Khmer grammar

This article describes the grammar of the Khmer (Cambodian) language, focusing on the standard dialect.

Khmer is primarily an analytic language, with no inflection. There is some derivation by means of prefixes and infixes, but it is no longer always productive, as those elements are often crystallized in words inherited from Old Khmer. Even in Old Khmer, the same affix could have multiple functions (for example, it could serve as a nominalizer in one word and as a causativizer in another).

A common prefix is ការ [kaː-], used to convert verbs to nouns denoting actions or activities. A common infix has the form [-ɑm(n)-] or [-ɑn-] (or with other vowels), inserted after an initial consonant, especially to convert adjectives or verbs into nouns.

Compounding is common; in a compound of two nouns, the head generally comes first, often the reverse of the English order: "duck egg" is ពងទា [pɔːŋ tiə], literally "egg-duck".

Since Khmer is an analytic language, word order is relatively fixed, as changes in word order often affect meaning. Khmer is generally a subject–verb–object (SVO) language. Topicalization is common: the topic of the sentence is often placed at the start, with the rest of the sentence a comment on that topic.

Like in English, prepositions are used rather than postpositions (words meaning "in", "on", etc. precede the noun that they govern). The language is generally head-initial so modifiers come after the words modified (adjectives, possessives, demonstratives, relative clauses, etc. follow nouns; adverbs mostly follow verbs; and so on).

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