Khmer grammar

Every grammar guide of Lingora’s Khmer A1 course, with examples you can listen to.

01Personal PronounsKhmer pronouns do something English ones do not: they encode the social relationship between the speaker and the listener. Choosing a pronoun is a…
02The Linking Verbs 'ជា' and 'គឺ'To say "X is a Y" — to link a subject to a noun — Khmer uses the linking verb ជា (ciə), and its emphatic partner គឺ (kɨɨ). The single most important rule…
03Location, Time, and 'Still' with 'នៅ'While ជា (ciə) links a subject to a noun, a completely different verb, នៅ (nɨw), handles physical location: "to be at / to be in / to stay". Use it…
04Possession with 'របស់'To say "my house", "your dog", "Anna's book", Khmer uses the connector របស់ (rɔbɑh), whose literal meaning is "belonging(s) of". The order is the reverse…
05Having and Existence with 'មាន'One verb, មាន (miən), covers two English ideas: "to have" (possession) and "there is / there are" (existence). Context separates the two, and both appear…
06Yes/No Questions with 'តើ' and 'ទេ'Khmer does not reorder words to ask a question. Instead it frames the sentence with two small markers: តើ (taə) at the front and ទេ (tei) at the very…
07Question WordsFor "what, who, which, where, when, how, why", Khmer uses question words that stay exactly where the answer would appear. Nothing moves to the front of…
08Tag Questions and ConfirmationTo check something you already half-believe — English "…, right?" or "…, isn't it?" — Khmer adds a short tag to the end of a full statement. Because the…
09Negation with 'មិន ... ទេ'Standard Khmer negation is a frame, not a single word. You put មិន (mɨn) "not" before the verb and close the clause with ទេ (tei). Think of it as a pair…
10Negative Commands with 'កុំ'To tell someone NOT to do something, Khmer does not use the ordinary negator មិន (mɨn). It uses a dedicated command word, កុំ (kom), placed before the…
11Progressive Aspect with 'កំពុង' and 'កំពុងតែ'Khmer verbs never change their form. To show that an action is happening right now, you place កំពុង (kɑmpung) directly before the verb. It works like…
12Past and Completed Actions with 'បាន'Khmer has no past-tense ending. To mark an action as completed or set in the past, you place បាន (baan) BEFORE the verb. The word does several unrelated…
13The Completive Particle 'ហើយ'ហើយ (haəy) signals that a situation is now complete or has just changed — close to English "already" or "now". It attaches right after the word or phrase…
14Future Actions with 'នឹង'To talk about the future, Khmer places នឹង (nɨng) before the verb. As with every Khmer "tense", the verb itself does not change — នឹង (nɨng) simply…
15Experiential Aspect with 'ធ្លាប់'ធ្លាប់ (thlŏəp) before a verb expresses experience: "to have ever done" or "used to do". It answers "have you ever…?" — whether something has happened at…
16Modal Verbs: 'អាច', 'ត្រូវ', 'ត្រូវការ', 'គួរ', 'ចង់'Ability, obligation, advice, and desire are carried by small helper verbs placed directly before the main verb. None of them change form, and several can…
17Ability and Success with Post-verbal 'បាន'Placed AFTER the verb (or at the end of the clause), បាន (baan) means "can / manage to / succeed in doing". This is a different job from the pre-verbal…
18Resultative Verbs: 'មើលឃើញ', 'ស្តាប់ឮ', and 'រកឃើញ'Khmer often pairs two verbs where the second states the RESULT achieved by the first. The first verb is the activity; the second tells you it succeeded.…
19The Versatile 'ឱ្យ': Give, Cause, Benefit, and PurposeFew Khmer words stretch as far as ឱ្យ (ʼaoy). Its base meaning is "to give", but from there it spreads to causing, doing-something-for-someone,…
20Passive Voice with 'ត្រូវ'Khmer can form a passive — where the subject undergoes the action rather than doing it — with ត្រូវ (trəw) (often ត្រូវ (trəw) + បាន (baan)) before the…
21ClassifiersWhen you count a noun in Khmer, you cannot just put a number in front of it. You need a CLASSIFIER — a counting word chosen to match the kind of thing…
22Demonstratives: 'នេះ' and 'នោះ'"This" and "that" in Khmer are នេះ (nih) (near) and នោះ (nuh) (far). The key difference from English is word order: the demonstrative comes AFTER the…
23Describing Nouns: Adjectives as Stative VerbsA Khmer adjective is really a verb that means "to be X". This one idea explains two things at once: why no word for "is" appears before an adjective, and…
24Plurals and QuantifiersKhmer nouns have no plural ending — a bare noun says nothing about number. Plurality and quantity come from separate words placed around the noun, and…
25Reduplication with 'ៗ'Khmer has a small written sign that tells you to repeat the word just before it. Rather than write the word twice, you write it once and add this mark —…
26Nominalization with 'ការ' and 'ភាព'Khmer turns verbs and adjectives into nouns with two prefix-like words. ការ (kaa) placed before a verb makes "the act of …-ing"; ភាព (phiəp) before an…
27Ordinal Numbers with 'ទី'Cardinal numbers (one, two, three) become ordinals (first, second, third) by putting the single marker ទី (tii) in front of the number. There is no…
28Comparatives and SuperlativesTo compare, Khmer leaves the adjective completely untouched and adds a comparison word. "More than" is ជាង (ciəng); "the most" is បំផុត (bɑmphot) (or…
29The Intensifier 'ណាស់'To say "very", Khmer places ណាស់ (nah) AFTER the adjective, not before it. This is the opposite of English word order and one of the first patterns a…
30Expressing 'Also / Too' with 'ក៏ ... ដែរ'"Also / too" is usually expressed as a frame: ក៏ (kɑɑ) before the verb and ដែរ (dae) at the end of the clause. The two work together like a pair of…
31The Emphatic Adjective Linker 'ដ៏'ដ៏ (dɑɑ) links a noun to a following adjective in an admiring, slightly literary tone. It singles the quality out for praise, a step above the plain noun…
32Relative Clauses with 'ដែល'To attach a whole describing clause to a noun — "the movie THAT I like", "the man WHO is tall" — Khmer uses one connector, ដែល (dael). A single word…
33Reported Speech and Thought with 'ថា'When you report what someone says, thinks, knows or hopes, Khmer joins the two parts with ថា (thaa) ("that"). It marks the boundary between the main verb…
34Conditional Sentences with 'បើ' / 'ប្រសិនបើ'"If …" clauses open with បើ (baə), or its fuller, more careful form ប្រសិនបើ (prɑsən baə). Khmer has no special verb form for hypotheticals — the…
35Concessive Clauses with 'ទោះបីជា ... ក៏ដោយ'A concessive clause admits a fact that might normally lead you to expect a certain outcome, then shows that the actual outcome holds anyway, regardless…
36Polite Requests with 'សូម'សូម (soum) placed before a verb turns it into a polite request — the standard Khmer "please". It is used for invitations, instructions and courteous…
37Suggestions with 'តោះ' (Let's)To propose doing something together — English "let's …" — Khmer opens the clause with តោះ (tɑh). It is a friendly, everyday particle that includes the…
38Prepositions of PlaceKhmer pinpoints location with a set of place words, most of which pair with the locative verb នៅ (nɨw) ("to be at"). Together they answer the question…
39The Instrumental Preposition 'ដោយ'ដោយ (daoy) marks the means or the manner of an action — "by" or "with". It introduces the instrument used, or the way in which something is done.
40Conjunctions: 'និង', 'ហើយ', 'ប៉ុន្តែ', 'ឬ'Khmer keeps two different words for "and": one for joining items within a single clause, and another for joining separate clauses or actions in sequence…