เท่า ไหร่?
“เท่า ไหร่?” (тао рай?) — how much is it? in Thai. Phrase, level A0, topic — shopping and money. Literally "equal to how much?". At the market one word attached to the thing is enough: kafae thao rai — "coffee how much?" In a live sentence: “กาแฟ เท่า ไหร่?” — How much is the coffee? Written with the characters เ, ท, ่, า, ไ, ห, ร, ่. One of 83 words in the set “shopping and money” in the Thai course.
In short
| Written in Thai | เท่า ไหร่? |
| Read in Latin letters | тао рай? |
| Translation | how much is it? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "equal to how much?". At the market one word attached to the thing is enough: kafae thao rai — "coffee how much?"
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.
- กาแฟ เท่า ไหร่?кафэ тао рай?How much is the coffee?
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- ยูโรйуроeuroThe euro does not circulate in Thailand: the currency is the baht, and the prices of the course will be in baht. The word is for talking about Europe and about prices back home
- ร้าน ค้าран кхаshop; storeThe same raan, "shop", as in the restaurant and coffeehouse, plus khaa, "to trade". The little shop by the house Thais call exactly this — raan lung, "uncle's shop"
- ตลาดталатmarketThe word comes from an ancient "place of trade", and it lives in street names too. The morning market lives until noon, the night one from sunset — two different talats
- แผงпхэнгstall; counterA separate trading stall at the market — a phaeng. It argues by ear with phaeng, "expensive": only the tone tells them apart, and the stall's rises
- คน ขายкхон кхаайsellerLiterally "person sell": who does what, Thai names through khon. A woman who sells is said with the same word
- คน ซื้อкхон сыbuyer; customerLiterally "person buy" — the pair of the seller. The buyer buys; do not swap the two at translation
- ตา ชั่งта чангscalesLiterally "eye-weighing": it is the seller who weighs, and his glance has a role here. To weigh is the same chang
- กิโลкилоkilo; kilogramThe short form of "kilogram". Half a kilo is khrueng kilo, and "one and a half" is the other way round — kilo khrueng: the half jumps to the end
- สดсатfresh; rawOne word for freshness and for raw: phak sot — fresh vegetables. The same sot names cash — "fresh" money
- สุกсукripe; cooked; readyRipe, cooked, done — one root: a mango suk and rice suk are made the same way. The unripe is a different word, dip
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “how much is it?” in Thai?
Literally "equal to how much?". At the market one word attached to the thing is enough: kafae thao rai — "coffee how much?"
- How do you say “scales” in Thai?
Literally "eye-weighing": it is the seller who weighs, and his glance has a role here. To weigh is the same chang
- How do you say “market” in Thai?
The word comes from an ancient "place of trade", and it lives in street names too. The morning market lives until noon, the night one from sunset — two different talats
- How do you say “ripe; cooked; ready” in Thai?
Ripe, cooked, done — one root: a mango suk and rice suk are made the same way. The unripe is a different word, dip
- How do you say “buyer; customer” in Thai?
Literally "person buy" — the pair of the seller. The buyer buys; do not swap the two at translation
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 “how much is it?” in Thai?
«เท่า ไหร่?», read “тао рай?”. In a live sentence: “กาแฟ เท่า ไหร่?” — How much is the coffee? Phrase, level A0, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters เ, ท, ่, า, ไ, ห, ร, ่.
How is “เท่า ไหร่?” written in Latin letters?
тао рай? 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 "equal to how much?". At the market one word attached to the thing is enough: kafae thao rai — "coffee how much?" A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.