Thai Time Compass

Thai does not tell the time the way a clock does. The day is split into parts, each with its own counting word, and knowing the numbers does not get you there.

No signup. Three ways to practise.

Today’s Plan schedules this once numbers are solid, because the system sits on top of them.

Three Thai time modes: match, set, and tell — The colloquial clock, in both directions.

What a round looks like

The colloquial system, not the textbook one

Hear it, set it, or say it

Match Time plays a time and you pick the clock. Hear & Set has you dial it in. Tell the Time runs the other way: move the clock and hear how it is said. Recognising a time and producing one are different skills and both are needed.

Three time modes: match the time you hear to a clock, listen and dial it in, or move the clock and hear the Thai — Recognition and production, in both directions.

Why the textbook version does not help

Thai speakers divide the day into parts and count hours within each, with different words depending on which part you are in. A learner who has only met the formal twenty-four-hour form will not understand a single spoken time.

This is the app page with the most traffic on the site, which makes it the one that was least excusable to leave undescribed.

3: modes: match, set, and tell
Colloquial: the system people actually speak
Audio: on every time
~5 min: a session

The numbers underneath

Thai Number Lab covers the counting the time system is built on.

Thai Number Lab

Days and scheduling

Calendar Thai covers weekdays, relative days, and making an arrangement.

Calendar Thai