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Thai Word Count
Thread poster: Rebecca Rönty
Rebecca Rönty
Rebecca Rönty
Germany
Local time: 10:45
German to English
Sep 6, 2010

Hi everyone

I recently received a Thai document which needs to be translated into English. Is there any way of checking the Thai word count which has been quoted? As far as I can see, there is no way of doing this in Word 2003, and after a very quick internet search I haven't been able to find an online tool to help with this.

As far as I have read, "word counts" in Thai do not carry the same significance as those in European languages, however this is how the translato... See more
Hi everyone

I recently received a Thai document which needs to be translated into English. Is there any way of checking the Thai word count which has been quoted? As far as I can see, there is no way of doing this in Word 2003, and after a very quick internet search I haven't been able to find an online tool to help with this.

As far as I have read, "word counts" in Thai do not carry the same significance as those in European languages, however this is how the translator has set out their quote, therefore if there is a way of checking this it would be much appreciated!

Becci ▲ Collapse
 
Robert Tucker (X)
Robert Tucker (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:45
German to English
+ ...
No spaces Sep 6, 2010

As I understand it the difficulty is that Thai does not leave a space between words. Perhaps you can do a character count and use that or divide it by the average character length of a Thai word.
 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 15:45
English to Thai
+ ...
Thai PC environment Sep 8, 2010

Many disputes of me came out of clients who did not know how to count Thai correctly. The easiest way is using MS Word under Thai enabled local settings/spellchecking PC and Windows. Trados count gives chars and it is incorrect. European PC + MS Word give wrong counts.

Soonthon Lupkitaro


[Edited at 2010-09-08 01:39 GMT]
 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 15:45
English to Thai
+ ...
Soft space Sep 8, 2010

It took me a while to remind of the technical term for spacing of Thai. It has been invented before Thai localization of Windows 3.1, a very clever innovation. This makes Thai word wrap, spell checking, word count etc. work like European languages in Thai PC environment.

Soonthon Lupkitaro
 
Asian Trust
Asian Trust
Vietnam
Local time: 15:45
Member (2015)
English to Japanese
+ ...
How to count Thai correctly Apr 22, 2016

@ Soonthon: Can you tell me how to use that version out of Thailand?
 


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