bluesofa Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I'm not sure if this is strictly a Thai language query, or a UK>US English one. There's a news topic running at the moment: https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1149856-three-major-new-motorways-set-to-be-built-in-central-thailand-starting-next-year/ The image includes the text "7.9 หมื่นล้านบาท" Below it, the English says "79 billion Baht" Now if I use google translate and enter in English "Seventy thousand million" it translates as "เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน" (I used seventy rather than seventy-nine to make it simpler). However, if I click to swap the two languages (from EN>TH to TH>EN), using the text already there, it then shows "เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน" translated to "Seventy billion". How much is เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน in English, and is there a difference between UK and US English for this amount? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karibu Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000), while in American English it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000). we all use the American calculating now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karibu Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 In pounds 79.000.000.000 baht is approximately is 2 billion I Think? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgeezer Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 One billion is nine naughts พันล้าน but there is no word for a billion because every multiple of ten uses a new word. In English we don't have equivalent words for 10,000 and 100,000 and Thai does not have a word for more than 1000,000. เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน = 7X10,000X 1000,000 seven ten-thousand millions. 70X10,000 becomes เจ็ดแสน seven one hundred - thousands. 7.9หมื่นล้าน is written เจ็ดหมื่นเก้าพันล้าน or 79,000,000,000 mixing figures and words mixes me up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhunBENQ Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) All said, but not again simplified with 7. I use "'" to separate thousands. เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน เจ็ด = 7 หมื่น = 10'000 ล้าน = 1'000'000 -> 70'000'000'000 (7*1010) 70'000 million In US it's 70 billion. In some other languages there is a "milliard". In German it would be 70 Milliarden. Always a source of mistranslation/calculation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales Additionally Thai (as some other languages) has words for 10'000 (muen) and 100'000 (saen) which English does not have. 70'000'000'000 Baht ~ 2,200,000,000 USD (2.2 billion US). Edited February 24, 2020 by KhunBENQ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 1 hour ago, tgeezer said: One billion is nine naughts พันล้าน but there is no word for a billion because every multiple of ten uses a new word. In English we don't have equivalent words for 10,000 and 100,000 and Thai does not have a word for more than 1000,000. เจ็ดหมื่นล้าน = 7X10,000X 1000,000 seven ten-thousand millions. 70X10,000 becomes เจ็ดแสน seven one hundred - thousands. 7.9หมื่นล้าน is written เจ็ดหมื่นเก้าพันล้าน or 79,000,000,000 mixing figures and words mixes me up! Right, thanks. I follow that now. I know what you mean about mixing figures. I read something to do with the cost of some enormous infrastructure project about ten years ago: Do I remember this correctly - I think a trillion is ล้านล้าน ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhunBENQ Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 1 minute ago, bluesofa said: Do I remember this correctly - I think a trillion is ล้านล้าน ? A million million. Yes, would be called "trillion" in US (and UK as far as I know). 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 29 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said: 31 minutes ago, bluesofa said: Do I remember this correctly - I think a trillion is ล้านล้าน ? A million million. Yes, would be called "trillion" in US (and UK as far as I know). Oh good. I know what to write for my annual visa extension now... (sorry!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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