hseare2
4,000,000 = 40,00000	၄၀၀၀၀၀၀	thain3 lay3-zeare2
10,000,000 = 100,00000	၁၀၀၀၀၀၀၀	thain3 ta1-ya2
100,000,000 = 1000,00000	၁၀၀၀၀၀၀၀၀	thain3 ta1-htoun2

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 ။ )

Numbers from 11-19

11-19	Myanmar Script	Pronunciation
11	၁၁	hseare1-tit
12	၁၂	hseare1-hnit
13	၁၃	hseare1-thone3
14	၁၄	hseare1-lay3
15	၁၅	hseare1-nga3
16	၁၆	hseare1-chout
17	၁၇	hseare1 khoon2-nit
18	၁၈	hseare1-shit
19	၁၉	hseare1-ko3

"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

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