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There is not much different between a noun in Khmer and a noun in English. A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing and abstract idea. The word in red are the example of Khmer common noun.
| Gaharc?bgb?putrbs'RbCaCnExMr KW "Zay ". RbCaCnExMrhUbZay | |
| ya"gticNas'k+BIreBlEdrk67gmYy;f9. Gaharca?Zac'mYyeTot KW RtI. | |
| eKykRtIeTAeFVICam>UbeRcInmuxeTot dUcCa RtIegot RtIeqI:r Rbhuk nig | |
| p:k. ExMrk+cUlcit5Ep,eQIEdrdUcCa eck l>ug x67r sVay eTob m6as' | |
| nig man. | |
Many noun, like "RKUbeRgon " which means "teacher" can refer to men or women. Once, many Khmer nouns would change form depending on their gender. For example, A man was called "elakRKUbeRgon" while a woman was called "G6kRKUbeRgon ". The use of gender specific noun is quite common in some words. Here are more examples:
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Khmer |
English |
Khmer |
English |
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| nayk | Director | nayika | Director | ||
| nadkar | Actor | nadkarI | Actress | ||
| kmMkr | Laborer | kmMkarI | Laborer | ||
| kumara | Child | kumarI | Child | ||
There are many kinds of noun in Khmer: proper nouns, common noun, abstract nouns collective nouns, countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable noun is a noun that we can count and usually it follow by a specifier. Since Khmer nouns do not have the plural form like most English nouns that change their form by adding "-s" or "-es", Khmer countable nouns has the following word order:
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Example:
Noun |
Number |
Specifier |
Note |
|
RKUbeRgon |
BIr |
nak' |
Specifier "nak'" is used to count person such as friends, farmers, teachers, students and so on. |
|
teacher |
two |
person |
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|
eKa |
bI |
k_al |
Specifier " k_al " is used to count animal such as cows, cat, dog by their head. |
|
cow |
three |
head |
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exMA;d |
bYn |
edIm |
Specifier " edIm " is used to count long cylindrical object such as stick, tree, pencil, pen and so on. |
|
pencil |
four |
stick |
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Ep,RkUc |
RZa? |
Ep, |
Specifier " Ep, " is used to count individual fruit such as mango, watermelon orange. |
|
orange |
five |
fruit |
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|
T_an |
BIr |
eRKOg |
Specifier " eRKOg " is used to count object that involve with machinery such as car, motorbike, truck, airplane, and so on. |
|
car |
two |
machine |
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p8H |
bYn |
x6g |
Specifier " x6g " is used to count object that involves with building such as house. |
|
house |
four |
Specifier " x6g " is difficult to translate, it has no counterparts in English. " a house with four sections of roof" | |
|
eck |
RZa? |
Ep, |
Specifier " Ep, " is used to count individual fruit such as mango, watermelon orange. |
|
banana |
five |
fruits |
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|
eck |
BIr |
s6it |
Specifier " s6it " is used to count a hand of banana which may consist of 5, 6, to ten bananas. |
|
banana |
two |
hand |
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RkUc |
mYy |
LU |
Specifier " LU " is used to count any object or things with in a number of twelve" dozen" |
|
orang |
one |
dozen |
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sac'RCUk |
BIr |
KILU |
Specifier " KILU " is used to measure the weight of object or thing. One pound equal to 0.453 Kilograms |
|
pork |
two |
kilogram |
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luy |
100 |
erol |
Specifier " erol " is used to identify Cambodian currency. |
|
money |
100 |
riel |
Specifier is a word which specify the size, shape, amount, or kind of unit being counted.
| Specifier is omitted in spoken language. |
| Do not mix up the specifier
which is used to count person with the animal because it is considered rude.
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