How to Say “How much” in Thai
เท่าไหร่
thâw-rày
How much
ค่ะ and ครับ are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.
When to use it
เท่าไหร่ (thâo-rài) means "how much" — use it alone with a point or gesture, or add ราคา (raa-khaa, "price") in front: ราคาเท่าไหร่ for a slightly fuller ask. In markets, bargaining is expected — once you hear a price, a gentle ลดหน่อยได้ไหม (lót-nɔ̀ɔy-dâai-máy, "can you reduce it a little?") opens the negotiation.
Why you've seen it spelled differently
You may have seen เท่าไหร่ written as: tao rai, tao-rai, taurai, thao rai.
There is no single standard for writing Thai in the Roman alphabet — phrasebooks, road signs, and tourist guides each follow a different system, and many just invent their own spellings. The romanization on this page uses a consistent IPA-based system that marks all five tones and distinguishes short from long vowels. The same word always gets the same spelling. Paste any Thai to see it romanized →
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