Structure of dates and years in Thai

Contents
  1. Structure of dates
  2. Thai year
    1. Examples
  3. Common mistake
  4. Further resources

Structure of dates

When talking about dates in Thai, the order is:

⭐️ Date / Month / Year

So March 11, 1992 in Thai would be

  • 11/03/1992

You would say it as

  • วันที่ 11 มีนาคม 1992 (wan têe sìp-èt mee-naa kom 1992)

Literally: the 11th day, March, 1992.

There are two ways to pronounce the year.

For example, 1992:

  1. Number by number: 1 หนึ่ง (nèung) 9 เก้า (gâo) 9 เก้า (gâo) 2 สอง (sŏng)
  2. In thousands: 1992 หนึ่งพันเก้าร้อยเก้าสิบสอง (nèung-pan-gâo-rói-gâo-sìp-sŏng)

Thai year

Thailand uses it’s own year based on the Buddhist year.

In everyday life, Thais use the Thai year. For example, at schools, at work, in the news, in museums, you will see the Thai year being used.

The Thai year is not used with anything to do with international affairs. For example, Thai passports have years using the English years but Thai ID cards use the Thai year.

Convert to Thai year

⭐️ English year + 543

Convert to English year

⭐️ Thai year - 543

Examples

Notice how its either adding or subtracting 543 to convert to Thai year and vice versa.

English year Thai year
2020 2563
2021 2564
2022 2565
2023 2566
2024 2567
2025 2568
2026 2569
2027 2570
2028 2571
2029 2572
2030 2573

Common mistake

Americans (and other countries that use the format like USA) will likely be confused that 11/03/1992 is March 11th and not November 3rd.

So make sure you keep the correct Thai format in mind!

Further resources