Classifiers
See IPA for Burmese for an explanation of the phonetic symbols used in this section.
| Burmese | IPA | Transliteration | Main usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| People and animals | |||
| ကောင် | kaung | animals | |
| ပါး | pa | sacred persons (such as Buddhist monks and nuns) | |
| ယောက် | yauk | persons (general classifier) | |
| ရှဉ်း | shin | pairs of draught cattle | |
| ဦး | u | people, monks and nuns | |
| Other measure words | |||
| ကုံး | koun | garlands, necklaces, stringed items | |
| ကျိုက် | kyaik | draughts gulped down | |
| ကျိပ် | kyeik | items in 'tens' | |
| ခါ | kha | number of times | |
| ခု | khu | items (general classifier) | |
| ခက် | khet | branches, sprays of flowers | |
| ခင် | khin | skeins of wool or cotton | |
| ခေါင်း | khaung | skeins of yarn | |
| ခိုင် | khaing | bunches of flowers, fruits | |
| ခေါက် | khauk | trips | |
| ခွေ | khway | rings, coils | |
| ခွန်း | khun | words | |
| ချီ | chi | performances or shows | |
| ချိုး | cho | components of a ratio | |
| ချက် | chet | strokes, blows, hits, points strokes of clocks, drums, gongs, etc. |
|
| ချောင်း | chaung | thin, long items (like pencils, sticks) | |
| ချပ် | chat | flat items (like tables) | |
| ခြည် | chi | rings, bangles | |
| စီး | si | vehicles and transport animals | |
| စည်း | si | bundles | |
| စင်း | sin | long-shaped items (like arrows, boats, cars) | |
| စောင် | saung | literary pieces, documents, letters, etc. | |
| စုံ | soun | sets or pairs | |
| ဆ | hsa | number of times per equal amount | |
| ဆူ | hsu | sacred objects and parabaik (Pali manuscripts) | |
| ဆောင် | hsaung | buildings (like houses, monasteries and royal buildings) | |
| ဆိုင်း | hsaing | work shifts, work gangs, packets of gold foil | |
| တန် | tan | different legs of a journey, component parts of abstract concepts | |
| တန့် | tan | bars, stripes, etc. | |
| တုတ် | touk | carcasses of hares | |
| တွဲ | twe | items in pairs, bunches or clusters | |
| တွက် | twet | snapping of fingers | |
| ထပ် | htat | layers, strata, storeys of buildings, etc. | |
| ထမ်း | htan | loads carried with a shoulder pole (yoke) | |
| ထောက် | htauk | stages of a journey, width of a point or tip of something | |
| ထည် | hte | articles of clothing | |
| ထုပ် | htout | packages | |
| ထုံး | htoun | knots, coils, etc. | |
| ထွာ | htwa | number of hand spans | |
| ထွေ | htwei | varied items; melds of playing cards | |
| နပ် | nat | meals | |
| ပါး | pa | sacred persons or objects (such as Buddhist monks) | |
| ပေါ | paw | bundles of seedlings | |
| ပေါက် | pauk | dots or drops | |
| ပိုင် | paing | monk's robe; piece of silk used as headdress | |
| ပိုင်း | paing | part or division of something | |
| ပတ် | pat | weeks | |
| ပင် | pin | tall upright things (trees, plants, poles, etc.); long strands (hair, thread, etc.). | |
| ပိုဒ် | paik | paragraphs | |
| ပုဒ် | poud | pieces of writing (such as articles,verse, songs, etc.) | |
| ပုံ | poun | piles of material | |
| ပျစ် | pyit | mats of palm thatching | |
| ပြူး | pyu | items in twos or pairs. | |
| ပြိုက် | pyaik | frequency of rain and snow | |
| ပြင် | pyin | doctrines, concepts, dictums, etc. | |
| ပြာ | pyan | number of times | |
| ပွဲ | pwe | dishes; offertories | |
| ဖီး | hpi | hands of bananas or plantains | |
| ဖောင် | 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 | hpoun | things in heaps, batches or packs | |
| ဖန် | hpan | denotes frequency | |
| ဖြာ | hpya | denotes variety, diversity | |
| ဖွာ | hpwa | number of puffs (from cigarettes, etc.) | |
| မည် | myi | ingredients of a drug; kinds of dishes served | |
| မြူ | myu | pots of toddy wine | |
| မျက် | myet | bundles of loops in a skein of cotton | |
| မှုတ် | hmout | number of scoops with a dipper or ladle | |
| မြွှာ | hmwa | segments of fruit (such as cloves of garlic); parts of a multiparous birth (such as twins) | |
| မြှောင့် | hmyaung | longitudinally divided segments (such as cloves of garlic) | |
| ယာ | ya | betel quids | |
| ယှက် | shek | thin slices of food (such as pancake, waffle, etc.) | |
| ရန် | yan | objects in pairs | |
| ရပ် | yat | itemisation; expressing things in terms of a man's height | |
| ရေး | yei | stretches of sleep | |
| ရေစီး | yei zi | leaves in a parabaik (Pali manuscripts) | |
| ရိုက် | yaik | lengths measured with a bamboo pole | |
| ရစ် | yit | instalments, stages, chevrons, stripes, etc. | |
| ရွက် | ywet | counting sheets | |
| လား | la | races in a contest consisting of a series of cart or boat races | |
| လီ | li | multiples, frequencies | |
| လေး | lei | used in connection with multiples or in replicate, parts of a ratio | |
| လော | law | number of times | |
| လက် | lek | elongated items; turns in the game of dice | |
| လုတ် | lout | mouthfuls of food | |
| လုံး | loun | round, globular things | |
| လှိုင်း | hlaing | sheaves of paddy | |
| လွှာ | hlwa | layers, strata, etc. | |
| ဝါး | wa | handsbreadth | |
| သား | tha | number of ticals or fractions of a tical or viss | |
| သုတ် | thouk | movements in groups or operations in shifts | |
| သွယ် | thwe | long, sinuous things (such as strands of pearls, garlands of flowers); paths, ways, methods, means, etc. | |
Read more about this topic: Burmese Numerical Classifiers