89 Easy Khmer Vocab For Daily Life!
Original blog post: https://ling-app.com/km/khmer-vocab-for-daily-life/
Have you always wanted to travel to Cambodia, but you’ve been too afraid or intimidated to learn Khmer? If that’s the case, you’re not alone. Learning a new language, especially one like the Khmer language, can leave you confused about where to start. Should you start with speaking, writing, or reading? To help you, we’ve come up with tons of easy Khmer vocab for daily life!
Eighty-nine might seem like a big number, so to prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed, you can start with just a few useful phrases and a few words and slowly build up your vocabulary until you’ve learned all 89! After all, language learning is a journey. As long as you make time to practice every day, you’re going to see progress, no matter if it’s fast or slow.
To start, we’ll be talking a little about the structure of the Khmer language and then give a brief background on Cambodia. It’s always good to get a refresher, especially if you’re planning on traveling there in the future. After that, we’ll share the basic Khmer vocab for daily life!
The Structure Of The Khmer Language
Khmer is categorized as an Austroasiatic language, meaning that it belongs to the language family of Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia.
Interestingly, Khmer was greatly influenced by Sanskrit and Pali. If you’re into linguistics, then the relationship between these three languages might be worth looking into further!
Here are some other essential points to know about the structure of Khmer:
- Not a tonal language
- Words are stressed on the final syllable
- Three main dialects
- Written in Khmer script
- General word order is subject-verb-object
Where Is Khmer Used?
Khmer is the official language of Cambodia, a Southeast Asian country that borders Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The country has approximately 17 million people, but the number of Khmer speakers is estimated to be only around 13 million. If you’re traveling to Cambodia, you’ll most likely end up in Phnom Penh, the capital city.
Fun fact: Texas, a state in the southernmost part of the United States, is 3.8 times bigger than Cambodia!
Easy Khmer Vocab For Daily Life
Now that you’re more familiar with the structure of Khmer and the country of Cambodia, you can start learning some practical, common vocab and phrases to help you get around in daily life!
We’ve broken up the vocabulary into five categories to make it easier. If you’re interested in learning the vocabulary of all five categories, then start practicing! But, if you’re looking to learn or refresh your memory on just a couple of categories, then that’s fine too! The categories are listed below:
- Meeting People
- Essential Pronouns
- Dining Out
- Essential Verbs
- Essential Nouns
So, let’s begin!
Meeting People
Essential Pronouns
Dining Out
Essential Verbs
Essential Nouns
Can’t Stop Learning? Try The Ling App!
If you want to learn more about Khmer, all you have to do is download the Ling App!
The Ling App is a language learning app that has been explicitly designed for eager language learners like you! It offers 60+ languages and delivers them in the form of daily lessons, mini-games, quizzes, and writing exercises! The app has lessons for beginners and advanced learners alike, so you don’t have to worry about not finding what you’re looking for. Not to mention, the app features a chatbot that you can talk with directly in real-time.
Once you finish a lesson, you can extend your knowledge of that language even more by checking out Ling’s free language blog. The blog covers topics such as culture, food, and much more!
As far as the app itself, it’s easy to navigate, no matter your age, and runs smoothly. It’s also available in the App Store, Google Play, and in a desktop version. So, you really don’t have an excuse not to download it!
Whether you want to master Khmer or you’re looking to learn another language, Ling is there for you!
