Writing Without Spaces

Foundations

The mark ၊ works like a comma, and a question also ends with ။, never with a question mark.

How It Works

A Burmese sentence looks like one long chain: ကျွန်မ ဈေးသွားမယ်။ The reader finds the words by knowing them. Writers add a space between larger phrases to make reading easier, never between every word.

MarkJob
၊a short pause, like a comma
။the end of a sentence or a question

Burmese has its own digits: ၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉. Prices and big numbers use them, as in ၂၀၀၀ ကျပ် (2,000 kyat). Small numbers are also written as words, such as နှစ်ခွက် (two cups).

On a phone, make sure your keyboard types standard Unicode Burmese. Older phones used a different system, and text typed in it looks broken on other devices.

Examples (5)

  1. ကျွန်မ ဈေးသွားမယ်။

    I'm going to the market.

    ဈေးသွားမယ် is written as one chain with no spaces.

  2. မင်္ဂလာပါ၊ ကျွန်တော် အောင်အောင်ပါ။

    Hello, I'm Aung Aung.

    ၊ marks the pause after the greeting.

  3. ဟုတ်ကဲ့ရှင်၊ နားလည်ပါတယ်။

    Yes, I understand.

    A woman answers. ၊ marks the pause, and ။ ends the sentence.

  4. ဒါ ဘယ်လောက်လဲ။

    How much is this?

    The question ends with လဲ and ။.

  5. ၂၀၀၀ ကျပ်ပါ။

    It's 2,000 kyat.

    The price is written with Burmese digits.

Common Mistakes

  • Putting a space between every word.

    ကျွန်မ ဈေး သွား မယ်။
    ကျွန်မ ဈေးသွားမယ်။

    Spaces go only between larger phrases. Write the verb and its ending together.

  • Ending a question with a question mark.

    ဒါ ဘယ်လောက်လဲ?
    ဒါ ဘယ်လောက်လဲ။

    လဲ already makes it a question, and every sentence ends with ။.

How It Connects

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Writing Without SpacesFoundations

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Patterns that build on this one.