វេយ្យាករណ៍ខ្មែរ
A Student’s Guide to Khmer Grammar
A study for the SBBIC Khmer Grammar Checker – A Work in Progress
by
Nathan Wells
With the current lack of a comprehensive Khmer Grammar in English we have begun the task to create such a work so that students desiring to understand the Khmer language better can have easy access to better understanding of the inner-workings of Khmer. This grammar is also designed to coincide with our Khmer Grammar Checker, with rules currently inputted in parenthesis. Any corrections or additions are welcome, just leave them in the comments.
- Nominal Syntax
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- Number
- Gender
- Definiteness
- Pronouns
- Possessive Pronoun Position (rule)
In order for a pronoun to be used as a possessive pronoun, it must be placed after the object it possesses (ex. ឡានខ្ញុំ). To be perfectly clear regarding possession, the preposition “របស់” or “នៃ” (often translated as “of”) can be used between the object and the pronoun to indicate possession (ex. ឡានរបស់ខ្ញុំ).
- Possessive Pronoun Position (rule)
- Numerals
- Adjectives
- Normal Adjective/Noun Order (rule)
For an adjective to modify a noun, it normally follows the noun (ex. ឡានក្រហម). An exception (rule) to this rule are gender nouns (such as ប្រុស and ស្រី). - Specific Uses of Adjectives
- នឹង as an adjective (rule)
Means “still, study, fixed” and when tied with ថ្កល់ it keeps the same meaning, but at times can look abnormal because it can be linked by the conjunction “ហើយ” (ex. ទឹកដែលស្អាត ហើយនឹងថ្កល់), but this form is correct.
- នឹង as an adjective (rule)
- Comparative Adjectives
- Adj + ជាង
Often used in comparing two different people, places, objects, or actions (ex. ផ្សារថ្មីល្អជាងផ្សារចាស់។). An adjective is placed before ជាង to establish what type of comparison is being used (ex. “better than” «ល្អជាង» “prettier than” «ស្អាតជាង»).- Possible Uses of Adj + ជាង
The word ជាង is also a noun meaning “skilled worker” but based on the words used in the context it is used as a comparative adjective. Here are all known possibilities of ជាង used as an adjective.
Neg. Part. + Verb + Adj. + ជាង + Verb (ex. មិនទៅល្អជាងទៅ។).
Verb + Adj. + ជាង + Neg. Part. + Verb (ex. ទៅល្អជាងមិនទៅ។).
Proper Noun|Pronoun + Adj. + ជាង + Proper Noun|Pronoun (ex. កុសលសង្ហាជាងចន្ទ។).
Noun + Dem. P. + Adj. + ជាង + Noun + Dem. P. (ex. ឡាននេះល្អជាងឡាន នោះ។).
- Possible Uses of Adj + ជាង
- Adj + ជាង
- Superlative Adjectives
Words like «ប្រសើរជាងគេ» «ល្អជាងគេ» take comparison between nouns to the highest degree and are very closely related to comparative adjectives in form.- Possible Uses of Superlative Adjectives
- Adj. + ជាង + គេ (ex. សៀវភៅនេះល្អជាងគេ។).
- Possible Uses of Superlative Adjectives
- Normal Adjective/Noun Order (rule)
- Nominal Clusters
- Classifiers
- មនុស្ស (rulegroup id=”Classifier_PEOPLE”)
When stating the number of persons, it is proper to use a classifier after the number of people (ex. មនុស្សពីរនាក់។). The classifiers that can be used with មនុស្ស are: នាក់ – ក្រុម – ពួក – គូ - Other Classifiers
កញ្ចប់, កាន, កេះ, កែវ, ក្បាល, ក្រុម, កំប៉ុង, ខ្នង, គីឡូ, គូ, គ្រាប់, គ្រឿង, ឃ្លា, ចង្កាក់, ចង្កោម, ចាន, ច្បាប់, ជន្លៀស, ជួរ, ឈុត, ដង, ដប, ដុំ, ដើម, តួ, តៅ, ត្រណោត, ធុង, នាក់, នាឡិ, នឹម, ប៉ោត, បាច់, ប្រអប់, ផែន, ផ្តិល, ផ្លូន, ផ្លែ, ពួក, ពែង, ម៉ាត់, មុខ, ម្ខាង, រូប, លីត្រ, វង់, វែក, សន្កឹក, សន្លឹក, សម្រាប់, សរសៃ, ស្ទង, ស្និត, ស្លាបព្រា, ស្លឹក, ហ្វូង, ឡូ, អង្គ
- មនុស្ស (rulegroup id=”Classifier_PEOPLE”)
- Word Order
- Verbal Syntax
- Verbal Types
- Verbal Stacking for Attribution
- Pre-verbal Attribution
- Tense/Aspect Auxiliaries
- Modal Auxiliaries
- Compound Verbs
- Attributive Motion Verbs
- Specific Verb Usage
- Usage of ចង់
When ចង់ is used with a noun (rule), the correct form is ចង់បាន + Noun (ex. ខ្ញុំចង់បានឡាននោះ។)
When ចង់ is used with a verb (rule), it should be used by itself (ex. ខ្ញុំចង់ទៅ។) - Usage of គឺជា and ជា to modify a Noun, Proper Noun, or Pronoun
When គឺជា or ជា is used with a Noun, Proper Noun, or Pronoun, it gives additional information about that Noun, Proper Noun, or Pronoun, such as what they do for a job (ex. គាត់គឺជាពេទ្យ។). It is incorrect, in this usage, to use គឺ by itself – the form must be គឺជា or ជា.
- Usage of ចង់
- Adverbial Syntax
- Adverbial Markers (ជា – ដោយ – យ៉ាង – ដ៏)
- យ៉ាង (rule name=”យ៉ាង as Adverb Marker”)
The most common adverbial marker (ex. នាងបានប្រលែងនឹងប្អូនយ៉ាងទន់ភ្លន់) - ដោយ and ដ៏
While it is possible to useដោយ as an adverbial marker it is not as common as យ៉ាង (ex. នាងបាន ប្រលែងដោយទន់ភ្លន់ជាមួយនឹងប្អូន). ដ៏ is even less common, though perhaps in poetry it might appear (ex. នាងបាន ប្រលែងដ៏ទន់ភ្លន់ជាមួយនឹងប្អូន) - ជា
Used only in certain cases, normally having to do with frequency, quantity, quality or degree (ex. មានភ្ញៀវមកជាច្រើន). It often functions as an adverbial phrase (almost as if we said in English “It is urgent that you come” “សូមអ្នកមកជាបន្ទាន់”. Here is a list of some adverbial combinations using ជា:
ជាបន្ទាន់ – ជាស្រេច – ជាកំហិត – ជានិច្ចកាល – ជាដរាប – ជាញឹកញាប់ – ជារឿយៗ – ជាការពិតណាស់ – ជាធម្មតា – ជារៀងរហូត - ឲ្យ
Used literally as “do this so as to make it…” (ex. សូមអានឲ្យច្បាស់ and គេធ្វើឲ្យឆាប់).
- យ៉ាង (rule name=”យ៉ាង as Adverb Marker”)
- Ordinary Adverbs
- Compound Adverbs
- Adverbial Markers (ជា – ដោយ – យ៉ាង – ដ៏)
- Particle Syntax
- Negative Particles
- Normal Negative Particle Position
Negative particles (មិន – អត់) are normally placed before (rule) verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs (ex. ឡាននោះមិនខៀវទេ។).
- Normal Negative Particle Position
- Verb Related Particles
- Noun Related Particles
- Response Particles
- Medial Particles (ក៏ – នូវ)
- Final Particles
- Negative Particles
- Clausal Syntax
- Nominal Clauses
- Clauses Joined by Conjunctions
- និង and ហើយនិង (rule id=”ហើយនិង”)
Often និង and នឹង are confused, but they are actually different. និង (or ហើយនិង depending on writing style) is a coordinating conjunction (often translated as “and”) while នឹង is a particle that has many uses, one of which is to cause a verb to be future in aspect (ex. គាត់នឹងទៅ).- និង Between Two Nouns (rule)
Most of the time it is more proper to only use និង when it links two nouns together (ex. ខ្ញុំទិញផ្ទះនិងឡាន។) - ហើយនិង or ហើយ Between Two Verbs (rule)
When linking two verbs, it is often more proper to use ហើយនិង or ហើយ but not និង by itself (ex. ខ្ញុំទៅសាលាហើយនិងទៅផ្សារ។) - ឬ
This conjunction is often translated as “or”. When it joins two phrases it is often proper to have a space on either side (ex. ឈឺចាប់ ឬ រងទុក្ខលំបាក).
- និង Between Two Nouns (rule)
- និង and ហើយនិង (rule id=”ហើយនិង”)
- Clauses Joined by Clause Relators
- Clauses Joined by Prepositions
- Various Spelling Issues
In Khmer there are multiple spellings for many words, but while that inherently is not a problem, it can cause inconsistencies in published works (especially with more than one author, or translator) which is undesirable. This section seeks to list words with multiple spellings and give the more popular spelling as determined by a Google search, as well as give a list of known homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings).- Words with Multiple Spellings
There are many words in Khmer that can be spelled multiple ways. This is a list of those words with the most popular spelling in Google search results shown by an asterisk (*)- ឲ្យ * = ឱ្យ = អោយ
- កម្ពស់* = កំពស់
- កម្នាញ់ = កំណាញ់*
- កម្លាំង* = កំលាំង
- មកុដ = មង្កុដ = ម្កុដ*
- ចៃដន់ = ចៃដន្យ*
- ឋិតិ = ស្ថិតិ*
- តម្លៃ = តំលៃ*
- ពុទ្ធសាស្នា = ពុទ្ធសាសនា*
- ទំលាប់ = ទម្លាប់*
- ជំពូក* = ចំពូក
- ស្ថានសួគ៌ = ឋានសួគ៌*
- តំរង់ = តម្រង់*
- សម្លាប់* = សំលាប់
- សំលេង = សំឡេង* = សម្លេង
- ស្រឡាញ់* = ស្រលាញ់
- ចម្លើយ* = ចំលើយ
- Homophones
These are words that sound the same, but have different meanings (or are misspellings).- ហើយនឹង should be ហើយនិង (rule id=”ហើយនិង”)
- ប្រឈមមុខនិង should be ប្រឈមមុខនឹង
- កាល់ពីមុន should be កាលពីមុន
- ចាប ចាប់ ឆាប ឆាប់
- លើងទៅ should be ឡើងទៅ (rule id=”លើងទៅ”)
- ជាមួយនិង should be ជាមួយនឹង (rule id=”ជាមួយនិង”)
- ពីរអ្នក should be ពីរនាក់ (unless preceeded by មក – និង – រស់ – rule)
- មកពីរអ្នក should be មកពីរនាក់ (rule id=”មកពីរអ្នក”)
- ចំពួក vs. ជំពូក if NUM + ជំពូក or ជំពូក + NUM or ទី
- Words with Multiple Spellings