Sooner or later, and often as soon as someone finds out you live here, you get the question: อยู่เมืองไทยมานานหรือยังครับ yùu meuang-thai maa naan rěu yang khráp, have you been in Thailand long, or its blunter twin อยู่เมืองไทยมากี่ปีแล้วครับ, how many years have you been here. It is small talk, not an interrogation, and it wants a number. The answer is built from one pattern you can use for the rest of your life here: อยู่เมืองไทยมาสามปีแล้วครับ, I have been in Thailand three years now. If the number is small, the answer is เพิ่งมาครับ phôeng maa khráp, I am new here. เพิ่ง says the time elapsed is short for the situation, not that you landed this week, which is why it works at a counter as well as in a conversation. Everything else in this lesson is that same machinery pointed at other spans.
Thai keeps three questions apart that English blurs together, and answering one with another is the fastest way to get a blank look. When is เมื่อไหร่ mêua-rài, กี่โมง gìi moong or วันที่เท่าไหร่ wan-thîi thâo-rài, and those belong to the clock and the calendar. How long is นานแค่ไหน naan khâe-nǎi, or กี่ gìi plus a unit. Since when is ตั้งแต่ dtâng-dtàe. The clock lesson already draws the sharpest version of this line: โมง moong is a point on the dial, ชั่วโมง chûa-moong is a length of time, and สองโมง is not สองชั่วโมง. Hold that distinction and the rest of this lesson is bookkeeping.
นาน naan is the word for long in time, and only in time. It behaves like every other Thai adjective, which is to say like a verb: it does not need an is in front of it. รอนานไหมครับ raw naan mǎi khráp, will it be a long wait, is a complete sentence, and it is worth having ready at a hospital, a bank, a garage or a government counter. For a job rather than a queue the verb is ใช้เวลา chái wee-laa, to take time: ใช้เวลานานไหมครับ chái wee-laa naan mǎi khráp, does it take long, and ใช้เวลากี่วันครับ chái wee-laa gìi wan khráp, how many days does it take. Both go straight to the work; รอนานไหม goes to your place in the queue. ไม่นาน mâi naan is not long, นานมาก naan mâak is very long, and ไม่ได้เจอกันนานเลยนะครับ mâi dâi joe gan naan loei ná khráp is the standard long-time-no-see. The trap is that English long does duty for space as well, and Thai does not: a long road is ยาว yaao, a long wait is นาน, and they do not swap. To make a question of it, นานแค่ไหน, how long exactly. เป็นมานานแค่ไหนคะ bpen maa naan khâe-nǎi khá is what opens a consultation about a symptom, human or animal.
For a countable answer, use กี่ gìi. กี่ does not stand alone; it takes a unit on its right: กี่วัน gìi wan how many days, กี่ชั่วโมง gìi chûa-moong how many hours, กี่เดือน gìi deuan how many months, กี่ปี gìi bpii how many years, กี่นาที gìi naa-thii how many minutes, กี่ครั้ง gìi khráng how many times. This is the shape behind most of the span questions you will put to a shop or an office: ซ่อมกี่วันครับ sâwm gìi wan khráp, how many days for the repair, or from the finish end กี่วันเสร็จครับ gìi wan sèt khráp, how many days until it is done; สัญญากี่เดือนครับ sǎn-yaa gìi deuan khráp, how many months is the contract; รับประกันกี่ปีครับ ráp bprà-gan gìi bpii khráp, how many years is the warranty. Keep กี่ apart from เท่าไหร่ thâo-rài: เท่าไหร่ asks for an amount and stands on its own, so เดือนละเท่าไหร่ครับ asks how much per month, while กี่เดือน asks how many months. The answer to a กี่ question repeats the unit, so กี่วัน gets สามวัน, not a bare สาม.
Now the pattern that does most of the work, and the reason a foreigner who has been here for years can still fumble the answer to how long he has been here: verb, then มา maa, then the duration, then แล้ว láew. อยู่ที่นี่มาสามปีแล้ว yùu thîi-nîi maa sǎam bpii láew, I have been living here three years. ทำงานที่นี่มาสามปีแล้ว tham-ngaan thîi-nîi maa sǎam bpii láew. เรียนภาษาไทยมาหกเดือนแล้ว rian phaa-sǎa-thai maa hòk deuan láew. รอมาสองชั่วโมงแล้ว raw maa sǎwng chûa-moong láew, I have been waiting two hours. The order is fixed: what you did, มา, how long, แล้ว, then the polite particle.
มา is there because it is the ordinary verb to come. Thai parks it behind a main verb to say the action travelled in this direction, towards here and towards now, and its opposite ไป bpai points away from you. So รอมาสองชั่วโมงแล้ว is waiting that has come as far as this moment and is still standing in front of you. Strip มา out and you have อยู่ที่นี่สามปี, stay here three years, which reads as a plan or a block of time with no anchor to the present at all. มา is not decoration: it is the word doing the counting, which is the point the lesson on still, almost and just makes about this same frame, and the lesson on past, future and already sets มา in the full order of markers around the verb. แล้ว is the second half of the pair and stamps the total as of now. Neither one is a past tense, because Thai has no tense to find. Ask the same thing back by swapping the number for กี่: อยู่ที่นี่มากี่ปีแล้วครับ, and at a clinic เป็นมากี่วันแล้วคะ bpen maa gìi wan láew khá, how many days have you had this, answered เป็นมาสามวันแล้วครับ.
The duration slot sits after the verb and its object and before any particle: ผมกินยามาสามวันแล้วครับ, I have been taking the medicine for three days. In writing, on a form, or in anything official you will also meet เป็นเวลา bpen wee-laa in front of the span, and ระยะเวลา rá-yá wee-laa, the period, as a noun heading a box. Neither is wrong in speech, both sound like paperwork, and neither is something you need to produce yourself.
ตั้งแต่ dtâng-dtàe is since, and what follows it is a point in time, not a length. ท้องเสียตั้งแต่เมื่อวานครับ tháwng-sǐa dtâng-dtàe mêua-waan khráp, I have had diarrhoea since yesterday. มีไข้ตั้งแต่เมื่อคืนค่ะ mii khâi dtâng-dtàe mêua-kheun khâ, feverish since last night. ช่างยังไม่มาเลยครับ บอกไว้ตั้งแต่วันจันทร์ châang yang mâi maa loei khráp, bàwk wái dtâng-dtàe wan-jan, the repairman still has not come, I told you back on Monday. รอยนี้มีอยู่ตั้งแต่วันแรกผมมีรูปครับ rawy níi mii yùu dtâng-dtàe wan râek phǒm mii rûup khráp, this scratch was there from the first day, I have photos, which is the sentence that saves your rental deposit. The Thai verb does not change shape for any of this; ตั้งแต่ carries the whole load. To ask it, ตั้งแต่เมื่อไหร่ dtâng-dtàe mêua-rài goes on the end: เป็นมาตั้งแต่เมื่อไหร่ครับ bpen maa dtâng-dtàe mêua-rài khráp, since when has it been like this; เสียตั้งแต่เมื่อไหร่ครับ sǐa dtâng-dtàe mêua-rài khráp, since when has it been broken. ตั้งแต่ also swallows an entire clause with nothing extra added, so ตั้งแต่ย้ายมาอยู่ที่นี่ dtâng-dtàe yáai maa yùu thîi-nîi is since I moved here, and you simply put the subject and verb after it. Paired with ถึง thěung it gives you a range, which is how opening hours are said out loud: เปิดตั้งแต่แปดโมงเช้าถึงห้าโมงเย็น.
Spans also run forwards, and for those the word is อีก ìik in front of the duration: อีกสามวัน ìik sǎam wan, in three days; อีกอาทิตย์นึง ìik aa-thít neung, in a week; and as a question อีกกี่วันครับ ìik gìi wan khráp, how many more days. อีก is what is still to come; มา is what has already run. Hear อีกสามวัน as three days from now, not three days ago. For until, ถึง is the everyday word and จนถึง jon thěung is the firmer one, right up until. รอจนถึงบ่ายสามโมงได้ไหมครับ raw jon thěung bàai-sǎam-moong dâi mǎi khráp, can it wait until three in the afternoon. จน jon by itself also means to the point that, which is why the vet phrases on this site carry เกาตลอดเวลาจนขนร่วงครับ gao dtà-làwt wee-laa jon khǒn rûang khráp, scratching constantly to the point where the fur comes out. When what you are waiting for is an event rather than a time, use จนกว่า jon-gwàa with จะ inside the clause: รอจนกว่าเขาจะโทรมานะครับ raw jon-gwàa khǎo jà thoo maa ná khráp, wait until he rings. For the other edge, ภายใน phaai-nai is within, inside a period, and it is the deadline word you will meet in an office: ส่งภายในวันศุกร์นะคะ sòng phaai-nai wan sùk ná khá, send it by Friday; เบิกได้ภายในกี่วันครับ bòek dâi phaai-nai gìi wan khráp, how many days do I have to put the claim in. ไม่เกิน mâi goen, no more than, caps a span the same way: ไม่เกินสามวันครับ.
The units are short, and these eight cover the spans you will need to say out loud: วินาที wí-naa-thii a second, นาที naa-thii a minute, ชั่วโมง chûa-moong an hour, วัน wan a day, คืน kheun a night, อาทิตย์ aa-thít a week in speech and สัปดาห์ sàp-daa on paper, เดือน deuan a month, ปี bpii a year. One more sits beside ปี: a young child's age is counted in ขวบ khùap rather than ปี, so อายุเจ็ดขวบ aa-yú jèt khùap is seven years old for a child, while an adult takes ปี. None of the units takes a classifier, and that is worth understanding rather than memorising. The classifiers reference sets out the order for counting a thing: noun, number, classifier, so water in two bottles is น้ำสองขวด. A time unit is already the measure, so there is no third word to add and you say the number and the unit and stop: สามวัน, สองชั่วโมง, ห้าปี. What does take a classifier is an occurrence, and that classifier is ครั้ง khráng, which is on the reference list: สามครั้ง sǎam khráng, three times; ครั้งเดียว khráng diao, only once. Two habits belong here too. In speech, one of a unit comes after the unit and หนึ่ง nèung is squeezed to นึง neung, so an hour is ชั่วโมงนึง chûa-moong neung and a week is อาทิตย์นึง aa-thít neung. And ครึ่ง khrêung, half, means different things on either side of the unit: ครึ่งชั่วโมง khrêung chûa-moong is half an hour, ชั่วโมงครึ่ง chûa-moong khrêung is an hour and a half, and the same flip applies to ครึ่งปี against ปีครึ่ง. Put กว่า gwàa after the unit for a bit over: สองชั่วโมงกว่า sǎwng chûa-moong gwàa. And watch the week trap the calendar lesson warns about, because อาทิตย์ is also Sunday: อาทิตย์หน้า is next week, วันอาทิตย์หน้า is next Sunday.
ประมาณ bprà-maan, about, goes in front of the number: ประมาณสองอาทิตย์ค่ะ bprà-maan sǎwng aa-thít khâ, about two weeks. Its relatives are ราวๆ raao-raao, roughly, สัก sàk, which softens a number into just about that much, as in รอสักห้านาที raw sàk hâa naa-thii and the everyday รอสักครู่นะครับ raw sàk-khrûu ná khráp, just a moment, and เกือบ gèuap, almost, which points just short of the figure it precedes: เกือบสองปีแล้วครับ. Use ประมาณ on your own numbers more than you think you need to. A bare figure is a commitment, and a cushioned one lets someone be helpful without being pinned to it. That cuts both ways. When a number arrives cushioned, the honest reading is the one the repair phrases here already give: ประมาณ at the front means you have been given an estimate, not a price, and the figure can move. Do not argue with the figure you were given. Do pin it before the work starts, which is what those same repair phrases do: ประเมินราคาก่อนได้ไหมครับ bprà-moen raa-khaa gàwn dâi mǎi khráp, can you price it first, and ถ้าเกินพันโทรบอกก่อนนะครับ thâa goen phan thoo bàwk gàwn ná khráp, ring me before it goes past a thousand. Then ask a question with a countable answer: ภายในกี่วันครับ, or นับจากวันไหนครับ náp jàak wan nǎi khráp, counting from which day.
How often is a separate set. บ่อย bàwy, often, goes after the verb: มาบ่อยครับ maa bàwy khráp, I come here often. Doubled to บ่อยๆ bàwy-bàwy it is softer and more casual. ไม่บ่อย mâi bàwy works as a bare answer, but inside a sentence the negative is ไม่ค่อย mâi khâwy in front of the verb: ไม่ค่อยได้ไปครับ mâi khâwy dâi bpai khráp, I do not often get to go. That is the same ไม่ค่อย the degrees lesson teaches with adjectives, where ไม่ค่อยแพง is not that expensive; the word after it decides which job it is doing, and either way it is a hedge. บางครั้ง baang-khráng and บางที baang-thii both mean sometimes and sit at the front, though บางที also does duty for maybe, so context decides. ทุก thúk, every, goes in front of the unit: ทุกวัน thúk wan, ทุกอาทิตย์ thúk aa-thít, ทุกเดือน thúk deuan, ทุกปี thúk bpii, and with a named day ทุกวันจันทร์ thúk wan-jan, every Monday. Doubled and given a number it covers intervals: ทุกๆ สามเดือน thúk-thúk sǎam deuan, every three months. วันเว้นวัน wan wén wan is every other day, which is how a dosing instruction can arrive. At the thin end, นานๆ ครั้ง naan-naan khráng is once in a long while and ไม่เคย mâi khoei is never. At the thick end, ตลอด dtà-làwt and ตลอดเวลา dtà-làwt wee-laa are constantly, and ประจำ bprà-jam is regularly, the word inside ลูกค้าประจำ lûuk-kháa bprà-jam, the regular customer this site tells you is worth more than any discount you could argue for.
Then there is ละ lá, per. The numbers reference gives it for prices and the clinic and pharmacy pages give it for doses; this section is the same word doing time. The shape is unit, then ละ, then the amount, which is the reverse of English: อาทิตย์ละครั้ง aa-thít-lá khráng, once a week; วันละสามครั้ง wan-lá sǎam khráng, three times a day; ปีละครั้ง bpii-lá khráng, once a year; เดือนละสองครั้ง deuan-lá sǎwng khráng, twice a month. It is exactly the ละ the numbers reference teaches for prices, where โลละหกสิบ loo-lá hòk-sìp is sixty a kilo, and the same warning applies: ละ is unstressed and glues itself to the word in front, so learners hear one long word and lose the seam. Learn to hear it and the phrase splits itself in two. It also stacks, and the stacked version is the sentence read at you at a dispensing window: กินครั้งละสองเม็ด วันละสามครั้ง หลังอาหารนะคะ gin khráng-lá sǎwng mét, wan-lá sǎam khráng, lǎng aa-hǎan ná khá, two tablets each time, three times a day, after food. Unpick that and most of what a counter tells you about a schedule opens up. ละ also prices anything rented by the period: เดือนละเท่าไหร่ครับ deuan-lá thâo-rài khráp for rent or a phone plan, คืนละเท่าไหร่ครับ kheun-lá thâo-rài khráp for a room.
Much of the paperwork side of living here is quoted as a span rather than as a date. A lease is quoted in months. A warranty is quoted in years. An instalment plan, a phone contract, an insurance policy, a permit, a report you have to file, a stack of statements someone wants counted backwards from today: each one is a length, and it is usually said to you across a counter, in Thai, at speed. The vocabulary is small and fixed. กำหนด gam-nòt is the appointed date, so กำหนดส่งวันไหนคะ gam-nòt sòng wan nǎi khá asks when something is due, ครบกำหนด khróp gam-nòt is reaching it, ก่อนกำหนด gàwn gam-nòt is before it and sits inside ยกเลิกก่อนกำหนด yók-lôek gàwn gam-nòt, cancelling a contract early, and เกินกำหนดแล้วนะคะ goen gam-nòt láew ná khá is you are past it. หมดอายุ mòt-aa-yú is expires. ล่วงหน้า lûang-nâa is in advance, as in ต้องจองล่วงหน้ากี่วันครับ dtâwng jawng lûang-nâa gìi wan khráp. ย้อนหลัง yáwn-lǎng is going backwards from now: ขอสลิปเงินเดือนย้อนหลังสามเดือน khǎw sà-líp-ngoen-deuan yáwn-lǎng sǎam deuan asks your employer for three months of payslips, and ขอรายการเดินบัญชีย้อนหลังหกเดือน khǎw raai-gaan doen ban-chii yáwn-lǎng hòk deuan asks a bank for six months of statements. Which span a particular office wants is not something you can guess from either example, so ask.
The cost of getting a span wrong at a counter is not embarrassment, it is a second trip, and a second trip here can eat a morning. The failure is usually not the number itself. It is not knowing which day the number counts from, or hearing a date when a length was said. So build two habits. First, convert every span you are given into a date before you leave the counter, and confirm it as digits the way the calendar lesson has you confirm any date: วันที่เท่าไหร่ครับ wan-thîi thâo-rài khráp. Staff will usually write digits for you long after their English has run out. Second, when you are handed a length, ask นับจากวันไหนครับ, counting from which day, because that one question is the difference between a deadline you can meet and one you have already missed. And do not fill a gap with a number nobody gave you. If you were not told the span, you do not know it, and no website can tell you either, because these things change and the only authority is the counter in front of you.