I haven’t been diligent in learning Khmer language. Although I know tik theat (little) and it could get me by when I go to market or go out but I still have a hard time. I guess I was just too caught up with life and work. Anyway, I decided I have to at least slowly get back into learning the Khmer language bit by bit. It would definitely make living in Cambodia a lot easier for me.

Two days ago I was in the market for some errand. I was looking for wilson electronics cell booster, small throw pillows, DVD’s and some cotton shirts. When I was at the shirt selling stall, I had a hard time telling the seller what colors I wanted lol! We resorted to pointing to pointing to objects around the market to get her to ‘get’ what I meant.

So I figured, its high time I learned some colors in Khmer. When I got home I bugged the kiddo and hubby to translate for me. Note that these are just rough translations and I follow the way the English alphabet is pronounced to get the approximate Khmer sounds.

The root word for COLOR in Khmer is PH-OA. If you want to refer to a color, then you have to start the phase with the word phoa first.

  • Black – Phoa Kha Maot
  • White – Phoa So-w
  • Red – Phoa Krohom
  • Yellow – Phoa Leung
  • Blue – Phoa Kiev
  • Green - Phoa Baitong
  • Orange – Phoa Teuk Krewt
  • Pink – Phoa P’ka choup
  • Violet – Phoa Svay
  • Brown – Phoa  Thnout
  • Silver – Praa
  • Gold – Meas

I have this listed now in my little notebook and hopefully could help :D More later.