ทีละ

One at a Time

Level 4

Use ทีละ (thi-la) to describe doing something in steps or batches, like 'one by one' or 'two at a time'.

How It Works

Read At A Time
ทีละ gives an at-a-time reading. ทีละขั้น in the stair sentence gives one step at a time, and ทีละอย่าง in the problem sentence gives one thing at a time. ทีละคน can express one person at a time without a written หนึ่ง.

Find The Stated Batch
The payment sentence puts สองพันบาท after ทีละ, giving the displayed reading two thousand baht at a time. The classroom sentence puts ห้าคน after it, giving five people at a time. These are readings of those whole sentences, rather than a statement about how frequently any batch size is used.

Compare The Payment Question
The card requests five baht from each person, so it practises จ่ายคนละห้าบาท. จ่ายทีละห้าบาท instead describes five baht at a time in the displayed reading. Compare a person’s share, an increment, and a rate with ต่อ by reading the full expression.

Examples (4)

  1. ค่อย ๆ เดินขึ้นบันไดทีละขั้น

    Slowly walk up the stairs one step at a time.

    Word by Word: Slowly walk up stairs one-at-a-time step

    ทีละขั้น is read here as one step at a time; no หนึ่ง is written in the phrase.

  2. กรุณาจ่ายเงินทีละสองพันบาท

    Please pay in increments of two thousand baht.

    Word by Word: Please pay money one-at-a-time two thousand Baht

    สองพันบาท gives the stated size of each payment increment: two thousand baht.

  3. เราต้องแก้ปัญหาไปทีละอย่าง

    We have to solve the problems one by one.

    Word by Word: We must solve problem go one-at-a-time thing

    ทีละอย่าง is used for abstract tasks or items to show a sequential approach.

  4. นักเรียนเดินเข้าห้องทีละห้าคน

    The students walked into the room five at a time.

    Word by Word: Student walk enter room one-at-a-time five person

    This shows the 'batch' size of the action (groups of five).

Common Mistakes

  • Say Each Person Pays Five Baht.

    จ่ายทีละห้าบาท
    จ่ายคนละห้าบาท

    This card asks for five baht per person, expressed by จ่ายคนละห้าบาท. The alternative จ่ายทีละห้าบาท has the displayed reading five baht at a time. The contrast is the requested distribution, rather than a claim that the alternative is ungrammatical.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ทีละLevel 4One at a Time

Learn This First

To understand 'ทีละ' (one at a time / step by step), you need to be comfortable with the Thai system of classifiers and counting. Since 'ทีละ' acts as a distributive marker, it relies on the standard 'Number + Classifier' structure to define the size of the groups or steps being taken.

Words in This Pattern

ทีละทีละ