Thai Language Classifiers

          As in English, classifiers are often used in the Thai language. Classifiers are words that are linked to the words they describe.  English examples:  a flock of geese, a loaf of bread, a sheet of paper, a load of bricks.  Thai language uses more classifiers than English. In Thai sentence structure, however, they're used after the noun being described.  When in doubt, it's safe to use the catch-all classifier 'an' meaning 'thing.'
it helps if your browser supports Thai alphabet fonts - otherwise, you'll see some odd shapes

If there's a number to describe how many of something, it's inserted before the classifier. This is often done without the noun, as the noun is inferred by the classifier. Example, at a market, one could say 'sip fong' to mean 'ten eggs' - rather than saying 'kai sip fong.'  When talking with the soccer coach, he might say he needs three soccer balls 'sam luk,' rather than saying 'bon football sam luk.'  It's especially prevalent when responding to a question. 

If a noun has an adjective and a number to describe how many, then the order within the phrase is most often; noun, adjective, number, classifier.  Examples:
>   Three new houses is; ban mai sam lang. 
                   literally: house new three classifier
>   Seven pretty girls would be:  pooying sway jet kon. 
                   literally: girl pretty seven classifier
>   Nine fresh oranges is; som sot gow luk.
                   literally: orange fresh nine classifier