There are two ways of indicating time in Thailand, the Official System used for official notices, invitations etc. and the Colloquial System used in everyday conversation.

The Official System makes use of the 24 hour clock starting at midnight and uses the word NAHLIGAH “o’clock” after the time.

	GOW NAHLIGAH	เก้านาฬิกา	9 a.m.
	SIPSEE NAHLIGAH	สิบสี่นาฬิกา	2 p.m.

The Colloquial System is more complicated and divides the day into four six hour periods starting at midnight, 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. There are special words to identify each period and the counting starts from one again at the beginning of each period.
The word NAHLIGAH is not used.

	DTEE SAHM	ตีสาม	3 a.m.
	SAHM MONG CHOW	สามโมงเช้า	9 a.m.
	BAI SAHM MONG	บ่ายสามโมง	3 p.m.
	SAHM TOOM	สามทุ่ม	9 p.m.

In both of these systems the word WAYLAH “time” should strictly speaking precede the time but in conversation this is usually omitted. Similarly when there is no chance of confusion the word designating the particular period of the day is often omitted in the Colloquial System.

In normal conversation a mixture of the two systems is often used, as well as some special words for particular hours, and as the whole reckoning of time is rather confusing at first, both systems and various alternatives are given below in some detail, not with the idea that they should be learned completely at this stage, but rather to serve as a reference as you gain more proficiency in the language.

Minutes before the hour are expressed by (JA) EEK “(will be) still more” followed by the number of minutes and then the hour.

The word JA is commonly omitted in conversation.

EKK SIP NAHTEE BAI SEE MONG

อีกสิบนาทีบ่ายสี่โมง

3.50 p.m.

Minutes after the hour are expressed by merely adding the number of minutes after the hour.

BAI SAHM MONG SIP NAHTEE

บ่ายสามโมงสิบนาที

3.10 p.m.

Don’t be surprised if one of your Thai friends asks you to come to his office at “three o’clock in the morning”; he means 9 a.m.

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:31 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.