In Burmese, classifiers or measure words, in the form of particles, are used when counting or measuring nouns. They immediately follow the number, unless the number is a round number (ends in a zero), in which case, the measure word precedes the number. Nouns to which the classifiers refer to can be omitted if the context allows, because many classifiers have implicit meanings.
The only exceptions to this rule are measurements of time or age (minutes, hours, days, years, etc.), where a preceding noun is not required, as the time measurement acts as a measure word.
See IPA/Burmese for an explanation of the phonetic symbols used in this section.
Burmese | IPA | Transliteration | Main usage |
---|---|---|---|
People and animals | |||
ကောင် | [kàuɰ̃] | kaung | animals |
ပါး | [pá] | pa | sacred persons (such as Buddhist monks and nuns) |
ယောက် | [jauʔ] | yauk | persons (general classifier) |
ရှဉ်း | [ʃíɰ̃] | shin | pairs of draught cattle |
ဦး | [ʔú] | u | people, monks and nuns |
Other measure words | |||
ကုံး | [kóuɰ̃] | koun | garlands, necklaces, stringed items |
ကျိုက် | [tɕaiʔ] | kyaik | draughts gulped down |
ကျိပ် | [tɕeiʔ] | kyeik | items in 'tens' |
ခါ | [kʰà] | kha | number of times |
ခု | [kʰṵ] | khu | items (general classifier) |
ခက် | [kʰɛʔ] | khet | branches, sprays of flowers |
ခင် | [kʰìɰ̃] | khin | skeins of wool or cotton |
ခေါင်း | [kʰáuɰ̃] | khaung | skeins of yarn |
ခိုင် | [kʰàiɰ̃] | khaing | bunches of flowers, fruits |
ခေါက် | [kʰauʔ] | khauk | trips |
ခွေ | [kʰwè] | khway | rings, coils |
ခွန်း | [kʰúɰ̃] | khun | words |
ချီ | [tɕʰì] | chi | performances or shows |
ချိုး | [dʑó] | cho | components of a ratio |
ချက် | [tɕʰɛʔ] | chet | strokes, blows, hits, points strokes of clocks, drums, gongs, etc. |
ချောင်း | [tɕʰáuɰ̃] | chaung | thin, long items (like pencils, sticks) |
ချပ် | [tɕʰaʔ] | chat | flat items (like tables) |
ခြည် | [tɕʰì] | chi | rings, bangles |
စီး | [sí] | si | vehicles and transport animals |
စည်း | [sí] | si | bundles |
စင်း | [síɰ̃] | sin | long-shaped items (like arrows, boats, cars) |
စောင် | [sàuɰ̃] | saung | literary pieces, documents, letters, etc. |
စုံ | [sòuɰ̃] | soun | sets or pairs |
ဆ | [sʰa̰] | hsa | number of times per equal amount |
ဆူ | [sʰù] | hsu | sacred objects and parabaik (Pali manuscripts) |
ဆောင် | [sʰàuɰ̃] | hsaung | buildings (like houses, monasteries and royal buildings) |
ဆိုင်း | [sʰáiɰ̃] | hsaing | work shifts, work teams, packets of gold foil |
တန် | [tàɰ̃] | tan | different legs of a journey, component parts of abstract concepts |
တန့် | [ta̰ɰ̃] | tan | bars, stripes, etc. |
တုတ် | [touʔ] | touk | carcasses of hares |
တွဲ | [twɛ́] | twe | items in pairs, bunches or clusters |
တွက် | [twɛʔ] | twet | snapping of fingers |
ထပ် | [tʰaʔ] | htat | layers, strata, storeys of buildings, etc. |
ထမ်း | [tʰáɰ̃] | htan | loads carried with a shoulder pole (yoke) |
ထောက် | [tʰauʔ] | htauk | stages of a journey, width of a point or tip of something |
ထည် | [tʰɛ̀] | hte | articles of clothing |
ထုပ် | [tʰouʔ] | htout | packages |
ထုံး | [tʰóuɰ̃] | htoun | knots, coils, etc. |
ထွာ | [tʰwà] | htwa | number of hand spans |
ထွေ | [tʰwè] | htwei | varied items; melds of playing cards |
နပ် | [naʔ] | nat | meals |
ပါး | [pá] | pa | sacred persons or objects (such as Buddhist monks) |
ပေါ | [pɔ́] | paw | bundles of seedlings |
ပေါက် | [pauʔ] | pauk | dots or drops |
ပိုင် | [pàiɰ̃] | paing | monk's robe; piece of silk used as headdress |
ပိုင်း | [páiɰ̃] | paing | part or division of something |
ပတ် | [paʔ] | pat | weeks |
ပင် | [pìɰ̃] | pin | tall upright things (trees, plants, poles, etc.); long strands (hair, thread, etc.). |
ပိုဒ် | [paiʔ] | paik | paragraphs |
ပုဒ် | [pouʔ] | poud | pieces of writing (such as articles,verse, songs, etc.) |
ပုံ | [pòuɰ̃] | poun | piles of material |
ပျစ် | [pjiʔ] | pyit | mats of palm thatching |
ပြူး | [pjú] | pyu | items in twos or pairs. |
ပြိုက် | [pjaiʔ] | pyaik | frequency of rain and snow |
ပြင် | [pjìɰ̃] | pyin | doctrines, concepts, dictums, etc. |
ပြာ | [pjàɰ̃] | pyan | number of times |
ပွဲ | [pwɛ́] | pwe | dishes; offertories |
ဖီး | [pʰí] | hpi | hands of bananas or plantains |
ဖောင် | [pʰàuɰ̃] | hpaung | height or depth equal to the height of a person standing with upraised hands (i.e. from the soles of his feet to the tips of his upraised hands) |
ဖုံ | [pʰòuɰ̃] | hpoun | things in heaps, batches or packs |
ဖန် | [pʰàɰ̃] | hpan | denotes frequency |
ဖြာ | [pʰjà] | hpya | denotes variety, diversity |
ဖွာ | [pʰwà] | hpwa | number of puffs (from cigarettes, etc.) |
မည် | [mjì] | myi | ingredients of a drug; kinds of dishes served |
မြူ | [mjù] | myu | pots of toddy wine |
မျက် | [mjeʔ] | myet | bundles of loops in a skein of cotton |
မှုတ် | [m̥ouʔ] | hmout | number of scoops with a dipper or ladle |
မြွှာ | [m̥wà] | hmwa | segments of fruit (such as cloves of garlic); parts of a multiparous birth (such as twins) |
မြှောင့် | [m̥ja̰uɰ̃] | hmyaung | longitudinally divided segments (such as cloves of garlic) |
ယာ | [jà] | ya | betel quids |
ယှက် | [ʃɛʔ] | shek | thin slices of food (such as pancake, waffle, etc.) |
ရန် | [jàɰ̃] | yan | objects in pairs |
ရပ် | [jaʔ] | yat | itemisation; expressing things in terms of a man's height |
ရေး | [jé] | yei | periods of sleep |
ရေစီး | [jèzí] | yei zi | leaves in a parabaik (Pali manuscripts) |
ရိုက် | [jaiʔ] | yaik | lengths measured with a bamboo pole |
ရစ် | [jiʔ] | yit | instalments, stages, chevrons, stripes, etc. |
ရွက် | [jwɛʔ] | ywet | counting sheets |
လား | [lá] | la | races in a contest consisting of a series of cart or boat races |
လီ | [lì] | li | multiples, frequencies |
လေး | [lé] | lei | used in connection with multiples or in replicate, parts of a ratio |
လော | [lɔ́] | law | number of times |
လက် | [lɛʔ] | lek | elongated items; turns in the game of dice |
လုတ် | [louʔ] | lout | mouthfuls of food |
လုံး | [lóuɰ̃] | loun | round, globular items |
လှိုင်း | [l̥áiɰ̃] | hlaing | sheaves of paddy |
လွှာ | [l̥wà] | hlwa | layers, strata, etc. |
ဝါး | [wá] | wa | handsbreadth |
သား | [θá] | tha | number of ticals or fractions of a tical or viss |
သုတ် | [θouʔ] | thouk | movements in groups or operations in shifts |
သွယ် | [θwɛ̀] | thwe | long, sinuous things (such as strands of pearls, garlands of flowers); paths, ways, methods, means, etc. |
Khmer is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people. This language is an official language and national language of Cambodia. The language is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan, Thailand, also in Southeast and Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns inherently carry one value of the grammatical category called gender. The values present in a given language, of which there are usually two or three, are called the genders of that language.
In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech is a category of words that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar syntactic behavior, sometimes similar morphological behavior in that they undergo inflection for similar properties and even similar semantic behavior. Commonly listed English parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner.
In linguistics, measure words are words that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun. Many languages use measure words, and East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean use them very extensively in the form of number classifiers.
Thai, or Central Thai, is a Tai language of the Kra–Dai language family spoken by the Central Thai, Mon, Lao Wiang, Phuan people in Central Thailand and the vast majority of Thai Chinese enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole official language of Thailand.
In linguistics, a count noun is a noun that can be modified by a quantity and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational determiners like every, each, several, etc. A mass noun has none of these properties: It cannot be modified by a number, cannot occur in plural, and cannot co-occur with quantificational determiners.
Thai numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in Thailand, although the Arabic numerals are more common due to extensive westernization of Thailand in the modern Rattanakosin period. Thai numerals follow the Hindu–Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world. In Thai language, numerals often follow the modified noun and precede a measure word, although variations to this pattern occur.
The plural, in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This default quantity is most commonly one. Therefore, plurals most typically denote two or more of something, although they may also denote fractional, zero or negative amounts. An example of a plural is the English word boys, which corresponds to the singular boy.
The modern Chinese varieties make frequent use of what are called classifiers or measure words. One use of classifiers is when a noun is qualified by a numeral or demonstrative. In the Chinese equivalent of a phrase such as "three books" or "that person", it is normally necessary to insert an appropriate classifier between the numeral/demonstrative and the noun. For example, in Standard Chinese, the first of these phrases would be:
The grammar of Standard Chinese shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number and verb tense are often not expressed by grammatical means, but there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some extent, mood.
Burmese is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar, the country's principal ethnic group. Burmese is also spoken by the indigenous tribes in Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, and in Tripura state in India. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English, though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese, after Burma—a name with co-official status that had historically been predominantly used for the country. Burmese is the most widely-spoken language in the country, where it serves as the lingua franca. In 2007, it was spoken as a first language by 33 million. Burmese is spoken as a second language by another 10 million people, including ethnic minorities in Myanmar like the Mon and also by those in neighboring countries. In 2022, the Burmese-speaking population was 38.8 million.
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals and smaller lowercase in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems that distinguish between the upper- and lowercase have two parallel sets of letters: each in the majuscule set has a counterpart in the minuscule set. Some counterpart letters have the same shape, and differ only in size, but for others the shapes are different. The two case variants are alternative representations of the same letter: they have the same name and pronunciation and are typically treated identically when sorting in alphabetical order.
A plurale tantum is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular form is rarely used.
A classifier is a word or affix that accompanies nouns and can be considered to "classify" a noun depending on some characteristics of its referent. Classifiers in this sense are specifically called noun classifiers because some languages in Papua as well as the Americas have verbal classifiers which categorize the referent of its argument.
A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and functionally they resemble classifiers in East Asian and sign languages. For example, Egyptian hieroglyphic determinatives include symbols for divinities, people, parts of the body, animals, plants, and books/abstract ideas, which helped in reading but were not pronounced.
Lepcha language, or Róng language, is a Himalayish language spoken by the Lepcha people in Sikkim, India and parts of West Bengal, Nepal, and Bhutan.
This article describes the grammar of the Khmer (Cambodian) language, focusing on the standard dialect.
Vietnamese is an analytic language, meaning it conveys grammatical information primarily through combinations of words as opposed to suffixes. The basic word order is subject-verb-object (SVO), but utterances may be restructured so as to be topic-prominent. Vietnamese also has verb serialization. In sentences, the head of the phrase usually precedes its complements, nouns are classified according to series of lexical parameters, and pronouns may be absent from utterances. Question words in the language do not exhibit wh-movement.
Burmese numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in the Burmese language, although Arabic numerals are also used. Burmese numerals follow the Hindu–Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world.
This article is a description of the grammar of standardized Has Hlai, a Hlai language spoken on the island of Hainan, China, by the Hlai (Li) ethnic group. The parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, numerals, adverbs, and pronouns.