Thailand Starter Kit Editorial Team

Do you know a cute Thai story behind these fruit words: banana, papaya, mango, and mangosteen? Here you go. Banana and Papaya This is the story of why กล้วย is called banana and มะละกอ is called papaya.ทีมาของทำไมกล้วยจึงเรียก Banana มะละกอจึงเรียก Papayatee-maa kŏng tam-mai glûay jeung rîak Banana má lá gor jeung rîak Papaya A long time … Read more

A long while ago I did a research paper that got published in Passa, the Chulalongkorn Linguistics publication, about the frequency of English loan words in Thai. Introduction to Loanword Borrowing words from English has been going on for a while. At that time I was under the opinion that words got borrowed from one … Read more

You can buy a wide range of small items from roadside carts. Food. Shoes. Clothes. Toys. And bumper stickers. Kept cool under the shade of overhanging freeways are carts covered on all sides with stickers. In Thailand they are called รถเข็นที่ขายสติกเกอร์ = rót kĕn têe kăai sà-dtìk-ger = vehicle push that sells stickers = sticker … Read more

Thais almost never use a bare first name. Learn the honorifics that go in front of it: khun (คุณ), phi (พี่), nong (น้อง), and the titles for teachers, doctors, and elders, plus when age and status decide which one is polite.

It is common for beginning students of Thai (or students of most foreign languages for that matter) to start off making sentences and answering the teacher’s questions. In fact, quite often the art of ASKING questions is frequently left to much later, and sometimes is forgotten altogether. This is a problem with Thai since Thai … Read more

The following chart is relationship words to call your family members in Thai. Note: Just to make things a bit more complicated, most of the following terms can be used with people who are not your real relatives but simply with people who are of a similar age to them. Thus you get the situation … Read more

Protest: ประท้วง /bprà-túang/. This is the verb “to protest”. A protest “demonstration” of which we are seeing a great deal lately is usually referred to as การประท้วง /gaan-​bprà-túang/, the การ simply changes the verb to a noun. Rally: ชุมนุม /chum-​num/. This verb normally means to gather or assemble but we are seeing it often now … Read more

We had to get away from Chiang Mai during this ridiculously hot spell and after the madness of Songkran (for which we stayed at home for four days). When we were asked where we were going (ไปไหน /bpai năi/) we answered with the typical Thai response, ไปเที่ยว /bpai tîeow/ “Going to have some fun.” You … Read more

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

Thank You, Please and Excuse Me in Thai at a Glance Thank you is ขอบคุณ /kòp kun/. Excuse me and sorry are both ขอโทษ /kŏr tôht/. For please, put ขอ /kŏr/ or ช่วย /chûay/ before your request, and usually add หน่อย /nòi/ after it. Men add ครับ /kráp/ and women add ค่ะ /kâ/ to make … Read more