Khmer Numbers: How to Read and Count from 0 to 100

Khmer has its own set of digits, and they look nothing like the Arabic numerals you already read. There are only ten of them, they run zero through nine, and they work in the same base-ten system as English, so once you know the ten shapes you can read any Khmer number on a price tag, date, phone number, or door sign. Saying numbers aloud takes a few more words, the ones for ten, twenty, and a hundred, but they follow simple rules. This guide gives you the full table of digits, the number words from zero to one hundred, and the pattern that lets you say anything in between, like 24 or 57, without learning every number on its own.

The ten Khmer numerals

The table below lists all ten numerals in value order, each with its Khmer number word and a plain romanization. Romanizations are approximations, so treat them as labels and confirm the real sound with audio when you can.

The trick: 6 to 9 are just 5 plus something

Here is the feature that makes Khmer numbers friendlier than they look. The word for five, ប្រាំ (pram), works as a base, and the numbers six through nine are compounds built on it:

• ៦ = ប្រាំ + មួយ (pram + muoy, five plus one)
• ៧ = ប្រាំ + ពីរ (pram + pii, five plus two)
• ៨ = ប្រាំ + បី (pram + bei, five plus three)
• ៩ = ប្រាំ + បួន (pram + buon, five plus four)

So you really only have to learn the number words for zero through five. Learn one through five and you can already say six through nine, because Khmer builds them by counting on from five.

Reading longer numbers on the page

Bigger numbers stack the same ten digits left to right by place value, exactly as English does. Ten is ១០ (a one and a zero), twenty-one is ២១, and one hundred is ១០០, three symbols meaning one, zero, zero. Nothing new is added for larger numbers; you are always reading the same ten shapes in position. That is why the numerals are worth learning early: a single afternoon of shapes unlocks every price tag and phone number you will ever see.

The number words from ten to one hundred

Reading the digits is one skill; saying a number aloud is another, and it needs a few more words. Here are the tens, plus one hundred, each with its Khmer spelling and a plain romanization.

Two of these stand on their own: ten is ដប់ (dawb) and twenty is ម្ភៃ (mphey). From thirty up, the tens share a piece, សិប (seb), the marker for a tens place, after a root for each one.

Building any number from eleven to ninety-nine

You do not learn a separate word for every number. Two rules cover everything between the tens.

Eleven to nineteen: the word for ten, ដប់ (dawb), followed by the single digit.

• 11 = ដប់មួយ (dawb muoy), ten and one
• 15 = ដប់ប្រាំ (dawb pram), ten and five

Twenty-one to ninety-nine: the tens word, then the single digit.

• 24 = ម្ភៃបួន (mphey buon), twenty and four
• 57 = ហាសិបប្រាំពីរ (ha seb pram pir), fifty and seven

Once you know the single digits and the ten tens, every number up to ninety-nine is just two words set side by side.

Hundreds and thousands

Past one hundred the pattern keeps going. One hundred is មួយរយ (muoy roy), literally one hundred. For other hundreds, put the digit before រយ (roy):

• 200 = ពីររយ (pir roy)
• 500 = ប្រាំរយ (pram roy)

One thousand is មួយពាន់ (muoy poan), and thousands follow the same shape with ពាន់ (poan) in place of រយ (roy).

Common questions about Khmer numbers

How do you remember which shape is which?

The fastest way to lock in the shapes is a mnemonic for each one, an image that ties the numeral's form to its sound, the same method our workbooks use for the consonants and vowels. Give every numeral one odd little image like that and the set stops being ten abstract squiggles.

The numerals are the small, self-contained corner of the script: no two-series rules, no vowels to combine, just ten shapes and their names. They sit at the end of the reading path in our beginner's roadmap to reading Khmer, and they appear in the complete Khmer alphabet chart alongside every other symbol group. Learn the numbers first if you live in Cambodia and want a quick early win; learn them last if you are working straight through the script. Either way, they are the afternoon that pays off every single day.