# Learn Thai - 10 words a day



## KhwaamLap

OK, just for fun, I am going to try and post ten words a day in Thai. They will all be simple words that are in popular usage. Feel free to comment or ask for clarification below - and any real Thais lurking, feel free to correct me.

I will use a simple transliteration and will also try to find English words that sound similar - I will add either (L),(M),(H),(R) or (F) after each syllable to help wth tones (Low - drop an octave, Medium - normal speach, High - up an octave, rising and falling respectively).

'll keep going even if they are no comment as it may be of use in the future to someone (maybe even me as a refresher).

Some words have many meanings - I will try and give the meanings that are used mostly.

Todays words:

นี่ * Nee(F) *pronoun this (can also mean here - implied 'this _place_')
มา* Mah(M)* verb to come (มานี่ Mah(M) Nee(F) come here)
บ้าน *Bahn(F) *Home or House
ไป *Bai(M) *verb to go (ไปบ้าน Bai(M) Bahn(F) to go home)
ผม *Pom(R) *pronoun I or me for a male speaker
ฉัน *Chun(R) * pronoun I or me for a female speaker (and informally by males to close friends or partners)
เรา *Row(M)* (Row like arguement not as in row boat) we or us or even our
เขา *Cow(R)* he, she, they, them, him, her
คุณ *Koon(M)* (short oo like in book) You
ตลาด *Tal(L)-art(L) *('al' in tal is like the shortening of the name Allan not like 'tall' or 'tar' - it is all said as one word Tallart) Market

So, from these we can get several sentances (quite a lot actually).
ผมไปตลาด I am going to the market (immidiate tense)
เราไปบ้าน We are going home (immidiate tense)
เขามาบ้านนี่ They came (come) to this house

Have fun. Tomorrow I'll add some questions and possibly some tense words so some simple converstaions can be had. Feel free to comment, correct or suggest - remember though to keep it simple, this is meant as a newbie guide.


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## Guest

Good idea KL, I'm just about keeping up so far!


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## KhwaamLap

OK todays words - as promised I am going to give some question words so basic conversations can be used.

อะไร *A(L)Rai(M)* (said as one word - phonetically uh-rye ('uh' as in 'up' and 'rye' as in 'rye bread') What? (usually at the end of the sentance) - see below.

ไหน *Nai(R)* (as in the end is 'nigh') Where?

ทำไม *Tum(M)Mai(M)* ('Tum' as in kids word for stomach and 'mai' as in the English word 'My') Why?

ใคร *Krai(M)* (almost like the English word 'cry' but pulled up short at the end) Who? Whom?

เมื่อไร* Mooah(F)Rai(M)* (Mooah contains one of those Thai vowels that doesn't exist in English - the 'ooah' is quite short and is not far from the sound urgh! - I didn't like that - 'Rai' is a 'Rye Bread') When?

กี่โมง *Gee(L)Mong(M) *What time? This is not the same as when, and you will probably hear it more often. When is often used alone as in English.

อย่างไร *Yahng(L)Rai(M)* ( You may also hear ยังไง (colloq.) *Yung(M)Nai(M)* - 'Yahng/Yung' like 'Forever Young' (the second slightly shorter - notice tome difference) and 'Rai' like 'Rye Bread' - Nai as in 'the end is nigh') How? There are actually different words for 'how' depending on context - How here is for a question 'How do I...', not 'How many...' for example.

เท่าไร *Tow(F)Rai(M) *('Tow' as in 'towel' not 'toe' and 'Rai' as in 'Rye Bread') How much?

กี่ *Gee(L) *(hard 'g' like 'Geek' but longer - and without the 'K' of course) How Many?

------ That's the end of the new words (only 9), some others for use in the examples follow as do the examples themselves -----------------

ยู่ *Yoo(L)* (like yule log) Resides/lives (as in place, not life)

ที่นี่ *Tee(F)Nee(F)* Here/This Place - look back at yesterday's Nee - it is the same word. เขาอยู่ที่นี่ s/he lives here.

กิน* Gin(M)* means to eat

รถไฟ *Rot(H) Fye(M) *means train - literally fire-car 
ออก* Ork(L)* (like the word 'or' with a K suffixed) means exit/or to leave

นั่น *Nun(F)* means that.

Question words normally are placed at the end of the sentance. Here are some examples.

คุณยู่ไหน Where are you?
ยู่ไปไหน Where did you go?
 กินอะไร What are you eating? What did you eat? (Context dependant).
กินี่ทำไม Why did you eat this?
ใครอยู่ที่นั่น Krai is at the front here, it can be at either end as in English. It is usually at the end though. Who lives (over) there?

รถไฟออกกี่โมง What time is the train leaving?

นี่เท่าไร How much is this?

I haven't covered all the words in these examples, but they all follow the same lines. As you volcab builds you will be able to add better questions.

There are some other questions in Thai: 

- Can/May (can you/may I etc)
- Isn't it? (e.g: That's 600 Baht, Isn't it?)
- Turnng a phrase into a question (eg: You came here yesterday?)
- Checking (e.g: [A]The red one is 500B. *500B, eh?)

Which I will cover tomorrow and several other question words that are more complex or can be got around with the above questions and good wording - which I'll leave for another day.

Don't forget to be polite - adding ครับ Krup(H), ค่ะ orKah(F) คะ Kah(H) to the end of the sentance. The former for men, the second for woman on statement and the latter at the end of questions fo women.

Hope it wasn't too confusing today - as always, post for clarification.
*


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## Guest

Thanks KL. Have you ever found that speaking a little Thai can be a real problem - resulting in rapidfire Thai being thrown back at you? 

'Cha Cha' (slowly) doesn't help much, in my experience!


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## Serendipity2

OK, I was just getting the hang of the 10 from "yesterday" which Just arrived and you follow that up, rapid fire, with 15 today! And what I was getting the 'hang' of was the pronunciation Not the Thai script and the meaning of the word. Is there a kindergarten for farangs?


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## KhwaamLap

frogblogger said:


> Thanks KL. Have you ever found that speaking a little Thai can be a real problem - resulting in rapidfire Thai being thrown back at you?
> 
> 'Cha Cha' (slowly) doesn't help much, in my experience!


Oh, only all the time. If you understand come of they are saying, they burst into a full complicated diatribe. Oh, help!


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## KhwaamLap

Serendipity2 said:


> OK, I was just getting the hang of the 10 from "yesterday" which Just arrived and you follow that up, rapid fire, with 15 today! And what I was getting the 'hang' of was the pronunciation Not the Thai script and the meaning of the word. Is there a kindergarten for farangs?


This is kindergarten for Farangs! 

I'm trying to cover thing that would be useful ad can be usd to make sentances - rather than a list of vocab that is meaningless in itself. Once I get past question words, then it should be a bit easier as other vocab can just be plugged in.

I didn't know whether to go over the alphabet or not - personally I think it helps a lot - but it takes practise, commitment and is a fair amount to remember. Let me know of you want me to do this - taking a day out of this thread (can't do both - it takes a fair while) - maybe every other day and do the alphabet and basic reading.

Let me know what you think.


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## Serendipity2

KhwaamLap said:


> This is kindergarten for Farangs!
> 
> I'm trying to cover thing that would be useful ad can be usd to make sentances - rather than a list of vocab that is meaningless in itself. Once I get past question words, then it should be a bit easier as other vocab can just be plugged in.
> 
> I didn't know whether to go over the alphabet or not - personally I think it helps a lot - but it takes practise, commitment and is a fair amount to remember. Let me know of you want me to do this - taking a day out of this thread (can't do both - it takes a fair while) - maybe every other day and do the alphabet and basic reading.
> 
> Let me know what you think.



Hi KhwaamLap,

For me ONE word per day will tax my intellectual prowess - others can probably do more. Seriously, ten works per day and the alphabet [Thai script or what ever one calls it] is pretty ambitious even if one devoted a fair bit of time daily but everyone can handle a different level of 'pain'.


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## KhwaamLap

OK today's is going to be a quickie just to cap off yesterday's questions.

As promised we will cover:

- Can/May (can you/may I etc)
- Isn't it? (e.g: That's 600 Baht, Isn't it?)
- Turnng a phrase into a question (eg: You came here yesterday?)
- Checking (e.g: [A]The red one is 500B. *500B, eh?)

Can/May: The Thai word for can is ได้ dai(F) (like Yosemite Sam used to say 'die varmit'). It sis most often used in a question at the end. Like this: พูดภาษาไทได้ไหม Put(F) Pah(M) Sah(R) Thai(M) Dai(F) Mai(R) ('put' as in 'where did you put my keys', 'pah' as in 'park', 'Sah' as in 'sardine', 'Thai' as in 'neck tie', 'dai' as in 'die' and 'mai' as in 'my') - phew! - which means Can you speak Thai? (literally: Speak Language Than Can You?). Note the 'mai' at the end - we will see this formally in a minute.
To answer a Dai Mai question we repeat the verb to say 'yes' or negate the verb to say 'no': 
[A] ภาษาไทได้ไหมคะ Put(F) Pah(M) Sah(R) Thai(M) Dai(F) Mai(R) Kah(H) Can you speak Thai?
ไหครับ Dai(F) Krup(H) Yep.
 ไม่ได้ครับ Mai(F) Dai(F) Krup(H)No. *careful not to confuseไม่ Mai(F) (no/not) with ไหม Mai(R) (?) - they are different words completely.



Isn't it? Isn't that so?:
OK. This is very common in Thai and you will here it a lot. Basically it is a statement with a couple of words at the end which queries the correctnes (your agreement with) that statement. Think of it in English "The cup final is on TV tonight, Isn't it?". The words in Thai is ใช่ไหม Chai(F) Mai(R) (Chai as in 'China' - rymes with 'sigh', and 'mai' as in 'my'). Notice the Mai(R) at the end once again.
The way to answer a chai mai question is to either repeat 'chai' or negate it.
นี่คือบ้านของคุณใช่ไหม Nee(F) Kooa(M) Bahn(F) Korng(R) Koon(M) Chai(F) Mai(R) ('nee' like 'knee', kooa like 'sewer' with a k instead of an s and shorter, 'bahn' like 'barn', 'korng' like 'king kong' but stretched a tad or spoken with a plumb in the mouth, koon with short oo like in book and 'Chai Mai' like above). This your house, isn't it? (literally: this/to be/house/belonging to/you/isn't it?)

[A] นี่คือบ้านของคุณใช่ไหมครับ Nee(F) Kooa(M) Bahn(F) Korng(R) Koon(M) Chai(F) Mai(R)Krup(H) This your house, isn't it?
ใช่ค่ะ Chai(F) Kah(F) Yep.
 ไม่ใช่ค่ะ Mai(F) Chai(F) Kah(F)No.

Chai and Mai Chai are sometimes used as 'yes' and 'no' even when the question was not a chai mai question - or even to a statement.



Turnng a phrase into a question:
If you have been folloing you may have guessed this by now. The easiest way is to add ไหม Mai(R) to the end. For example to turn 'we are going to the market tomorrow', into 'we are going to the market tomorrow?' (or in English we might better say "Are we going to the market tomorrow?") we simply suffix Mai(R) to it: 
พรุ่งนี้เราไปตลาด proong(F) Nee(H) Row(M) Bai(M) Tal(L)-art(L) (only new word here is Proong Nee - tomorrow - proong is said like 'prong' but with the 'oo' sound from 'book' instead of the 'o' sound, 'nee you have met before as is said like 'knee') Tomorrow we are going to the market.

พรุ่งนี้เราไปตลาดไหม proong(F) Nee(H) Row(M) Bai(M) Tal(L)-art(L) Mai(R) Are we going to the market tomorrow?

To answer either repeat the verb, for 'yes'; or negate the verb for 'no'.
The verb above is 'to go' - do you remember thsi from the first 10? - ไป Bai(M). So to say yes to this question we say ไป Bai(M);to say no we say ไม่ไป Mai(F) Bai(M)

Simple, eh?



Checking:
OK, last up for today. This is used when you expect a positive answer, i.e. you ar just checking they heard right or for a rhetorical question. It is also used instead of ไหม Mai(R) (above) informally between friends or siblings. It is used in exactly the same way as ไหม Mai(R) and the word is หรือ rueh(R) (hard to find and equivalent for this word - sounds a bit like 'mer' in 'mermaid - with an 'r' instead of a 'm'). It also means or.

For an example just use the Mai(R) one from above and replace it with rueh(R).




I'll be easy on you tomorrow and just cover Yung (yet) - as its a Friday and its a bit of a strange one.*


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## gerg

great idea KL-I'm learning already. PS Do you remember me(+other respondees to my queries some weeks ago). Pleased to inform you that I should be a LOS resident within 3 months. Once agian thank you all for your supportive thoughts. Gerg


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## KhwaamLap

gerg said:


> great idea KL-I'm learning already. PS Do you remember me(+other respondees to my queries some weeks ago). Pleased to inform you that I should be a LOS resident within 3 months. Once agian thank you all for your supportive thoughts. Gerg


Of course I remember you - so you are 'taking the plung' after all. Good luck my friend - and enjoy vilage life. If you're ever down CM way, come over to Guitarman - or give us a post - and we'll neck a few  Hope it was amicable at home


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## KhwaamLap

OK - you all had a few days rest (been busy with birthday's and things) - anyway, Yung as promised.

ยัง *Yung(M) *has several meaning depending on context: Yet/still, since, to stay/remain, until, towards, and several compound words. I am interested in the fomer here (yet) as we are talking about question words. 

ยังไม่รู้ *Yung(M) Mai(F) Roo(H) *is a good one I haven't decided yet/I don't know yet (literally: Yet not know). 

The interestign, confusing thing for us westerners, comes with it used as a question and answer:

หิวยังไหม *Heow(R) Yung(M) Mai(R) *Are you hungry yet?Now in English we would anser either: _Not yet_ or _Yes, I'm hungry_. In Thai, it is as follows:
_Not yet : _ยัง *Yung(M) *
_Yes, I'm hungry : _หิว* Heow(R)*

As you can see it seems somewhat backwards. This is because Yung doesn't really mean Yet in the same way it does in English - its just a close approximation. I like to think of it as_ Not Yet_ as it makes answering it easier to remember.

OK, I'm going to leave it there for today as this is a concept thing and easily lost if I inundate you with new words at the same time.




I have had a few comments on the Thai text - why am I using that on the site as people of this level can't read it anyway. Well, two reasons really - one, is it helps me (a kind of self study) as I do it; and two, because the idea is that you can come back when you do know the alphabet and it will be more simple to absorb the text because the grammar is already known (I hope). 

To this ends I will do some alphabet tomorrow to help with reading - just a few mid class letter and simple vowels to get us started - with effort once we can read, transliteration is no longer needed and we can concentrate on grammar and vocab.


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## anselpixel

I think "why did you eat that" is my favorite so far!
Excellent idea, and I'm glad I checked back into the forum after a long absence.
I'm a man who wants to throw his laptop across the room after 15 minutes of Pimsleur, so it may take me months to digest what you've given us so far.
But don't stop!
BTW, that phenomenon of saying just a tiny bit in a foreign language and getting a verbal equivalent of War and Peace back is common to me from my experiences speaking Spanish in Latin America.
Especially in Mexico.


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## blue eyes

Thanks KwaamLap for these lessons.I really like that you spell it out in the Thai script.I have been learning Thai for about 5 years now,off and on.I lived in Thailand as a kid and never really learned much other then what I had to to play with the other kids.I have found that I really like to learn the script along with the words.When I look at a sign many times I can not say the word so a Thai person understands but I know what it is.That is VERY helpful.l really think that it is important to learn to read and write the script first or at the same time you learn to talk.


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## Oneman

.
This is a very valuable thread.
Thank you, KwaamLap, for taking the time to post all of this, and I am looking forward to more.

I especially appreciate your clear and helpful explanations about word meanings.
Even the dictionaries I use do not always provide the sort of helpful details that you are offering here.



KhwaamLap said:


> I have had a few comments on the Thai text - why am I using that on the site as people of this level can't read it anyway.


For anyone wondering about the Thai text, please understand that you can not comprehend how all the words should sound just from reading English letters.
In many words, the sounds of Thai don't match up to the sounds of English. 
Even phonetic alphabets do not correctly match all the sounds of Thai.

-- Oneman
Chiangmai
.


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## Oneman

anselpixel said:


> I'm a man who wants to throw his laptop across the room after 15 minutes of Pimsleur


Then you're a stronger man than I am, AnselPixel.
I've been studying Thai for five years, and recently had a listen to Pimsleur.
Less than 5 minutes was all I could take!

Pimsleur moves much too fast for any beginner.
The sound is not clear.
And the learning sequence is not helpful.
Best thing you could do -- if you want to learn Thai -- is throw Pimsleur into the trash.

And what to replace it with?
What is the best way for a beginner to learn Thai?
Would be excellent questions for another thread, so as not to distract from KwaamLap's sequence of Thai lessons here.



anselpixel said:


> BTW, that phenomenon of saying just a tiny bit in a foreign language and getting a verbal equivalent of War and Peace back is common to me from my experiences speaking Spanish in Latin America.


Good one!
And so true.

-- Oneman
Chiangmai


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## justcruizin

KL, this is brilliant. I just found this website today so have a little catching up to do. Thankyou for your patience and persistance with us less gifted. Keep up the great work.

Mick


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## justcruizin

I'll second Oneman there. KL, where did you get to. We are hangin here for some more lessons!


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## anselpixel

Hello! Not that I've learned the first lesson perfectly, but I'd like to add my vote for more lessons when you have the time.
I confess my Pimsleur hit the trash pile weeks ago, btw.
Total waste of not very much money.


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## gerg

Can anyone tell me in Thai script the translation of "nursery rhymes". Alternately, what was a popular childhood book for someone 40-50 years old.


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