Trying to Tell Time in Thailand

At one of my recent Thai lessons, Noon, my instructor, tried to teach me how to tell time. It is very complicated.

First, the day isn’t divided into an AM and a PM. Instead, the day is divided into four intervals, and those intervals are not all the same length. Also, the word for “hour” changes throughout the day – saying “o’clock” all day long would be much too simple. Supposedly, the different words for hour are derived from when gongs were used to tell the time. Some of the gongs had very deep sounds and some higher, lighter sounds so when those sounds were translated into words, different words were needed. So, here goes.

Midnight is “tee-ang keun.” (Of course, that’s not how it’s actually spelled in Thai, since they have their own alphabet, but that’s what it sounds like.)

From midnight to 5:00 AM, we use “tee” as the word for "hour" -- so 1:00 AM is "tee-neung" (neung is 1) and 2:00 AM is "tee-soong” (soong is 2)." That works for 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 AM -- you say the word for the hour and follow it with the number. Simple enough.

Then, at 6:00 AM, we switch and use "mong chao" as the "hour" -- so 6:00 AM is "hok (6) mong chao.” However, now it gets complicated. Rather than just saying the word for seven, “jet,” and following it with “mong chao,” instead we use 6:00 AM as a new starting point and “add” to get the next hour. So, 7:00 AM is actually “neung mong chao” – which translates as 1 mong chao – meaning, it’s one hour after 6:00 AM. Likewise, 8:00 AM is ‘soong mong chao” – which translates as 2 hour, since 8:00 AM is two hours after 6:00 AM. Follow that approach up to 11:00 AM – “hah mong chao” – 5 hours after 6:00 AM. (Confusing, yes?)

Noon is “tee-ang.” (Not to be confused with midnight, which is “tee-ang kuen.)

Once again, the word for hour changes – now it’s “bai mong.” So, 1:00 PM is “bai mong.” And, 2:00 PM is “bai soong (2) mong,” – meaning 2 bai mong. Same approach for 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

5:00 PM and 6:00 PM are truly their own special cases – “hah (5) mong yen” and “hok (6) mong yen.” No other times use “mong yen” as the word for hour – just these two.

Then, we start over again at 7:00 PM – “neung toom.” “Neung” is the word for “1” so literally this means the “first toom.” Similarly, 8:00 PM is the second toom so we say “soong (2) toom.” And that holds all the way to 11:00 PM, which is “hah toom” – literally 5 tooms.

So, after learning how to count to 20 in Thai, it all goes out the window when it comes to telling time. And this is one reason why my head hurts after my Thai lessons.