မှာ / တွင်

Writing marks a place or a time with တွင် or ၌, in the place where speech says မှာ.

တွင် covers places, times, dates and events: အစည်းအဝေးတွင် (at the meeting), အောက်တိုဘာလ ၃၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် (on October 31). ၌ is more formal, said hnaik. It marks places, and times in set phrases such as ထိုအချိန်၌ (at that time).

The place or time comes first, then တွင်, then the rest of the sentence. A news report opens with the time and the place, both marked with တွင်. Clock times and dates are written with Burmese digits or with words: ၉ နာရီ (nine o'clock).

For movement to a place, writing uses သို့. For a starting point, it uses မှ. For "inside", writing says အတွင်း or အတွင်း၌: ကျောင်းဝင်းအတွင်း၌ (inside the school grounds).

Keep the registers apart: a sentence with မှာ ends in တယ် or မယ်, and a sentence with တွင် ends in သည် or မည်.