Burmese (Myanmar) alphabet: every letter to copy
Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ) is the official language of Myanmar, spoken by about 33 million people as a first language and many more as a second. Its script is easy to recognise by its round, circular letters. The Burmese alphabet has 33 consonants, from က (ka) to အ (a), plus vowel signs, medial signs, tone marks, digits and punctuation. The same script, with extra letters, is used for Shan, Mon, Karen and other languages. This page lists them all.
Tap any letter to copy it.
What you will find
- Consonants: က ခ ဂ ဃ င, စ ဆ ဇ ဈ ည, ဋ ဌ ဍ ဎ ဏ, တ ထ ဒ ဓ န, ပ ဖ ဗ ဘ မ, ယ ရ လ ဝ သ ဟ ဠ အ.
- Vowel signs: ါ ာ ိ ီ ု ူ ေ ဲ.
- Medials: ျ ြ ွ ှ, which add y, r, w and h sounds.
- Tones and signs: ့ း ် ံ.
- Digits and punctuation: ၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉, ၊ and ။.
Why Burmese letters are round
Like Odia and Sinhala, Burmese was traditionally written on palm leaves. Straight lines could tear the leaves, so the letters grew into circles and curves. Today the round shapes are a proud part of Myanmar’s identity, seen on signs, books and art.
Unicode and Zawgyi
For many years, most people in Myanmar used a font called Zawgyi, which did not follow the Unicode standard. Text typed in Zawgyi looks broken on Unicode devices, and the other way round. In 2019, Myanmar officially moved to Unicode. Everything on this page is standard Unicode, so it will display correctly on modern phones and computers. If you see jumbled letters, the other device may still be using Zawgyi.
Vowels, medials and tones
Burmese builds syllables by adding signs around a consonant. Vowel signs can go before, after, above or below it. Medials ျ ြ ွ ှ add extra sounds, as in ကျ (kya). Tone marks ့ and း change the pitch, and the asat ် removes the vowel. When copied alone, these signs may show on a dotted circle. Paste them after a consonant and they join.
Digits and punctuation
Burmese uses its own digits ၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉ in everyday life, on prices, dates and bus numbers. The small mark ၊ works like a comma, and the double mark ။ ends a sentence like a full stop.
Typing Burmese
Gboard, the iPhone keyboard, Windows and Mac all include Unicode Myanmar keyboards. Make sure you choose a Unicode layout, not Zawgyi. For a single letter, medial or digit, copying from this page is quick and always correct.
Frequently asked questions
- How many letters are in the Burmese alphabet?
- Burmese has 33 consonants, plus vowel signs, medials and tone marks.
- Why does Burmese text look broken on my phone?
- It may have been typed in the Zawgyi font. Text on this page is standard Unicode, which modern devices display correctly.
- What are Burmese numbers?
- Burmese digits are ၀ ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉.
- What is the Burmese full stop?
- The full stop is ။, a double vertical mark.
- How do I say hello in Burmese?
- Hello is မင်္ဂလာပါ (mingalaba).