What Is the “ฯ” Symbol in Thai and How to Use It?
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
กรุงเทพฯ อุบลฯ นายกฯ You’ll see the symbol “ฯ” very often in written Thai but many learners don’t actually know what it means or how to use it.
What Is the "ฯ" Symbol in Thai?
The marker ฯ is called ไปยาลน้อย (bpai yaan nói).
It’s a punctuation mark in Thai used to shorten words, especially proper names or familiar expressions.
How does "ฯ" work?
You write only the first part of the word and replace the rest with ฯ (bpai yaan nói).
For example:
กรุงเทพมหานคร → กรุงเทพฯ
grung têhb má-hăa ná-khaawn → grung têhb
= Bangkok
นายกรัฐมนตรี → นายกฯ
naa-yók rád-tà-mon-dtrii → naa-yók
= Prime Minister
What About “ฯลฯ” ?
There’s also a similar marker called ฯลฯ ไปยาลใหญ่ (bpai yaan yài)
How does “ฯลฯ” work?
It works like ‘etc.’ in English and is used at the end of a list to mean “and so on”.
In Thai, it is read as และอื่น ๆ (láe-èuun-èuun).
For example:
ผลไม้มี มะม่วง กล้วย ส้ม ฯลฯ
pŏn-lá-mái mii má-mûang glûay sôm láe-èuun-èuun
= Fruits include mangoes, bananas, oranges, etc.
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