มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า
“มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า” (мак кваа сип тао) — by an order of magnitude in Thai. Phrase, level B1. The bookish "order of magnitude" the Thai says honestly: "more than ten times". In speech they say simply very very. In a live sentence: “เครื่อง ใหม่ เร็ว กว่า เดิม มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า” — The new device is an order of magnitude faster than the old one. Written with the characters ม, า, ก, ก, ว, ่, า, ส, ิ, บ, เ, ท…
In short
| Written in Thai | มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า |
| Read in Latin letters | мак кваа сип тао |
| Translation | by an order of magnitude |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
The bookish "order of magnitude" the Thai says honestly: "more than ten times". In speech they say simply very very
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.
- เครื่อง ใหม่ เร็ว กว่า เดิม มาก กว่า สิบ เท่าкхрыанг май рэо кваа дым мак кваа сип таоThe new device is an order of magnitude faster than the old one
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 “by an order of magnitude” in Thai?
«มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า», read “мак кваа сип тао”. In a live sentence: “เครื่อง ใหม่ เร็ว กว่า เดิม มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า” — The new device is an order of magnitude faster than the old one. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ม, า, ก, ก, ว, ่, า, ส, ิ, บ, เ, ท…
How is “มาก กว่า สิบ เท่า” written in Latin letters?
мак кваа сип тао. 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?
The bookish "order of magnitude" the Thai says honestly: "more than ten times". In speech they say simply very very. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.