0 (soon): “soon” (like a car that will arrive soon)
1 (nùeng): “nüng” (rhymes with “rung”)
2 (sǎawng): “song” (like the word for a piece of music)
3 (sǎam): “saam” (rhymes with “calm”)
4 (sìi): “see” (like the word for looking)
5 (hâa): “ha” (like a laugh)
6 (hòk): “hock” (like the word for a pig’s joint)
7 (jèt): “jet” (like a jet plane)
8 (bpàaet): “badh” (rhymes with “cat” but with a ‘p’ sound at the beginning)
9 (gâo): “gao” (sounds like “cow”)
10 (sìp): “sip” (like to take a small drink)
Okay, but how to remember all these numbers? Let me tell you a little story.
One day I was in Bangkok Hospital with my wife. We were waiting for the medicine and the bill, and I was hearing from the speaker: ‘soon soon … blah blah something else … and then… soon soon death!’ You know – when you’re sitting in a hospital and you hear something like that, it definitely raises some questions, right? So, I asked my wife what “soon” means. It turns out, “soon” means zero. And the “death” I thought I heard? That was actually jet—which is seven. But honestly, even now, I still hear “tet” like “death”. Anyway, that made 0 and 7 really easy for me to remember: James Bond 007 – “soon soon death.” Makes perfect sense, right? 😉
But what about the other numbers? Well, here’s my trick: I made up a little story:
‘Soon nun with tits and tail makes a song about Samsung. See this funny – ha ha ha – hock on jet with bad gcow sipping drink.’
- Soon is zero.
- Nun with tits and tail is nüng, which is one.
- Song is two.
- Sam from Samsung is three.
- See is four.
- Ha is five. Now you understand why Thai people use triple 5 when they text. It means that they are laughing ha ha ha. Also super easy to remember now.
- Hock is six—it even looks like a pigtail.
- Jet is seven.
- Bad is eight.
- Cow is nine.
- Sip is ten.
And that’s it! My crazy little number story. What do you think? Is it easy or too complicated? Let me know in the comments. This method might not work for everyone, but it worked for me.
