Shangri Lingua

How to say “o’clock” in Thai

โมง

mohng

/moːŋ/

โมง means o’clock, hour.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

กี่โมง (gèe mohng) asks what time it is. Thai clock time splits the day into parts, so 3 pm is บ่ายสามโมง (bàai sǎam mohng).

Reading the romanization: the mark over a vowel shows its tone. bp and dt are a p and a t with no puff of air, while plain p, t and k have the puff. The IPA shows the exact sounds, and Learn the IPA explains how to read it.

Examples

  • ตอนนี้กี่โมงแล้ว

    dton-née gèe mohng láew?/tɔːn.níː kìː moːŋ lɛ́ːw/

    What time is it now?

How it’s spelled

Thai is written in a fixed order, which isn’t always the order you hear. Here’s each letter of โมง in the order you’d write it.

  • โ

    The vowel “oh”. Written first, but heard after the consonant.

    sara o

    Tall, with a curved flag on top.

  • ม

    “m” starts the word.

    mo ma, from ม้า (horse)Low class

    A loop at the top left, a second loop at the bottom left, and a W-shaped base. Compare น.

  • ง

    “ng” ends the word.

    ngo ngu, from งู (snake)Low class

    Compact: a loop at the middle left, a line running down to the foot, then straight up the right.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ม, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “ng”, a sound you can hold, so the syllable is live.
  4. Low class and live gives a mid tone.

New to consonant classes and live or dead syllables? See how Thai tones work.

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches โมง in its Thai writing course. You write the word one letter at a time, with your finger or Apple Pencil, and the app checks each letter and gives you more help if you get stuck. Get it on the App Store.

More basic words

Browse all Thai vocabulary.