เครื่อง คิด เลข
“เครื่อง คิด เลข” (кхрыанг кхит лек) — calculator in Thai. Noun, level A1. Literally "machine that reckons numbers": khryueang, "apparatus", you know, and "reckon" and "digits" too. Thai names the calculator by its deed. In a live sentence: “นัก เรียน ใช้ เครื่อง คิด เลข ทำ โจทย์ เลข” — Schoolchildren do sums on the calculator. Written with the characters เ, ค, ร, ื, ่, อ, ง, ค, ิ, ด, เ, ล… A word from the everyday Thai course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Thai | เครื่อง คิด เลข |
| Read in Latin letters | кхрыанг кхит лек |
| Translation | calculator |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "machine that reckons numbers": khryueang, "apparatus", you know, and "reckon" and "digits" too. Thai names the calculator by its deed
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- นัก เรียน ใช้ เครื่อง คิด เลข ทำ โจทย์ เลขнак риан чай кхрыанг кхит лек тхам джот лекSchoolchildren do sums on the calculator
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “calculator” in Thai?
«เครื่อง คิด เลข», read “кхрыанг кхит лек”. In a live sentence: “นัก เรียน ใช้ เครื่อง คิด เลข ทำ โจทย์ เลข” — Schoolchildren do sums on the calculator. Noun, level A1; written with the characters เ, ค, ร, ื, ่, อ, ง, ค, ิ, ด, เ, ล…
How is “เครื่อง คิด เลข” written in Latin letters?
кхрыанг кхит лек. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "machine that reckons numbers": khryueang, "apparatus", you know, and "reckon" and "digits" too. Thai names the calculator by its deed. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.