Staff Writer

Please One of the nicest things a Thai will say about you, besides how good looking you are and how well you speak Thai (which should always be taken with a grain of salt) is that you are such a polite person; that you are สุภาพ /sù-pâap/. Nothing will tell a Thai listener how สุภาพ … Read more

Learning about onomatopoeic words in the Thai language has been quite the experience. Onomatopoeia (occasionally spelled onomateopoeia or onomatopœia, from Greek ονοματοποιία) is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object, such as “click,” “bunk”, “clang,” “buzz,” or animal noises such as “oink”, “slurp”, or … Read more

Many Thai technical terms and vocabulary that describe complicated ideas are made up of a compound of simpler Thai words. The list we have here contains terms in English but they are basically concepts. We start with breaking down the concept first, then finding the Thai word for each constituent part, and then reconstructing the … Read more

Connectors help smooth the way without resorting to stuttering and stumbling. Some are there to give you thinking space, so’s you can come up with something appropriate (or not) to say. There are almost 500 connectors (448 at last count) that have been translated from English to Thai. And with some being difficult to translate … Read more

If I were to ask you: what is the future tense word in Thai? Most of you would probably respond instantaneously-“จะ /jà/, of course!” And if I ask you: how about the most common past tense word? There are a few but you’d probably invariably select แล้ว /láeo/ as your first choice. Then let me … Read more

Here you’ll discover apps for Thai dictionaries, Thai courses, translators, OCR, studying the Thai alphabet and vocabulary, phrasebooks, pronunciation lessons, quizzes, ebooks and online bookstores, flashcards, games, keyboards, entertainment (TV and radio), newspapers and magazines, telling time, language exchange and more. The number of available apps is so GINORMOUS. If you’d like to help out … Read more

Moving to a county with a new foreign language to tackle, I depend on two sure-fire phrases. The first phrase I learn is ‘I don’t understand’. And the second phrase is ‘this does not work’. Below are phrases people use most often in Thailand. What I mean is, beyond the typical สวัสดี /sà-wàt-dee kha/ and … Read more

Note to beginners: Transliteration along with Thai script is in the explanation of the pdf download at the end of the post (tables are Thai only). How to Be Happy Before learning the emotion/feeling words, let’s learn about the grammar as it is very important for you to construct a sentence correctly in order to … Read more

1) ความรักทำให้คนตาบอดkwaam rák tam hâi kon dtaa bòtLove is blind. 2) ไก่งามเพราะขน คนงามเพราะแต่งgài-ngaam-prór-kŏn kon-ngaam-prór-dtàengFine feathers make fine birds. 3) จับปลาสองมือjàp bplaa sŏng meuSeek two things simultaneously. 4) น้ำขึ้นให้รีบตักnám kêun hâi rêep dtàkMake hay while the sun shines. 5) รำไม่ดีโทษปี่โทษกลองram mâi dee tôht bpèe tôht glongA bad workman blames his tools. 6) ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตนkèe cháang jàp dták-gà-dtaenUse … Read more