Classifiers or Designatory Particles are words used mainly with concrete nouns to designate and specify the unit used in counting or referring to them.

In English when we say “a head of cattle”, “a lump of ice”, “a bottle of beer” the words “head”, “lump”, “bottle” are what would in Thai be called classifiers.

The use of these classifiers is far more widespread in Thai than in English and you cannot even begin to speak acceptable Thai until you have thoroughly mastered their use.

Any one classifier generally applies to a group of nouns all of which are considered as having some common feature though this is not always apparent at first sight.

For instance;

	KON	c	กน	is the classifier for all persons.
	DTOO-A	c	ตัว	is the classifier for all animal life except human beings and also for a few inanimate objects which can be considered as having a body and arms and legs such as a table.
	KUN	c	คัน	is the classifier for all vehicles except ox carts.

There are altogether a great many of these classifiers, some of which are given in the vocabularies of this and succeeding lessons and a more complete list is given in Appendix 1.

The rules governing the use of classifiers are set out below and though you may find some of these rules neglected in conversation it is essential that you get into the habit of applying them properly from now on.

1. The classifier is always placed after the noun to which it refers, and after the adjective if there is one.

   	MAMOO-ANG PON NEE มะม่วงผลนี้	This mango. (Mango this fruit)
   	MAH YY DTOO-A NUN หมาใหญ่ตัวนั้น	That big dog.

2. A classifier is always used with the singular form of the noun where an individual thing is specifically referred to unless the noun is qualified by a personal pronoun.

   	ROT KUN NEE DEE MAHK รถคันนี้ดีมาก	This car is very good.
   	ROT KORNG KOW DEE MAHK รถของเขาดีมาก	His car is very good.
   	BAHN LUNG NUN MY YY TOWRY บ้านหลังนั้นไม่ใหญ่เท่าไร	That house is not very big.

   Although in conversation you may often find the classifier omitted, this can lead to ambiguity and it is better to stick to the rules.

   ROT NEE DEE MAHK

   รถนี่ดีมาก

   may mean; “These cars are very good.”, “This is a very good sort of car.” or “This car is very good.”.

3. When the noun is qualified by adjectives DEE-O (เดียว) “one only”, RAAK (แรก) “first”, NAH (หน้า) “front”, “ahead”, LUNG (หลัง) “next”, “behind”, SOOTTAI (สุดท้าย) “last”, “final”, or Ordinal Numbers, these words come after the classifier.

   	POM MEE ROT KUN DEE-O ผมมีรถคันเดียว	I have only one car.
   	POM JA KOY ROT KUN LUNG I will wait for the next car. (The car behind) ผมจะคอยรถคันหลัง
   	NUNGSEU LEM TEE SORNG NUN หนังสือเล่มที่สองนั้น	That second book.
   	PEU-AN YOO NY ROT KUN RAAK (My) friend is in the first car. เพื่อนอยู่ในรถคันแรก

4. When the noun is qualified by a numeral or numeral word, this always precedes the classifier except in the case of the numeral “one” which may come either before or after the noun and has a different meaning in each position.

   If it comes before the noun it means “one”.

   	OW BEE-A MAH NEUNG KOO-AT เอาเบียร์มาหนึ่งขวด	Bring one bottle of beer.
   	MEE POO CHAI NEUNG KON... มีผู้ชายหนึ่งคน	There is one man...

   If it comes after the noun it is equivalent to the indefinite article “a” in English.

   	OW BEE-A MAH KOO-AT NEUNG เอาเบียร์มาขวดหนึ่ง	Bring a bottle of beer.
   	MEE POO CHAI KON NEUNG... มีผู้ชายคนหนึ่ง	There is a man...

5. Where plurality is expressed by the adjectives GEE (กี่) “how many”, LAI (หลาย) “many”, “several”, TOOK (ทุก) “every”, BAHNG (บาง) “some”, and/or by cardinal numbers, these usually come between the noun and the classifier, but this is not an invariable rule. (See also (f) below)

   	NUNGSEU YY SORNG LEM NEE หนังสือใหญ่สองเล่มนี้	These two big books.
   	ROT LEK TOOK KUN NON รถเล็กทุกคันโน้น	All those small cars over there.
   	NEU-A SORNG CHIN YY NEE เนื้อสองชิ้นใหญ่นี้	These two big slices of meat.
   	MEE NGERN GEE BAHT KA มีเงินกี่บาทคะ	How much money have you?
   	TEE NEE MEE ROT LAI KON ที่นี่มีรถหลายคัน	There are a lot of cars here.
   	MEE MAMOO-ANG MY GEE PON มีมะม่วงไม่กี่ผล	There are not many mangoes.

6. A classifier is not used when the noun is qualified by the adjectives LOW NEE (เหล่านี้) “these”, LOW NUN (เหล่านั้น) “those”, MAHK (มาก) “many”, NOY (หน่อย) “few” or TOWRY (เท่าไร) “how many”. Compare the following examples with the last three above.

   	MEE NGERN TOWRY KA มีเงินเท่าไรคะ	How much money have you?
   	TEE NEE MEE ROT MAHK ที่นี่มีรถมาก	There are a lot of cars here.
   	MEE MAMOO-ANG MY MAHK มีมะม่วงไม่มาก	There are not many mangoes.

7. Once having established the noun referred to it is usual to omit it in subsequent conversation and use only the classifier.

   	NUNGSEU LOW NEE PAANG MY KA Are these books expensive? หนังสือเหล่านี้แพงไหมคะ
   	LEM YY PAANG KA LEM LEK MY PAANG The big books are expensive, the small ones are not expensive. เล่มใหญ่แพงค่ะ เล่มเล็กไม่แพง

8. In a large number of cases where there is no other suitable classifier, the noun itself is repeated and used as it’s own classifier. In these cases the classifier is usually omitted when the noun is in the singular.

   	AHTIT NAH MEE WUN YOOT SORNG WUN Next week there are two holidays. อาทิตย์หน้ามีวันหยุดสองวัน
   	ROOP NEE TOOK MAHK รูปนี้ถูกมาก	This picture is very cheap.
   	ROOP SORNG ROOP NEE TOOK MAHK These two pictures are very cheap. รูปสองรูปนี้ถูกมาก

   A representative list of words where the classifier is the noun itself is given in Appendix 1.
   

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:32 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.