Burmese · Burmese letters

Burmese Alphabet

Burmese is written in its own rounded script, read left to right, with spaces marking phrase breaks rather than single words. It has 33 consonant letters, each carrying a built-in a; vowel signs go before, above, below or after the consonant (the ay sign, as in နေ, is written to its left), and four small medial signs add y, y, w and h to a consonant (as in ကျ ကြ ကွ မှ). Tone is part of the spelling: a dot below (as in နေ့) marks the creaky tone, two dots (as in ဆေး) the high tone, and a plain syllable is low; a final consonant is marked with the asat sign (as in လက်), and many finals sound alike (က စ တ ပ all end in a glottal stop, င ည ဉ န မ ံ in a nasal). Sounds use the lessons' plain spelling with hyphens between syllables and no tone marks: kh hs ht hp for the letters said with a puff of air (ခ ဆ ထ ဖ), ky for ကျ and ကြ, ch for ချ and ခြ, sh for ရှ, th for သ, y for ရ, -et -it -at for the stopped finals, -in -an -one -aung for the nasal ones, ay for ေ, eh or e for ဲ, aw for ော, o for ို (the lessons vary a few endings, such as -out and -auk; these cards keep one spelling). Burmese has its own digits ၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉, used on prices, buses and licence plates. The letter names in the hints (ka gyi, kha gway, ga nge, ga gyi, nga …) are the traditional ones children chant.

Consonants 1 Chart · Consonants 2 Chart · Consonants 3 Chart · Consonants 4 Chart · Consonants 5 Chart · Consonants 6 Chart

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Consonants 1: velar row (k)

ကkavelar row · k as in 'sky', no puff of air · name: ka gyi (big ka)ကား (ka) car

ခkhavelar row · k with a puff of air, as in 'kite' · name: kha gwayခေါင်း (khaung) head

ဂgavelar row · g as in 'go' · name: ga nge (little ga)ဂစ်တာ (git-ta) guitar

ဃgavelar row · g, the same sound as ဂ; a Pali letter (gh), rare · name: ga gyi (big ga)သံဃာ (than-ga) the community of monks, unverified

ငngavelar row · ng as in 'sing'; it can start a syllable · name: ngaငါး (nga) fish

Consonants 2: palatal row (s)

စsapalatal row · s as in 'sun' (z between vowels) · name: sa lone (round sa)စား (sa) eat

ဆhsapalatal row · s with a puff of air (written hs) · name: hsa lein (twisted hsa)ဆေး (hsay) medicine

ဇzapalatal row · z as in 'zoo' · name: za gwe (split za)ဇနီး (za-ni) wife

ဈzapalatal row · z, the same sound as ဇ; used in a few common words · name: za myin-zwe (za with a line)ဈေး (zay) market, price

ညnyapalatal row · ny as in Spanish ñ · name: nya gyi (big nya)ည (nya) night

Consonants 3: retroflex row (Pali loans, rare)

ဋtaretroflex row · t, said like တ; only in Pali loans · name: the hooked ta (name unverified)ဋီကာ (ti-ka) a Pali commentary, unverified

ဌhtaretroflex row · ht, said like ထ; only in Pali loans · name: the duck-belly hta (name unverified)ဌာန (hta-na) office, place

ဍdaretroflex row · d, said like ဒ; very rare, Pali loans only · name: the curved-chest da (name unverified)no everyday word; unverified

ဎdaretroflex row · d, said like ဒ; very rare, Pali loans only · name unverifiedno everyday word; unverified

ဏnaretroflex row · n, said like န; Pali loans · name: na gyi (big na)ဘဏ် (ban) bank

Consonants 4: dental row (t)

တtadental row · t as in 'stop', no puff of air · name: ta wun-bu (swollen-belly ta)တစ် (tit) one

ထhtadental row · t with a puff of air (written ht), as in 'tea' · name: hta hsin-du (elephant hta)ထမင်း (htamin) rice

ဒdadental row · d as in 'do' · name: da dwayဒီ (di) this

ဓdadental row · d, the same sound as ဒ; a Pali letter (dh) · name: da auk-chai (da with a hook below)ဓာတ်ပုံ (dat-pone) photograph

နnadental row · n as in 'no' · name: na nge (little na)နေ့ (nay) day

Consonants 5: labial row (p)

ပpalabial row · p as in 'spin', no puff of air · name: pa zaukပန်းခြံ (pan-chan) park

ဖhpalabial row · p with a puff of air (written hp), as in 'pie' · name: hpa u-htote (hat hpa)ဖတ် (hpat) read

ဗbalabial row · b as in 'boy' · name: ba htet-chai (ba with a hook above)ဗိုက် (baik) stomach

ဘbalabial row · b, the same sound as ဗ; the common letter for b · name: ba gone (humped ba)ဘူတာ (bu-ta) station

မmalabial row · m as in 'man' · name: maမိန်းမ (main-ma) woman

Consonants 6: the other letters

ယyaglide · y as in 'yes' · name: ya pa-letယူ (yu) take

ရyaglide · y in everyday words, r in Pali and foreign words · name: ya gauk (curved ya)ရေ (yay) water

လlal as in 'let' · name: la gyi (big la; name unverified)လာ (la) come

ဝwaglide · w as in 'we'; the digit zero ၀ looks the same · name: waဝင် (win) enter

သthath as in 'thin' · name: thaသူ (thu) he, she

ဟhah as in 'hat' · name: haဟိုတယ် (ho-teh) hotel

ဠlal, the same sound as လ; Pali only, you will hardly meet it · name unverifiedno everyday word; unverified

အasilent carrier · a glottal stop that lets a syllable begin with a vowel · name: aအိမ် (ein) house, home

Independent vowels

ဣiindependent vowel · short i, creaky tone; Pali words only, rareဣန္ဒြေ (ein-dray) dignity, unverified

ဤiindependent vowel · i, low tone; literary 'this', rareဤ (i) this (formal writing), unverified

ဥuindependent vowel · short u, creaky toneဥ (u) egg

ဦuindependent vowel · u, low toneဦး (u) the title U before a man's name

ဧayindependent vowel · ay, low toneဧည့်သည် (eh-thi) guest

ဩawindependent vowel · aw, high tone; rareဩစတြေးလျ (aw-sa-tray-lya) Australia, unverified

ဪawindependent vowel · aw, low tone; rare, also the exclamation 'oh!'ဪ (aw) oh, I see, unverified

Vowels and tones on က

ကkavowel a (a as in 'father') · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceကနေ (ka-nay) from

ကာkavowel a (a as in 'father') · low tone: long, level and relaxedလာ (la) come

ကားkavowel a (a as in 'father') · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingကား (ka) car

ကိkivowel i (i as in 'machine') · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceမိသားစု (mi-tha-zu) family

ကီkivowel i (i as in 'machine') · low tone: long, level and relaxedဒီ (di) this

ကီးkivowel i (i as in 'machine') · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingကြီး (kyi) big

ကုkuvowel u (u as in 'rule') · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceဆု (hsu) wish, prize

ကူkuvowel u (u as in 'rule') · low tone: long, level and relaxedသူ (thu) he, she

ကူးkuvowel u (u as in 'rule') · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingဘူး (bu) not (ends a negative sentence)

ကေ့kayvowel e (ay as in 'say', a pure vowel) · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceနေ့ (nay) day

ကေkayvowel e (ay as in 'say', a pure vowel) · low tone: long, level and relaxedနေ (nay) stay, be

ကေးkayvowel e (ay as in 'say', a pure vowel) · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingဆေး (hsay) medicine

ကဲ့kehvowel ɛ (eh as in 'bed') · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceအခမဲ့ (a-kha-meh) free

ကယ်kehvowel ɛ (eh as in 'bed') · low tone: long, level and relaxedဘယ် (beh) which, where

ကဲkevowel ɛ (eh as in 'bed') · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingရဲ (ye) police

ကော့kawvowel ɔ (aw as in 'law') · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceသော့ (thaw) key

ကော်kawvowel ɔ (aw as in 'law') · low tone: long, level and relaxedကော်ဖီ (kaw-hpi) coffee

ကောkawvowel ɔ (aw as in 'law') · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingခင်ဗျားကော (khin-bya-gaw) and you?

ကို့kovowel o (o as in 'go', a pure vowel) · creaky tone: short and tight, with a catch in the voiceကျွန်တော်တို့ (kya-naw-doh) we

ကိုkovowel o (o as in 'go', a pure vowel) · low tone: long, level and relaxedဟိုတယ် (ho-teh) hotel

ကိုးkovowel o (o as in 'go', a pure vowel) · high tone: long and loud, starting high and fallingကိုး (ko) nine

ပါpavowel a · low tone: the round form of ာ, used after the round letters ခ ဂ င ဒ ပ ဝပါ (pa) the polite word added to requests; ငါး (nga) fish

Medials (glides inside a syllable)

ကျkyaya-pin · adds a y glide after the first letter: ky- (ကျ and ကြ sound the same)ကုန်ကျ (kone-kya) cost

ကြkyaya-yit · adds a y glide too, the same sound as ya-pin in speech: ky-ကြီး (kyi) big

ချchaya-pin on ခ, the two merge into one sound: ch- (ချ and ခြ sound the same)ချင် (chin) want

ခြchaya-yit on ခ: ch-ခြောက် (chauk) six

ပြpyaya-yit on ပ: py- (ပျ sounds the same)ပြော (pyaw) speak

ဖျhpyaya-pin on ဖ: hpy-ဖျား (hpya) fever

မြmyaya-yit on မ: my- (မျ sounds the same)မြင် (myin) see

ကွkwawa-hswe · adds a w glide: kw-ကွေ့ (kweh) turn

ကျွkywaya-pin and wa-hswe together: kyw-ကျွန်တော် (kya-naw) I (said by a man)

ကြွkywaya-yit and wa-hswe together: kyw-အကြွေ (a-kywe) small change

မှhmaha-hto · makes the first letter voiceless, a puff of breath before it: hm-မှာ (hma) at, in; to order

နှhnaha-hto on န: hn-နှစ် (hnit) two; year

လှhlaha-hto on လ: hl-လှ (hla) beautiful

ငှhngaha-hto on င: hng-ငှက် (hnget) bird

ရှshaရ with ha-hto: sh- (this is how sh is written)ရှိ (shi) have, there is

လျှshaလ with ya-pin and ha-hto: sh-, a second way to write shလမ်းလျှောက် (lan-shaut) walk

Final consonants (asat)

ကက်ketasat on က: a short stopped ending, written -k, said -et (a glottal stop)လက် (let) hand

ကစ်kitasat on စ: stopped ending, said -itနှစ် (hnit) two

ကတ်katasat on တ: stopped ending, said -atဖတ် (hpat) read

ကပ်katasat on ပ: stopped ending, said -at, the same as တ်ရပ် (yat) stop

ကင်kinasat on င: nasal ending, said -inရင် (yin) when, if

ကည်kiasat on ည: said -i or -e, the nasal is lostရှည် (she) long

ကဉ်kinasat on ဉ, a second form of ည: nasal ending, said -inကျဉ်း (kyin) narrow

ကန်kanasat on န: nasal ending, said -anပြန် (pyan) go back

ကမ်kanasat on မ: nasal ending, said -an, the same as န်စမ်း (san) try

ကံkananusvara, a dot above the letter: a nasal ending, said -an (-one after u)ခံစား (khan-sa) feel

Nasal sign and tone marks

ကန့်kanthe dot under the letter: creaky tone, short and tightခန့်မှန်း (khan-hman) guess

ကန်းkantwo dots after the syllable: high tone, long and fallingပန်း (pan) flower

Vowels with final endings

ကိုက်kaikvowel o + stopped က: -aikဗိုက် (baik) stomach

ကောက်kaukvowel aw + stopped က: -aukခြောက် (chauk) six

ကိတ်keikvowel i + stopped တ: -eik (the same ending is also written with ပ)စိတ် (seik) mind, feelings

ကုတ်kotevowel u + stopped တ: -ote (the same ending is also written with ပ)သုတ် (thote) wipe, clean

ကွတ်kwutw glide + stopped တ: -wutလွတ် (lwut) miss, escape

ကိုင်kainvowel o + nasal င: -ainဆိုင် (hsain) shop

ကောင်kaungvowel aw + nasal င: -aungနားထောင် (na-htaung) listen

ကိန်keinvowel i + nasal န: -ein (the same ending is also written with မ)ပိန် (pein) thin

ကုန်konevowel u + nasal န: -one (the same ending is also written with မ)ကုန်ကျ (kone-kya) cost

Stacked letters (Pali words)

က္ကk-kathe virama sign stacks a second letter under the first: က + က, said k-kaတက္ကစီ (tek-ka-si) taxi

တ္တt-tastacked တ + တ, said t-taသတ္တဝါ (that-ta-wa) living creature, unverified

န္တn-tastacked န + တ, said n-taအန္တရာယ် (an-da-yeh) danger

မ္မm-mastacked မ + မ, said m-maလိမ္မော် (lein-maw) orange

ဒ္ဓd-dastacked ဒ + ဓ, said d-daဗုဒ္ဓ (bote-da) the Buddha, unverified

င်္ဂng-gakinzi: a small င written above the next letter, said ng-: င + ဂမင်္ဂလာပါ (mingalarba) hello

Numbers

၀0 · thone-nyadigit · zero; it is the same shape as the letter ဝ (wa) · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၁၀၀ (tit-ya) 100

၁1 · titdigit · one · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၁၀၀၀ ကျပ် (tit-htaung kyat) 1,000 kyat

၂2 · hnitdigit · two · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၂၀၀၀ ကျပ် (hnit-htaung kyat) 2,000 kyat

၃3 · thonedigit · three · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၃ နာရီ (thone na-yi) 3 o'clock

၄4 · laydigit · four · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၄ နာရီ (lay na-yi) 4 o'clock

၅5 · ngadigit · five · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၅၀၀၀ ကျပ် (nga-htaung kyat) 5,000 kyat

၆6 · chaukdigit · six · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၆ နာရီ (chauk na-yi) 6 o'clock

၇7 · khun-nitdigit · seven · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၇ ရက် (khun-nit yet) 7 days

၈8 · shitdigit · eight · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၈ နာရီ (shit na-yi) 8 o'clock

၉9 · kodigit · nine · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၉ နာရီ (ko na-yi) 9 o'clock

၁၀10 · hsehtwo digits, ၁ and ၀ · ten · used everywhere: prices, bus numbers, clocks, phone numbers, licence plates၁၀ ရက် (hseh yet) 10 days

Punctuation

၊pausepunctuation · comma: a short pause inside a sentenceရေ၊ လက်ဖက်ရည်၊ ကော်ဖီ (yay, laphet-yay, kaw-hpi) water, tea, coffee

။full stoppunctuation · full stop: ends a sentenceကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်။ (kyay-zu tin-ba-deh) thank you

Signs & menu words

ဝင်ပေါက်win-paukentranceover doors of shops, stations and pagodas; airports often use အဝင် (a-win); usual sign wording unverified

ထွက်ပေါက်htwet-paukexitgreen exit signs, doors, stations; airports often use အထွက် (a-htwet); usual sign wording unverified

အိမ်သာein-thatoileton restaurant and bus-station doors

အမျိုးသားa-myo-thamenon toilet doors; ယောက်ျား (yauk-kya) is the plain word for man

အမျိုးသမီးa-myo-tha-miwomenon toilet doors; မိန်းမ (main-ma) is the plain word for woman

ဖွင့်hpwinopenshop doors and signs; notices also use ဖွင့်သည် (hpwin-thi)

ပိတ်peikclosedshop doors; notices also use ပိတ်သည် (peik-thi)

တွန်းtunpushon doors

ဆွဲhswepullon doors

ရဲyepolicepolice cars and uniforms

ရဲစခန်းye-za-khanpolice stationstreet signs

ဆေးရုံhsay-yonhospitalstreet signs, a red cross

ဆေးဆိုင်hsay-hsainpharmacyshop signs

ဘူတာရုံbu-ta-yonrailway stationstation signs, tickets

လေဆိပ်lay-zeikairportroad signs, taxi boards

ဘတ်စ်ကားbat-skabusbus stops, bus-station boards

လက်မှတ်let-hmatticketticket counters, bus and train tickets

အန္တရာယ်an-da-yehdangerwarning signs, building sites

ဆေးလိပ်မသောက်ရhsay-leik-ma-thauk-yano smokingrestaurants, buses; the exact wording varies, unverified

ဖိနပ်ချွတ်ပါhpa-nat-chwut-paplease take off your shoesat the steps of pagodas and monasteries; unverified wording

ဘုရားhpa-yapagoda, templesigns to every pagoda; the shoes come off

ရေyaywaterdrinks lists, menus

လက်ဖက်ရည်laphet-yaytea (milk tea)tea-shop signs and menus

ကော်ဖီkaw-hpicoffeecafe menus

ဘီယာbi-yabeerbeer-station signs, menus

ထမင်းhtaminricemenus; a plate of rice

ကြက်သားkyet-thachickenmenus

ငါးngafishmenus, market stalls

သက်သတ်လွတ်thet-that-lwutvegetarianrestaurant signs, menus

စပ်satspicymenus; ask for မစပ်ဘူး (ma-sat-bu) not spicy

ဈေးနှုန်းzay-hnonepricemenus, price boards

အခမဲ့a-kha-mehfree (no charge)adverts, hotel and cafe signs

Basic Burmese phrases