Classifiers

In the Khmer language we use words known as classifiers when we are counting things. We also do this in English sometimes. For example, we would ask for a ‘plate’ of rice, here the word ‘plate’ is a classifier. We may tell a friend we drank 3 bottles of water because we were so thirsty, and in this case the word bottle is the classifier. In Khmer the classifier will always follow a number. Lets look at a list of different classifiers:

People – nayak នាក់
Eggs/seeds/tablets – groab គ្រាប់
Plate/dish – jaan ចាន
Bottle – dorp ដប
Books – kbal ក្បាល
Machines/vehicles/tools – grueng គ្រឿង
Monks/gods – ong អង្គ
Images/statues – roob រូប
Barrels – tong ធុង
Boxes – bro-ob ប្រអប់
Glasses – kaiw កែវ
Packets – ganyjob កញ្ចប់
Skewer – jonggak ចង្កាក់
Bunch/cluster – jongaom ចង្កោម
Bunch/sheaf/bundle – baij បាច់
Lines – joour ជួរ
Group – grom ក្រុម
Pair – goo គូ
Scoop – vwaik វែក
Set – chud ឈុត
Word – mad ម៉ាត់
Bunch of bananas – snud ស្និត
Sheet/leaf – sonluck សន្លឹក
Leaf – sluck ស្លឹក
Tree/pole/plants – daerm ដើម
Piece/chunk – dom ដុំ
Can – gombong កំប៉ុង
Dozen – low ឡូ
Sentence/phrase – kleea ឃ្លា

5 books – siewpao 5 kbal សៀវភៅ ៥ ក្បាល
3 monks – loak song 3 ong លោកសង្ឃ ៣ អង្គ
4 tablets – tnam 4 groab ថ្នាំ ៤ គ្រាប់

Book – siewpao សៀវភៅ
Monk – loak song លោកសង្ឃ
Medicine – tnam ថ្នាំ

These are the most common classifiers that you will encounter, and you will get used to using them very quickly.