The lesson of the day today we are going to learn about "The Thai Clock" The Thai way of telling the time was created when it was the duty of the temples to keep track of the time so the common people could focus on their work.
In newspapers, on television and for official announcements, the 24-hour military system is often used in telling the time. But in everyday life conversations, a different and uniquely Thai system is used instead. Once you get used to this idea, it does kind of make sense.
The easiest way to approach it is to recognize that the Thai clock is divided up into roughly four blocks of six hours each–rather than two blocks of 12–and that each of these four blocks of time is referred to in a different way.
The reason why there are three different words for telling the time like mooŋ (โมง), thûm (ทุ่ม) and dtii (ตี) is that three different bells were used by the temples to let people living close by knowing the time.
This was similar to a system in the West where the bell of the church told everyone what time it was. However, the Thai system was more advanced: they used three different types of bells rather than a single bell. the loudest bell was used most of the day and had a moong (โมง) sound, the second-loudest bell made a thûm (ทุ่ม) sound, and the quietest bell made just a small dtii (ตี) sound in the hours before dawn to avoid waking up everyone in the village.
This was carried out through the ancient custom of a night watchman striking a bell on the hour throughout the night to reassure village residents of their safety. From the sound of these bells come the three different words still used to tell time to this day.
What time is it?
gìi mooŋ (lɛ́ɛw) khráp/khá
กี่โมง (แล้ว) ครับ/คะ