Demonstratives: 'នេះ' and 'នោះ'

01

After the Noun

• ផ្ទះនេះ

  phtĕəh nihphteeh nih

  this house (lit. house this)

• ឆ្កែនោះ

  chkae nuh

  that dog (lit. dog that)

• សៀវភៅនេះល្អ

  siəw phɨw nih lʼɑɑsiew phuw nih laa

  This book is good.

02

Standing Alone

They can also stand by themselves as "this one / that one" - most often as the subject of a sentence, but just as commonly as the object of another word, especially after the comparative marker ជាង (ciəngcieng) ("more than") in phrases like ជាងនេះ (ciəng nihcieng nih) ("than this").

• នេះល្អ

  nih lʼɑɑnih laa

  This is good.

• តើនោះជាអ្វី

  taə nuh ciə ʼvəytae nuh cie vey

  What is that?

• ធំជាងនេះ

  thom ciəng nihthom cieng nih

  bigger than this

• ខ្ញុំនឹងទិញផ្ទះល្វែងធំជាងនេះ។

  khñom nɨng tɨñ phtĕəh lvɛɛng thom ciəng nihkhnom nung tun phteeh lveeng thom cieng nih

  I will buy a bigger apartment than this.

03

Place Forms: Here and There

With the element meaning "place", they become ទីនេះ (tii nih) "here" and ទីនោះ (tii nuh) "there".

• សៀវភៅរបស់ខ្ញុំនៅទីនេះ

  siəw phɨw rɔbɑh khñom nɨw tii nihsiew phuw robah khnom nuw tii nih

  My book is here.

• ឡានរបស់អ្នកនៅទីនោះ

  laan rɔbɑh nĕək nɨw tii nuhlaan robah neek nuw tii nuh

  Your car is there.

04

Plural Forms

Adding the totality word ទាំង (tĕəngteeng) gives ទាំងនេះ (tĕəng nihteeng nih) "these" and ទាំងនោះ (tĕəng nuhteeng nuh) "those".

• ផ្កាទាំងនេះស្អាត

  phkaa tĕəng nih sʼaatphkaa teeng nih saat

  These flowers are beautiful.

• ទូកទាំងនោះមានតម្លៃថ្លៃណាស់

  tuuk tĕəng nuh miən tɑmlay thlay nahtuuk teeng nuh mien tamlay thlay nah

  Those boats are very expensive.

05

A Fixed Idiom: ឆាប់ៗនេះ

Occasionally នេះ (nih) attaches to the reduplicated adverb ឆាប់ៗ (chap chap) ("quickly") rather than to a noun, forming the frozen phrase ឆាប់ៗនេះ (chap chap nih) "soon" (lit. quickly-this). This doesn't fit the after-the-noun or standing-alone patterns above - just learn it as a set phrase.

• ខ្ញុំនឹងទិញវាឆាប់ៗនេះ

  khñom nɨng tɨñ viə chap chap nihkhnom nung tun vie chap chap nih

  I will buy it soon.